Comparing Rip Van Winkle And Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birth-Mark

A proper writer will refrain from using clichés in their work. However, a cliché that is not explicitly written can be used to represent the piece of literature by pulling together all the themes. According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, a cliché is “a trite or stereotyped phrase or expression” (422). Writers typically refrain from using clichés because the overuse of a phrase shows a lack of originality. In Washington Irving’s short story “Rip Van Winkle” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birth-Mark,” clichés were not specifically stated but rather implied through the overall themes. After analyzing the two pieces of literature, a cliché can appropriately be connected to each piece capturing the overall theme: imagination versus reality in “Rip Van Winkle” and nature versus science in regards to beauty in
During a hopeless moment in the story, Irving states, “times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years of matrimony rolled on” to show how much his wife affected his emotional well being (474). However, when he returned to the village after being gone for 20 years, he was told that his wife had died. Irving shows Rip’s change in character by stating, “[Rip] could go in and out whenever he pleased, without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle. Whenever her name was mentioned, however, he shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and cast up his eyes; which might pass either for an expression of resignation to his fate, or joy at his deliverance” (481). This shows the distinct [difference?] between the hardships that came with Dame Van Winkle and the happiness that came from her death, thus alluding to the cliché “every dark cloud has a silver lining.” In addition, now that his authoritarian wife was gone, he was finally free and no longer felt like he needed to escape from his