Rip Van Winkle

In what ways is Rip Van Winkle distinctly American? In what ways is he a typical protagonist from folklore? Use textual evidence in your answer.

Is Rip a fundamentally flawed or fundamentally acceptable character? What do we know of societal expectations for men of the time from the text? In what ways does Rip meet these expectations and in what ways does he fail?

Research 1-2 other myths with the same plot as “Rip Van Winkle,” and compare the two. Examples include the story of Epimenides of Knossos, the story of “The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus,” the story of Honi ha-M’agel, Johann Karl Christoph Nachtigal's German folktale “Peter Klaus,” the Orkney folktale about the burial mound of Salt Knowe, the Irish story of Niamh and Oisín, the Chinese tale of “Ranka,” the Japanese tale “Urashima Tarō,” H. G. Wells’s The Sleeper Awakes, or Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder.” What elements are central to this archetypal myth? What elements did can change without altering its basic themes?

How is Rip Van Winkle a Romantic hero? In what ways does Irving’s worldview gel (and differ from) that of the American Romantics?

While “Rip Van Winkle” is set during the American Revolution, it is pointedly not very political. What is Irving implying about the conflicting forces of tradition and revolution? 

What role do the detailed descriptions of nature play in “Rip Van Winkle”? How does Irving see the relationship between the natural world and human society?