Summary Of Rip Van Wrinkle

Washington Irving’s short story, Rip Van Wrinkle, is about a colonial Dutch villager who resided in America. The book is about a man who lived a challenging life with a nagging wife before he met a great spirit in a mountain when he was from hunting. The main character in Irving's short story, Rip Van Wrinkle, is about a man who was unlucky despite him being a good man. He then fell asleep for twenty years and when he wakes up, he finds a lot has changed and all his friends do not even recognize him except for one.

Washington used the main character Rip Van Wrinkle in her story to narrate the sad life and the pitiful life of a father and a husband who lived a challenging experience. Through Rip Van Wrinkle’s thoughts, actions and speech. We are going to see how Washington narrated the story and showed sympathy for the life of Rip Van Wrinkle in the story.

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Rip Van Wrinkle is a caring and generous person who cares and helps others. Despite the constant pressure he gets from his wife, he does not change from being good. The author shows sympathy for Rip Van Wrinkle because he is a hard-working man who is passionate about helping other people but when it comes to his family, he is unlucky. His wife nags him all the time. Rip seems to have bad luck when it comes to cultivating his land and providing for his family. Despite his efforts, nothing blossoms on his farm.

Rip Van Wrinkle starts to stay away from his family to avoid his nagging wife out of frustrations he gets from her. Anyone who reads the book begins to sympathize with Rip Van Wrinkle from the beginning of the story.

Since he spends a lot of time away from home, he hangs out with his friends most of the time. Rip Van Wrinkle hangs out with idle friends. It is sympathetic that a hard-working, kind, gentle, and generous man like him has lazy friends. At least he would have stayed at home and taken care of his family. Instead, he hangs out with the town’s ‘philosophers’ as Washington refers to them in his short story (Irving, 2007). These people are a terrible influence on him and he does not seem to see. It is sympathetic.

Rip Van Wrinkle feels threatened by his wife, Dame Van Wrinkle, who owns a gun. The fact that he has been unable to take care of his family infuriates his wife. Rip escapes his wife by going hunting in the woods. It is sympathetic to how such a hard-working man is living an unhappy life. When he meets Henry Hudson’s spirit in the mountain, he falls into twenty years of slumber. When he wakes up, no one recognizes him, even his wife. He is a very unlucky man and most readers sympathized with him.

Irving’s short story is a sad story which is readers sympathizes with the main character. Despite being a gentle, hardworking, and generous man, Rip is a very unlucky person. He finds himself living a miserable life. He spends most of his time with lazy people who make his wife quarrel with him. He goes hunting alone and cannot feed his family. He is pitiful to imagine how sad and unfortunate he lived his life.