Rip Van Winkle - Essay - eNotes.com.
What Is a Theme? In this lesson, we'll talk about the major themes in the short story ''Rip Van Winkle.'' A theme is the an idea or message the author is explores or talks about in a piece of.Dame Van Winkle constantly nags about her husband’s weaknesses and makes it aware of the family that he has no will or motivation to engage in any kind of labor. Rip was a simple, good-natured man who is a kind and considerate neighbor.There are several Themes that present themselves in Rip Van Winkle, however, the main themes that are found in this narrative are Imagination and Progress. Imagination and childlike wonder are everywhere in this story and they become a centralized idea that Rip is the embodiment of.
Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, written in 1819, is mostly concerned with the formation of the United States of America leading up to The Revolutionary War. Irving’s story follows Rip Van Winkle, a lazy and shiftless man who hikes to the Catskill mountains, where he helps an oddly-dressed man carry a keg to a gathering of similarly outfitted men.Concepts: Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving, Catskill Mountains, Henry Hudson, American Revolution, George Washington, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Washington Irving. Washington Irving’s short story “Rip Van Winkle” has endured as an American classic that places timeless themes against a backdrop of the American Revolution.
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Rip Van Winkle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Tyranny vs. Freedom “Rip Van Winkle” examines various kinds of tyrannical power: the tyranny of marriage, the tyranny of day-to-day responsibilities, and the more literal tyranny of King George III of Britain over his American subjects.
