2010年美国文学课程论文
题目Idleness in Characters of Rip Van Winkle 专业班级2007级英语1班
学号0710010123
学生X-X
指导教师智平
指导教师职称教授
学院名称外语学院
完成日期：2010 年6 月1日
Idleness in Characters of Rip Van Winkle
Abstract
Washington Irving held the proposition in writing not to attempt to lofty theme or to ek to look wi and learned and preferred addressing himlf to the feelings and fancy of the reader more than
his judgment. This paper is aimed at analyzing contextually his masterpiece, “Rip Van Winkle”
according to the ideas to which he adhered in position. It utilizes the thought that avoids moralizing from the point of focusing on Rip Van Winkle himlf, in particular his characters. As an
important part of Rip’s disposition, idleness plements and enriches the figure of Rip. This paper concentrates on an analysis of Rip’s characters at first then of his idleness and attempts to ek what caus the idleness and what the idleness reflects.
Key words: Rip Van Winkle; character; idleness; cau; implication
1.Introduction
“Rip Van Winkle”，one immortal article in “The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent”of
Washing Irving, tells us an unbelievable and magical adventure of a henpecked villager. Rip Van Winkle, the protagonist, goes hunting in quest for peace escaping from his wife in the Kaatskill Mountains, meets a host of singular men playing ninepins, drinks their beverage and has a deep sleep for twenty years. When he returns home, not knowing the American Revolutionary War has taken place, he finds almost everything has changed. It takes him some time to adjust himlf to the changes and live a normal life.
“Rip Van Winkle”is of eternal fascination, which often attributes to expressing changes with
continuity and prervation of tradition and prenting the magic of imagination in the short story (/wiki/Rip_van_Winkle). But success of an excellent fiction can also be found on the figures it creates. So this paper skips huge topics like history, time, life and death but to have an analysis of the Nobody, Rip Van Winkle, in the village.
2. Rip’s characters
The vivid descriptionin the article gives a general outline of Rip’s entire personalities. As has been m
odeled, Rip is “a simple good-natured man”, “a kind neighbor”, “an obedient henpecked husband”, and “a pliant and malleable farmer” and has “a happy mortal of foolish, well-oiled disposition” (Irving, 811-812).
Since people’s characters are connected with their surroundings, it is necessary to first have a
look at the village in which Rip lives before analyzing his personalities. The voyagers up the Hudson may have described, at a distance, the light smoke and curling from the village, which indicates the village is away from the metropolis. In this beautifully rural village with questered spots, people mostly conducting agricultural production are easy to be content with what they have got and will get. For Rip Van Winkle, little necessity or stress is laid on him to desire extra material achievement. However, enjoying a loo life with friends and neighbors is esntial and dispensable in his life.
Actually, Rip exercis this tip of theory thoroughly and “would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound”(Irving, 812). Thanks to the surroundings, without much pressure of survival, Rip hold no responsibility to admire the more or the better but “whichever can be got with least thought or trouble” (Irving, 812).
As a result, he is naturally of simplicity and good nature as a happy mortal. This belief of Rip may be
probably viewed as not ambitious or enterprising becau it resists change and advance. But in such
a solitary village, it is really hard to expect Rip to posss super-real dreams. What’s important to
him is that, apart from rural occupation, he could do what he likes. And considering the life style of early Dutch colonists who ttled in America, agriculture and handcraft mainly included, there is a rough speculation about the life of the villagers. Men are engaged in regular work on the farm to produce cabbages, corn and potatoes to support the family and further to earn money for daily
expenditure. Women take care of children “trooping like a colt at mother’s heel” (Irving, 812),
assist men with farm work, deal with trivial jobs at home and give curtain lectures to their husbands. From the typical rural activities it is obvious that people are living in quietness. This kind of rene
tting, similar to the village in “The Pride of the Village” by Washington Irving, too, contributes
to the formation and stability of Rip’s characters.
Besides, the village is indeed not huge in size, just “a little village, of great antiquity” (Irving, 812), pared with the different, “larger and more populous” (Irving, 816) one Rip es when he es back
after a deep sleep. In rural region, sometimes the smaller, the better. Contrasting with big towns, cities which are flush with thousands of people, a small village lacks nois and has a much slower life pace with peace. People could meet each other frequently on the country load and farmland day and night. Constant contracts could bring warm greetings, instant assistance, shared enjoyment and harmonious relationship. Among people widely blesd with kindness, there is little strange for Rip to be a kind neighbor.
With regard to Rip’s obedient henpecked characteristics and pliant, malleable conscience, to
prehend it only requests a respect to the authority of Dame Van Winkle, the neck determining the turns of head at home. And the shrew will help to check the distinguishing features of Rip. Her tongue also can make other personages in the village scare, let alone Rip. In pany with such a powerful madam, Rip can hardly be lf-determined or strong-minded.
3. Rip’s idleness
Among the errors in disposition of Rip, “idle” is the one incessantly mentioned and criticized by his wife. She “kept continually dining in his ears about his idleness” (Irving, 813), which puts up
with a question about Rip, born, growing, and living in the renity of rural life. How could a kind-hearted and versatile farmer, who is at the disposal of people in need of his assistance, be idle? In another word, where does idleness in his disposition e from? Though the judgment of Dame Van Winkle does not point out where the idleness originates and derive from, it is still possible to read between lines to find some hints in the article to finish this remaining task.
First, the existence of Rip’s idleness is due to a t of contradiction, Rip’s merits and the
environment, or the tting. At the respect of Rip himlf, he is not in “want of assiduity or
perverance” (Irving, 812), which is exemplified by what he does with pleasure. One thing is that
he could spend a whole day fishing with a long and heavy rod eventually with no fish nibble at all, and the other is that it takes him hours to trudge in the mountain just hunting for a few squirrels or wild pigeons. Although there is tiredness on rock paths, dangers from beasts and probability of
