Parents often read Washington Irving's, "Rip Van Winkle," to their children at bedtime. The children would often listen and laugh about the silly man that slept for 20 years. Very rarely would a six year old read any sort of meaning into the story. However, once these children re-read this story as adults, all sorts of hidden meanings and messages could be found. The focus of this paper will be "Rip Van Winkle" as a Revolutionary War text. .
This story was written using frame narrative. Irving opens the story by saying that the story of "Rip Van Winkle" was, " found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker-(pg. 428). Then Irving begins to describe a little village at the foothill of the Catskill Mountains where a man by the name of Rip Van Winkle lives. After the description of the village comes the reader's first glimpse of Rip Van Winkle's wife who, in the story, symbolizes King George III. This is illustrated when the villagers, " lay all the blame on Dame Van Winkle."(pg. 430). Before the Revolutionary War, whenever something went wrong in the colonies King George III was usually to blame. .
Irving goes on in greater detail about Rip as a "henpecked" husband. In Rip's case he didn't really care about the politics surrounding him. He was only concerned with the tyranny of his wife. This is a reference to the ongoing conflicts between the colonies and Britain. The colonies were "scolded" and "harassed" until things finally came to a head and war was declared. This is the same of Rip Van Winkle and Dame Van Winkle. Dame Van Winkle scolded and harassed Rip until he finally " took gun in hand, and strolled away into the woods."(pg. 432) .
It is on this particular stroll that Rip walks further up the Catskill Mountains and runs into the ghosts of Henry Hudson and his crew. It is here that he drinks the wine and falls into a deep sleep. When he awakens he heads to the village and encounters a whole new village.
