Journal for Irving

"The story of Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving is about a man, a country who is longing to be free. Rip Van Winkle also depicts the life of a town before and after "liberty." Rip Van Winkle's character portrays the society of America as it was seen by England at the time, as lazy and unproductive, "rather starve on a penny than work for a pound." (128) England is represented by Rip's wife, Dame Van Winkle, orderly and productive, "Everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence." (128) The villagers stand for the American society in general and how it changed after becoming a free country."
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1861369/brief_analysis_of_rip_van_winkle.html?cat=2



I have read that Rip Van Winkle was Washington Irving's attempt to lend respectability and credibility to American literature in the eyes of European, and especially English, readers. He was interested in folklore and wanted to establish a folklore for the new American nation in order to give it a cultural pedigree. "Rip Van Winkle" is based on a German folktale called Peter Klaus, which also features a character who falls asleep for twenty years. Much has been said about the symbolism in the story, with dame Van Winkle representing tyrannical Britain and Rip being the freedom-loving American. But, as others have pointed out, if Rip is to represent America, he hardly embodies the qualities that America values. He is a lazy and timid man who prefers to escape his responsibilities.

"His fences were continually falling to pieces; his cow would either go astray, or go among the cabbages; weeds were sure to grow quicker in his fields than anywhere else; the rain always made a point of setting in just as he had some outdoor work to do. So that though his patrimonial estate had dwindled away under his management, acre by acre, until there was little more left than a mere patch of Indian corn and potatoes, yet it was the worst conditioned farm in the neighborhood." (Norton, p. 955)

Meanwhile he is "obsequious and conciliating abroad" (p.954) and always willing to help his neighbors mend their broken fences and even cheerfully running errands for other men's wives. Dame Van Winkle is the stereotypical folk tale shrew, but it is hard not to sympathize with her. As for Rip symbolizing the American desire for freedom, there is this:
"Rip, in fact, was no politician; the changes of states and empires made but little impression on him." (p.964). In short Rip is simply happy that his wife is dead, and he has arrived at a carefree retirement that he has done nothing to earn. An endearing good-natured fellow, perhaps, but American folk hero?