The story Rip Van Winkle is the story of an idle, ambitionless, inagressive person named Rip Van Winkle. In order to avoid his wife non-stop nagging at home, he seeks refuge in the mountain where he meets several dwarfs and tastes the liquor by them out of curiosity. Overwhelmed by the magic of the liquor, he falls into a 20-year sleep. When he wakes up, everything has undergone a tremendous change. From the plot and the character of Rip Van Winkle we can see the theme of escape from ones responsibilities and duties and the contradiction towards work-----the puritan attitudes was opposed to the American desire for leisure.
Rip Van Winkle, a good-natured man, is always ready to attend to anybodys business but himself. The great error in Rips composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. This makes him into the continuous trouble with Dame Van Winkle, who is described as a shrew, a virago, a termagant. Dame Van Winkle symbols the puritan thoughts, which consider idleness and laziness as evil thing. Rip Van Winkle has to search comfort by wandering with the dog wolf which is as henpecked as his master, by talking with the idle philosophers in the village, but he cant really get comfort from them. The despaired Rip Van Winkle drinks and falls asleep. The drink is further escape from his woes, where the noise of his life becomes only distant thunder, life goes on even in his deathlike sleep. He awakes, again haunted by thoughts of his wifes wrath. He is burdened once again with the thought of having his responsibilities.
In the vivid setting picture described by Washington Irving, we can easily follow Rip Van Winkles exotic experience as well as its an interesting story in Washingtons humorous, easy, clear style. Its a story full of distinctive American flavor. We can see America an immature, childish, imaginative country from the character of Rip Van Winkle.
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