Whenever people think of tyranny, they tend to only think of its political form. However, tyranny does exist in multiple forms. Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle is a story about a man who finds himself in the dictatorship of his wife, the British Empire, and societal expectations, and is desperate to escape them all. Not only does this story allow us to understand the various styles of tyranny, but it also gives us an idea of what the expectations for men were back in the 1700s.
The person of interest in this story is Rip Van Winkle, a Dutch man living in colonial New York. Throughout Rip’s relationship with Dame Van Winkle, there has been constant tension between them due to Rip’s inability to be the responsible man that Dame expects. Dame …show more content…
“Morning, noon, and night” (10), he had to endure the bickering of his wife, who was extremely agitated by his inability to live up to her expectations of a responsible man. A good example of this would be his refusal to work on his farm. Dame expected Rip to grow crops on the farm in order to provide a living for his family, yet he chose to not work on it, claiming that it was totally incapable of cultivating any plants. Excuses like these were what made Dame’s fury grow more as time went on. Her tongue-lashings become so constant that Rip developed a habit of “shrugging his shoulders, shaking his head, casting up his eyes, and say[ing] nothing” (10), a sign that meant he just gave up on life. Eventually, he was reduced to a state of despair that made him want to “escape from the labor of the farm and the clamor of his wife” (11). His course of action is hiding out in the Kaatskill Mountains, where he falls asleep for 20 years. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a world without Dame, which is a blessing to him. At the same time, Rip found himself freed from an even bigger form of tyranny, that between Colonial America and the British ruler King George the III. No more did he have to bow down or hide from the British Empire and Dame Van Winkle. The new setting of the village made it apparent how much better things have become after Rip woke up. The presence of democracy, people bustling with productivity,
The person of interest in this story is Rip Van Winkle, a Dutch man living in colonial New York. Throughout Rip’s relationship with Dame Van Winkle, there has been constant tension between them due to Rip’s inability to be the responsible man that Dame expects. Dame …show more content…
“Morning, noon, and night” (10), he had to endure the bickering of his wife, who was extremely agitated by his inability to live up to her expectations of a responsible man. A good example of this would be his refusal to work on his farm. Dame expected Rip to grow crops on the farm in order to provide a living for his family, yet he chose to not work on it, claiming that it was totally incapable of cultivating any plants. Excuses like these were what made Dame’s fury grow more as time went on. Her tongue-lashings become so constant that Rip developed a habit of “shrugging his shoulders, shaking his head, casting up his eyes, and say[ing] nothing” (10), a sign that meant he just gave up on life. Eventually, he was reduced to a state of despair that made him want to “escape from the labor of the farm and the clamor of his wife” (11). His course of action is hiding out in the Kaatskill Mountains, where he falls asleep for 20 years. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a world without Dame, which is a blessing to him. At the same time, Rip found himself freed from an even bigger form of tyranny, that between Colonial America and the British ruler King George the III. No more did he have to bow down or hide from the British Empire and Dame Van Winkle. The new setting of the village made it apparent how much better things have become after Rip woke up. The presence of democracy, people bustling with productivity,