Kaatskill Mountain, a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian mountain which is one of the two highest mountains of the Nortth America(Appalachian in the east and Rocky mountain in the west), is always the pride of American people from the past to present days. At the outset of his story, Washington Irving uses personification to invest the Kaatskil Mountains with human qualities. Kaatskill unveils itself as a trustful guardian and firm territorial protector of the village with the “noble height”. The gorgeous beauty of Kaatskill, in addition, can be described with the “hues and shapes” through “Every change of the season, every change of weather, indeed very hour of a day”. Deliberately making the mountains come alive enables them to become mysterious and unpredictable; they may even play tricks on those who venture within their confines. There’s no surprise that those visual characteristics contribute themselves as a symbol for a safe and eternal life of Americans before they suffer the donination of Great Britain. However, those days of glory didn’t last long till Americans lost their freedom and reluctantly become “a province of Great Britain”. Days become longer, time gets slower than ever before, everything was so quiet and slow that it can be easily captured with the most precise and clearest way, the “clear evening sky” nakedly reveals itself in “blue and purple”, in “hood of gray vapors”. Those specific features of village’s surroundings show us a general view how the villagers spent their life in silent peace but persistant slowliness.
The Essay on Mountain Men
Thoughts on the Mountain Man and the Fur Trade Critique This article was somewhat interesting; it was not a very appealing title for the author to have chosen to write about. He talks about the importance of Fur Trade in the 1800s, even though there are those who say it was not a very important export that required few men I strongly believe that this did play a very big role in history. What I ...
Spot light of the evening painting is the setting sun gradually submerges in the horizon. This setting sun represents the death of a day and this symbol is successfully captured to signalize the end of freedom days and the beginning of colonial life afterwards. Somewhere lies the remaining twilight, the last rays of the sun, “will glow and light up like a crown of glory” somehow shows the villager’s regretful memories of the unleashed history when they were lord of this land.
The population of the thirteen colonies was far from homogeneous particularly in their political views and attitudes. Loyalty and allergiance varied widely not only within regions and commodities but also in families and sometimes shifted during the course of Revolution. That’s why we can easily realize the symbol weathercocks on the top of antiquity houses of Dutch colonists. Weathercock is a weather vane in form of a cock which can indicate the directions of wind in weather forecast. Wind comes from different directions so the weathercock always changes its direction accordingly to the prevailing winds.This symbol figuratively is used to distinguish people who change their point of view readily and often from others. We can catch this symbol in another literary work“ William was such a weather cock, how could one be sure?” Barbara.W.Tuchman; The Guns of August; Random House,1962. With the same idea, Irving wants to point out the uncertainty in political attitudes of some politicians and other Americans before the Revolutionary war by applying the weathercock symbol at the very first part of scenery depiction.
Throughout the story, we know that Rip knows most of the people in the village before the sleep. After he wakes up, he walks into town and starts questioning anyone he comes into contact with about where a certain person was, or what happened to someone else he had known. “As he approached the village he met a number of people, but none whom he knew, which somewhat surprised him, for he had though himself acquainted with everyone in the country around”. This shows that he had some personal relationship with most of the other people in the town, for if he hadn’t, how then could he have known that they were gone in the first place. By showing the reader the very sight of what Rip Van Winkle may have seen, we learn of his surroundings, which give us an understanding of how it all has changed after he wakes up. People are wearing clothes “of a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed.” Even the “village was altered; it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses which he had never seen before.” This is a symbol of America’s growth and prosperity after the Revolution.
The Essay on How American politics was changed by Andrew Jackson.
The first paragraph contains the essay instructions.During the Jacksonian Period, American politics were altered. What were the most significant changes from previous policies? What were the long-term implications of the new political methodology? Were the long-term results beneficial or detrimental to the quality of government? Why? What was the role of Andrew Jackson in this process? As a ...
Another big change is that the inn where the people used to gather and spend their time in lazy gossip is not there anymore: “the village inn-but it too was gone.” People are now asking questions of political nature. They are wondering “Whether he was Federal or Democrat” which shows America’s own political system and people’s involvement into it. The townspeople are now filled with a new found energy looking forward to the next elections. The portrait of King George is disguised as General Washington and a flag, with singular assemblage of stars and stripes, is fluttering to show the independence of America.
The revolution awakes the fire within the American Spirit and the townspeople became alive with anticipation of their new self government. Americans are trying to avoid the tyranny of the Crown, just as Rip does everything possible to escape his overbearing wife. Luckily Dame Van Winkle “had died but a short time since, she broke a blood-vessel in a fit of passion at a New-England peddler”. This fact symbolizes the freedom of the whole nation and the personal freedom of Rip Van Winkle.
The story of Rip Van Winkle is giving its readers a colorful picture of the American society by setting a story of foreign origin into American environment in a very important historical period of the formation of the country’s identity. All the nature descriptions, landscape pictures and the historical background that echoes from the old settler’s culture depict a vivid picture of the American way of life and of the psychological changes that the citizens were going through in a period of such an important change.
The story of Rip Van Winkle was written by Washington Irving with the clearest ideas of how Americans had been before the Revolution and would be after that. Irving created the character of Rip Van Winkle with the strongest reflection of how American colonies were during the rule of Royal England.
The Essay on Dame Van Winkle Is a Good Wife
What is a good wife? A good wife is a woman who takes care of her family. The story, “Rip Van Winkle”, by Washington Irving, often shows what a good wife is. In the story, Rip Van Winkle is the main character and Dame Van Winkle is his wife. Dame Van Winkle is a very good wife. Dame Van Winkle is a good wife, even though she disciplines her husband by verbally and physically abusing him. Irving ...
The tale of Rip Van Winkle is about a man named Rip Van Winkle, who was an ordinary habitant of Hudson Valley. The nature of Rip Van Winkle was first described as a descendant of the noble Van Winkles with just only little of the martial character of his ancestors. Irving described the main character with the proud of his ancestors in mind. However, he also sketched quickly of the current life of Rip Van Winkle as she was, moreover, a kind neighbor, and an obedient, hen-pecked husband. It was the sour taste of the Americans life under English rule.
Irving expressed the kindness of Rip Van Winkle as he was such universal popularity and he was the great favorite. Every single man and woman in town was fond of him since he would help anyone who sought for his help. His kindness was seen even with animals around the village, as Irving wrote not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighborhood. Everyone was so happy and accepted Van Winkle as a simple, good-natured man, except for his wife. His wife, Dame Van Winkle, never missed a chance to dominate, to be in fury in whatever he did. Irving stated Morning, noon and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence. Dame Van Winkle would nag Rip to death over his duties so much that he would seek refuge from these tirades and run away. At that time, he just “shrugged his shoulders…but said nothing to Dame Van Winkle’s lectures. He was tired of hearing her, yet did nothing to change his behaviors or at least to try to please her. Rip, in this context, engages in a kind of passive resistance under the prerevolutionary colonies.
However, his wife, Dame Van Winkles shrew was just only got worse and worse by days: over the years of matrimony, her sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener by constant use. This caused the unwillingness of Rip Van Winkle toward his farm and the ignorance of his own children. Irving drew Rips composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. In short, Irving generally stated Rips was ready to attend to anybodys business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible. And the peak of Rips neglect was his children who too, were as ragged and wild as if they belonged to nobody. This could be implied as reactions of the American colonies toward their tyrannous England ruler. Nevertheless, Rip Van Winkle’s family was deteriorating while the people of the town were profiting from his rebellion against the authority and the needs of his family, much like the Crown was losing respect while America was gaining the loyalty of its own people.
The Essay on Rip Van Winkle American Work Man
In Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle, Rip as a character is a lazy man when it comes to anything having to do with work. His work less lifestyle is displayed when his most important activities include shooting squirrels with his gun, and spending countless hours fishing without even the inkling of a bite. "The great error in Rip's composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable ...
There is a series of suggested family resemblances encoded in the story, and Rip’s marital evasions constitute a symbolic rebellion against the monarchic wife. But despite Rip’s resistance to the domestic petticoat “governor,” he still identifies with the British monarchy, specifically George III, the king the Americans will rebel against in the future. Rip enjoys sitting under the “rubicund portrait of his Majesty George the Third,” in a colonial inn, exchanging gossip and stories with his cronies. Rip, like the colonists of the time, has not made the ultimate break with Great Britain and has consequently not discovered his new American identity.
Irving continued his despair and reactions with his only alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and clamor of his wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods. Van Winkle could no longer bear it and enforced to take up armament in order for the nagging to stop.
Indeed, through the vivid picture of Rip Van Winkle, we can see an image of American colonies under the rule of Royal England. By successfully using the method of character description and psychological analysis, the image of England that Rip character symbolizes stands out among a lot of symbols in the story.
Right after Rip woke up from his twenty-year sleep, the first thing came to his concern is the predictable anger of his wife. Although he had changed completely in the outside, but the story makes it obvious that the inside of him was the same. The fear for Dame Van Winkle was still so great that it made Rip care little about the significant changes of his own body as well as the nature around him; and he would gladly accept rheumatism if he could “have a blessed time with Dame Van Winkle”. If the reign of Dame Van Winkle can be considered as the symbol for the tyranny of the mother country against its colonies, then it is evident that its influence on the mind of people from the colonies will remain strong for a great period of time after they are set free. In other words, after the Revolution, American people had only gained a part of true freedom. And affected by the happiness of victory, they may not recognize it.
The Report on Rip Van Winkle
... to read this new version. Rip Van Winkle 6 References Balty, D. (2008). The Pearson Custom Library of American Literature. Pearson Custom Publishing; Boston. ... River. The story ranges from a time prior to the American Revolution to several years after the war has ended. The physical ... When he returns from his nap and finds that his wife has Rip Van Winkle 3 died, he experiences “a drop of comfort” (p. ...
When Rip noticed the changes in everything he used to know in the village, his explanation to the phenomena was simply some unidentified problems with his head. Through that way of thinking, Rip subconsciously denied the real new world and search for the old world, in which he was a miserable man. It becomes obvious that although Rip has always been afraid of his wife, he still want to cling to his way of living under her command. In his very first steps in the land of freedom, a part of Rip finds himself more comfortable in captivity. Similarly, the symbolism in that detail reflects the psychology of American people after their country is independent. They reminisce about their days of dependence before finding what freedom can offer. They want to change their destiny but also want to preserve their safety first, even if it is a safety in confinement.
As Rip was asked to identify himself, and was informed that many of his acquaintances are no longer there, he suggest his name in despair as the last resort. Even though Rip can be seen as the complete opposite of an ideal American farmer, he has his own unique characteristics that can help people identify him at once, but he refused to say: “I am Rip Van Winkle” in the first place and chose to make himself recognized through other people. Despite the fact that he got some idea that the whole village is no longer the way it was, Rip again subconsciously headed for the people he knew in the past. That detail can be seen as the symbolism for the clinging to old habits and living styles in the past of American people. The Revolution may grant them democracy and freedom in political matters but it cannot immediately make them get rid of the long-established influence of the Great Britain. Those influences take time to be eliminated but parts of them will remain in the values to be created. That is the marked evidence of the unradical changes the Revolution brought to American society.
The Essay on Analyzing Rip Van Winkle
In a selection, an author uses certain characteristics to depict the outcome of a story. In Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle,” Irving incorporates exaggerated characters, magical events and their consequences, and places the setting in past times to create an American mythology. With these characteristics, Irving impacts the entire story and how the ending resolves. In the story, Irving uses ...
Psychology analyzing device one more time is used in describing the old age of Rip Van. Two contrary sides in the psychology of Rip when being arrived at the old age signalized unradical changes in lives of the American in the Democracy regime. There was the happiness of freedom that the Revolution when it liberalized American people out of the control of the old England. By depicting the psychology of Rip when being freed from the ‘petticoat government’ of Dame Van Winkle, the writer skillfully reflected this happiness. ‘Happily that was at an end; he had got his neck out of the yoke of matrimony, and could go in and out whenever he pleased, without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle’. Rip now did not need to long groan under the despotism.Rip now like the horse without being controlled by yokes could go whenever and wherever he wanted to. However, the Revolution War put the old generation the question on where they could go and what they could do. This was the one that they could not find the answer for themselves. Rip was the typical victim of this unradical and without-notice freedom that the Revolution War brought to American People. Psychology progress of Rip reflected this unradical change.
‘How that there had been a revolutionary war—that the country had thrown off the yoke of old England—and that, instead of being a subject to his Majesty George the Third, he was now a free citizen of the United States’. Rip were put in the new social environment without noticing to be able to take part in or to have time to adapt. The Revolution occurred too fast and surprisingly without any rearrangement for components of the old society. It really freed them from past yoke or just the excretion for something too old and traditional. Rip was passive and “being arrived at that happy age” in the new life that the Revolution brought to him and other old people. He now was simply considered as the ‘patriarchs’, the “chronicle’ or exactly the heritage of old time that would not work anymore in the new time. Therefore, readers can easily recognized the worse of the old generation when they passively put into this situation.Rip himself recognized the ‘wear and tear’ of time. Therefore, he preferred making friends among the ‘rising generation’. Like other people in the same generation, Rip wanted to have something to cling for in the rest of his life which only could be the rising generation. However, unfortunately, the rising generation did not really welcome the traditional value in Rip. The great American Revolution embodies a series of violent democratic revolutions as well as the repressive “past” it has supposedly transcended.(NovelGuide,2006).In conclusion, it was not the real happiness to Rip, to people freed from domination of the despotism and move them to Democracy regime as it seemed to be. Democracy regime that the Revolution brought to American people was actually unradical when it freed people but give them no place to “live” and “join” the new society. This leaded to and was reflected by the tragedy in psychology progress of Rip, a typical old component in the old society.
Rip Van’s wife is another salient symbol in the story which represented Great Britain power over the American lives before the Revolution . Through the device of characteristics description, the writer signalized Rip Van’s wife among the other shrews in the village. Mrs. Winkle was not described in detail from her appearance to soul, but her outstanding sharp tongue was sarcastically depicted to highlight Rip Van’s miserable matrimonial lives. A daily life of Rip Van brimmed with ‘a torrent of household eloquence’ which drove him to be such a dummy in his own house and his interaction with his wife were only his habit of silence and his humble withdrawing ‘to the outside of the house – the only side which belongs to a henpecked husband’. Mrs. Dame Van Winkle possessed sharpest eloquent skill that no shrews in the village could compare to her. Her most shrewish temperament was ironically described through comments about bless of married men, ‘A termagant wife may, in some respects, be considered a tolerable blessing; and if so, Rip Van Winkle was thrice blessed’. Rip Van’s wife sharpened her eloquent lecture by continual practice from all day long ‘morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going’ to day by day frequency ‘a tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener by constant use’.
Irving also described her unreasonable tantrum to Rip Van’s response when ‘he shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing. This, however, always provoked a fresh volley from his wife’. Even his ‘poor Wolf’ had to be frightened of her through the way he acted when seeing her and through his ‘casting many a sidelong glance at Dame Van Winkle’. Rip Van’s miserable marital life also depicted from the aspect of his face which was insulted many times in front of friends when they gathered. ‘His termagant wife, who would suddenly break in, call the members all to nought; nor was that august personage, Nicholas Vedder himself, sacred from the daring tongue of this terrible virago, who charged him outright with encouraging her husband in habits of idleness’. Through the symbol of ‘ever-during and all-besetting terrors of a woman’s tongue’ of Dame Van Winkle, the writer wanted to represent the consecutive harsh behavior of the one who used power to tread down the weaker. ‘Van Winkle does not regard Dame as his wife, rather he thinks of her as “Dame Van Winkle,” with no affection. He thinks of her as intolerable, like the colonists felt about the government’ (The Norton Anthology, 1995).
The Dame Van Winkle symbol was used to imply the Royal England and its treatment of colonies. (Digital Factory, 2010).
Hence, when deliberately showing readers how severe the control of Great Britain was, the writer used the symbol of a nagging wife of Rip Van and made it outstanding among other symbols by using characteristics description device in an ironical way.
The backdrop of “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving is very political. The American Revolution occurs while Rip is asleep, and when he awakes and comes back down the mountain, the world in which he lived has forever changed. The buildings have changed, the architecture is different and his home is abandoned. His wife is gone, as are most of the people he knew during his life. However, there are still some elements throughout the story that remain the same, such as the elderly couple Rip meets. What does this say about tradition and revolution? Does it devalue revolution?
The revolution awoke the fire within the American Spirit and the townspeople became alive with anticipation of their new government. One main issue of the story was one of identity, especially at this time in history. The people of America, twenty years after Rip Van Winkle fell asleep, found their identity. The American people after receiving their freedom celebrated and became excited by holding elections. Rip, having difficulty finding himself throughout the story, finally finds his identity when his daughter finds him and takes him home to live with her. Rip Van Winkle finds his wife has long been dead. With the overbearing authority Dame Van Winkle gone, Rip Van Winkle is able live the rest of days happy. Rip Van Winkle, much like America, could now enjoy the new freedom that he deserved.
Rip Van Winkle in post-revolutionary America, literature began to show influence of the newly created democracy. As is the case with any young government, many different interest groups arose to attempt to mold the government according to their vision of democracy. Washington Irving, a native New Yorker born in 1783, grew up in a world engulfed in this democratic fanaticism. He grew up to be, as befitted his childhood atmosphere, a political satirist. This satirical nature of Irving shines brightly in Rip Van Winkle, as he uses historical allusions and symbolic characters to mockingly compare colonial life under British rule to the democracy of the young United States.The entire story Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving, is full of metaphors directed at the new society in America, in how it needs to establish an identity before and after the American Revolution. The metaphors of Irving’s Rip Van Winkle cover a variety of Revolutionary experience: America before English rule, early American colonies under English rule, and America after the Revolutionary War. Rip Van Winkle’s character depicts the society of America as seen by England; whereas, his wife, Dame Van Winkle, portrays England. The townspeople represent American society at large and how it changed with the realization of becoming an independent country. Americans were trying to avoid the tyranny of the Crown, just as Rip would do everything possible to escape his overbearing wife.
Rip Van Winkle was written when American society was dominated. At that time, the America was a British colony, which was deeply influenced by English rule and culture. Hence, the symbols of Rip Van Winkle represented lives of the American under British colony, which can be widely seen in the country.
Washington Irving described Rip “was a simple, good-natured man; he was, moreover, a kind neighbor, and an obedient, henpecked husband.” .Because of his kindness and gentlemen, Rip was popular with all of his neighbors. Children especially loved him, for playing with them and telling them many nice stories. However, his only weak point was his inability to work for profit: “He would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar’s lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble.” Moreover, he was always ready to help neighbor’s farm works. But the works of his own farm, he rarely cared about. In result, he had the least productive and least attractive farm in the area. Hence, no one confused Rip except his wife – Dame Van Winkle. She had “sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener by constant use” and would get angry at him for everything he did. She was the reason that Rip managed to slip away from doing his own work around his farm. He constantly struggled with his wife. Rip often evaded his duties of the farm because he was tired of hearing her and doing everything just to please her. His only wish was to be free and peaceful.
The behavior of Rip to his wife was the opposition with her autocracy which was the typical example of the struggle between America and Great Britain. That was the conflicts of the early American colonies under English rule before its Revolution. In fact, “Dame Van Winkle would nag Rip to death over his duties so much that he would seek refuge from these tirades and run away” (Brian Freeman).
The writer used the character of Dame Van Winkle as a symbol for Royal England and its treatment of the colonies. Besides, Rip Van Winkle’s character depicts like the symbol of America being forced away by England. Royal England taxed the early American colonies in order to pay for the costly Seven Years War and its future protection. This action caused a major uproar among the American colonies. In the other hand, maybe this was the weak rebellion of the American to many British pressures through Rip’s rebellion against Dame Van Winkle’s authority and the needs of his family. Rip Van Winkle was willing to tend to his neighbor’s farm and not tend to his own farm can be seen as possible right for his wife to be angry with him so that we could see the signal of Revolution for liberating people out of British power.
In conclusion, Rip Van Winkle and his wife’s lives were built as the symbol of American which could be widely seen in the country during the colonial period. Suffering the Britain domination made them want to escape the reality. Hence, the Rip’s behavior was the weak protest to his wife like the reaction of American under British colony before Revolution.
Through Washington’s work, the use of symbolism is absolute and refines the meaning of why and how they represent important themes in the story. In this context, Dame Van Winkle’s harsh control over her husband symbolizes King George and the English rule of the colonies. The image that she dominates and continuously a shrew to the henpecked husband Rip, associated with “petticoat government,” the “yoke of matrimony,” and “the yoke of Old England” (p. 783).
Dame Van Winkle accuses Rip of being lazy, of not maintaining the patrimonial estate—an argument that the British used in the context of the Americans following the French and Indian War (1754–1763).
The Americans were hence accused of neglecting their domestic, economic duty in maintaining the British empire in America.
However, the ironical symbol, Dame as “petticoat government”- describe the government as if it was a women- linked to the thought of a shaking regime in early America. This can be proved by the fact about the geographical distance between Royal England and these colonies, as well as its maladroit administration, ruling with a rod of iron. Just like Dame’s behavior, like a virago (‘a noisy or scolding or domineering woman’) who nagged Rip constantly for his idleness and laziness. She had a harsh temper and, evidently, would take it out on both Rip and his dog – even using her broom to hit the dog. Dame is no where near a day-dreamer, hopelessly expect Rip to turn a new leaf by her vigorously oral attacks. That in line with the symbol of Britain, more and more far from their colonies by theirs hash policy in taxes, typically is the so called “tax without representation”.
The relationship between the governors and Britain is illustrated perfectly by Irving when Dame Van Winkle comes to the inn to collect her husband. Nicholas Vedder himself, scared from the daring tongue of this terrible virago, who charged him outright with encouraging her husband in habits of idleness. While a characteristically influential man, Nicholas is no match for the intimidation of Dame Van Winkle.
There can be easily seen the discontent over Dame by reflection of Rip on top of the mountain, “he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of encountering the terrors of Dame Van Winkle.” (pg. 406) Van Winkle doesn’t regard Dame as his wife, rather he thinks of her as “Dame Van Winkle,” with no affection. He thinks of her as intolerable, like the colonists felt about the British government, especially when they imposed the so-called “ Intolerable Acts” on their inferior American. “Terrors” come to mind when one thinks of war. Rip’s emotion tones are easily linked to the tension ladder that American have against Britain. It seems that Irving has implied a state of Revolution that going to happen in the near future.
The spectre of Dame Van Winkle, the symbol of Royal England, is unceasing to haunt Rip, the fledging American, when he expects to hear her voice after his coma-like sleep. Just like England try to implicate in America again and again wherever it has chance.
It is totally possible said that through Washington’s symbolism, Rip’s senile life symbolizes feelings of an American old generation toward new Democratic regime..The image of Rip’s coming back his village could be understood as the beginning of his old life. He successfully found out the way back and met everybody. Everything around him seems totally strange.
The entire scene where Rip waits on them out of fear, parodies the capturing and enslavement of the settlers by the Indians. However, Rip is not conscious long enough to become their slave, as Irving, in order to transport Rip to a post-Revolution society, has him drink too much liquor and sleep for 20 years. By the time Rip awakens, a war has been fought, and a new government has been formed. Completely unaware of these occurrences, Rip returns to the village conveniently on election day. Irving mocks the values of the new democracy and its bipartisan system, with the first question that is asked of Rip. He is asked what political party he belongs to, Federal, or Democrat. Irving goes on to mock politicians and their elected power in the new government by referring to one statesman as a knowing self-important old gentlemen [who]… made his way through the crowd, putting them to the right and left with his elbows as he passed… (Irving 906) The weakness and paranoia of the young system is exposed when Rip is first accused of attempting to start a riot, and then of being a spy for the British. This could be seen that Rip like old generation who has obedient through the power of their previous mother country – England. It is not that they preferred the old regime, but the fact they felt unbelievable. It’s too great for them to trust.
Eventually, after inquiring of his old friends, Rip asks about the whereabouts of his wife, who he is told died from a broken blood vessel in a fit of anger at a merchant in New England. This ironic death represents the British loss of power over the colonies due to their anger becoming more powerful than their care for control over the colonies. However, even more devious is Rips reaction upon hearing of his wife’s death. The emotion felt by Rip is described by Irving as comfort, paralleling the sigh of relief breathed by the colonies after being released from British control. Irving sums up his satirical view of democracy towards the end of the story, after Rip is placed back into society to fully understand and interpret the new government. It is obvious that Irving promotes Rip’s laziness and carefree attitude as the ideal and typical colonist, and he uses this characterization to analyze the young democracy. While Rip understands that there was a war, and that his status of citizenship is changed, yet he still is the same person. Irving is mocking the lack of importance of the dramatic changes to many Americans.
The one aspect of his former life that he is glad to have lost. However, is what is referred to by Irving as petticoat government. (Irving 908) Dame Van Winkle no longer had a tight grip on his affairs, and now he was truly free. In one final satirical blow to the values of his present society. Rip finally lived together with his daughter and knew that his son’s life was quite good. Then, Rip went for walks, took up his old habits, and even found a few of his old friends. However, he preferred the company of the younger generation. At an age when he could do as he pleased, which was to say nothing, he began sitting on the bench in front of the Doolittle’s Hotel. There the villagers looked upon him as one of their patriarchs. In time, he learned that their had been a revolutionary war in which the country broke from England and that he was now a citizen of American. From time to time, he told his story to strangers and eventually everyone in the village knew all the details by heart. Some inhabitants still doubted the tale, but old-timers swore by it and even claimed, whenever they heard a thunderstorm, that Hendrick Hudson and his crew were playing ninepins again. This image is typically indicated the habit of old generation, especially the details of telling previous story such as what they had experienced and suffered when they are young. It seems that for those who is free, old and experienced a war usually love peace, love talking, love sharing because they truly understood the valua of their life – that is American old generation bravely gained liberty from Great Britain.
