'Rip Van Winkle': The Romantic Movement

“Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving tells the story of family man, Rip, who wakes up to a changed world after being in a magically induced coma for twenty years. This short story is part of the Early Romantic period, and displays characteristics of the movement such as nature, the supernatural, and freedom. The story “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving is an example of literature written in the Early Romantic Movement.
The Romanticism movement started from 1800 and lasted until about 1870. Authors in this movement defined what it means to be American, and responded to the daily struggles of life in America. Romanticism was a reaction against neoclassicism, as Romantics “preferred freedom to formalism, and individualism to cultural authority”
Oftentimes throughout the short story, nature is Rip’s only escape from stress of the real world. “…his only alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and the clamor of his wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods” (Irving 313). Even with his wife Dame dead, and his lack of responsibilities as an elder, Rip continues his walks through the woods. The beauty of his surroundings is described in great detail, not only showing his appreciation of it, but to help the reader visualize what Rip is experiencing. One example of this is when Rip is is describing the Kaatskill mountains. “When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky” (Irving 311). Lastly, it is important to note while almost everything has changed for Rip since waking up, nature is the one constant in his life, the last thing he can hold
Without this plot element, there would be no “Rip Van Wrinkle”, as the main event of the story is the result of “magic”. Rip drinks the liquor supplied by the mysterious men in the woods, later revealed to be none other than the ghosts of the explorer Hendrick Hudson and his crew. Peter Vanderonk knew much of the men that Rip encountered in the woods, and claimed the Kaatskiill Mountains were no stranger to hauntings. Hendrick Hudson discovered the river and country and “kept a kind of vigil there every twenty years, with his crew of the Halfmoon; being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and keep a guardian eye upon the river” (Iriving 319). Perhaps the ghosts knew Rip would drink the keg, leading to his slumber, as he was earlier cited as a “naturally thirsty soul” (Irving 314). The magical liquor is by far the best example of the supernatural in the story, as realistically, Rip could not have survived in the woods for twenty years