Can books remove readers from their natural environments? In books, people can encounter a world of adventure much alien to the current realities of today. Washington Irving’s short story “Rip Van Winkle” contains multiple elements of Romantic literature: primitivism, imagination, and escape from civilization.
While the present world features many complex technologies and customs, Rip Van Winkle’s world appreciates the primitivism of mankind with feelings of uneasiness with women, childlike qualities, and a humble life. Among the many characters in Rip’s life, his termagant wife hurts him the most: “If left to himself, he would have whistled life away in perfect contentment; but his wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his idleness, …show more content…
Bily explains Rip’s journey in the Kaatskills in the context of the “hero’s journey”: “The hero does not necessarily want to become a hero, or to venture out on a quest that will separate him from the world he knows and change his life forever. Instead, some outside force compels him to leave home” (235). Rip starts his journey on an ulterior motive. The motivation for Rip’s quest focuses on finding solace from normal life in nature. The woods and mountains serve as an escape from the troubles he faces in his town: Dame Van Winkle and responsibilities. Dame Van Winkle does nothing to Rip besides serve as a reminder of the man’s failure to uphold responsibilities. In the mountains, Rip takes a draught of a strange man’s drink since it represents the freedom and escape that the man seeks to find. He wants to drink his troubles away. Subsequently in his journey, Rip helps a strange man carry liquor up the mountainside “though the former [Rip] marvelled greatly what could be the object of carrying a keg of liquor up this wild mountain, yet there was something strange and incomprehensible about the unknown, that inspired awe and checked familiarity” (Irving 7). Rip feels the allure of the supernatural. Irving shows Rip’s displeasure for the reality of his dull, boring, and restricted life in the …show more content…
When city life is hard, “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” (Irving 6). Rip finds his release from the troubles of the city via the countryside. The man travels out with his dog Wolf, his best friend, and explore the foreign Kaatskill mountains. Rip finds connection with the countryside for its beauty and offer of escape concerning the restrictions put in place by the village. Rip escapes the stresses of responsibility and judgment; he enjoys the peace he can receive from having the complete freedom independence gives him. Nevertheless, Irving portrays the city-life as especially artificial after Rip encounters “a lean, bilious-looking fellow, with his pockets full of handbills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of citizens - elections - members of congress - liberty - Bunker's Hill - heroes of seventy-six - and other words, which were a perfect Babylonish jargon to the bewildered Van Winkle” (Irving 11). Irving expresses the complex, unnecessary values that cities promote. The changes made in Rip’s 20-year sleep makes the city harder to come back to for a simple man. Why does a simple man need to worry over the deep workings of politics? Simple men,
While the present world features many complex technologies and customs, Rip Van Winkle’s world appreciates the primitivism of mankind with feelings of uneasiness with women, childlike qualities, and a humble life. Among the many characters in Rip’s life, his termagant wife hurts him the most: “If left to himself, he would have whistled life away in perfect contentment; but his wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his idleness, …show more content…
Bily explains Rip’s journey in the Kaatskills in the context of the “hero’s journey”: “The hero does not necessarily want to become a hero, or to venture out on a quest that will separate him from the world he knows and change his life forever. Instead, some outside force compels him to leave home” (235). Rip starts his journey on an ulterior motive. The motivation for Rip’s quest focuses on finding solace from normal life in nature. The woods and mountains serve as an escape from the troubles he faces in his town: Dame Van Winkle and responsibilities. Dame Van Winkle does nothing to Rip besides serve as a reminder of the man’s failure to uphold responsibilities. In the mountains, Rip takes a draught of a strange man’s drink since it represents the freedom and escape that the man seeks to find. He wants to drink his troubles away. Subsequently in his journey, Rip helps a strange man carry liquor up the mountainside “though the former [Rip] marvelled greatly what could be the object of carrying a keg of liquor up this wild mountain, yet there was something strange and incomprehensible about the unknown, that inspired awe and checked familiarity” (Irving 7). Rip feels the allure of the supernatural. Irving shows Rip’s displeasure for the reality of his dull, boring, and restricted life in the …show more content…
When city life is hard, “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” (Irving 6). Rip finds his release from the troubles of the city via the countryside. The man travels out with his dog Wolf, his best friend, and explore the foreign Kaatskill mountains. Rip finds connection with the countryside for its beauty and offer of escape concerning the restrictions put in place by the village. Rip escapes the stresses of responsibility and judgment; he enjoys the peace he can receive from having the complete freedom independence gives him. Nevertheless, Irving portrays the city-life as especially artificial after Rip encounters “a lean, bilious-looking fellow, with his pockets full of handbills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of citizens - elections - members of congress - liberty - Bunker's Hill - heroes of seventy-six - and other words, which were a perfect Babylonish jargon to the bewildered Van Winkle” (Irving 11). Irving expresses the complex, unnecessary values that cities promote. The changes made in Rip’s 20-year sleep makes the city harder to come back to for a simple man. Why does a simple man need to worry over the deep workings of politics? Simple men,