| 1. In "Rip
Van Winkle," Washington Irving pays a great deal of attention to the
landscape: the mountains, river, and weather that colors them. What
specific details does Irving include? What different moods does the
landscape have? Does the landscape influence Rip's story in any way?
2. What
comparison is Irving implying when he states at the end of the story
that Dame Van Winkle's death has released Rip from "petticoat
government"?
3. When Rip
returns to his town, the old village inn has been replaced by
another building. How does the description of this new
building, its inhabitants and their behavior, signify the larger
historical changes that have occurred while Rip was sleeping?
Compare descriptions before and after Rip's trip into the mountains.
4. What do you
make of the statements before and after the story? Why does
Irving include them?
5. What are Irving's
apparent purposes in his references to the American Revolution? How
does the story portray "The American Dream"? What comments does
Irving invite about that dream?
6. What does Irving
satirize about the new America to which Rip returns? What are the
social, political, and philosophical standards Irving adopts in
satirizing the follies of the times?
7. Describe Irving's use of
myth and legend in the story.
8. Irving wrote that in his
stories, he tried to present "a sound moral." What is "the moral of
the story" of Rip Van Winkle?
9. Rip becomes a
"reverenced" storyteller about the "old times" before the war. Look
at Irving's description of Rip's life during those times. Is that
description ironic? If so, how and why?
10. Do you think the story
evades political analysis in its ending?
11. What attitudes toward
women and women's roles does this story evoke?
12. Are there any
ways in which you identify with Rip's confusion when he awakes?
13. Identify Irving's
satiric objectives, his attempts to criticize his society-what are
some "targets" of his satire, and some of his satiric techniques?
14. Is Irving
anti-feminist? Consider his portrayal of Katrina and of the wives.
How much of this portrayal seems to reflect Irving's ideas and how
much is due to narrative point of view (seeing things through the
"eyes" of Ichabod Crane)?
15. What elements of
legend, folklore, and tall tale does Irving use in the story, and
for what purposes? Can you compare any of these to similar elements
of Chinese or Taiwanese legends and folklore?
What do you think is
the purpose of the "Postscript"?
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