Title: Rip Van Winkle Summary and Analysis
Headings: Rip Van Winkle
Rip Van Winkle
Background of the Story
Contents
Historical Context
Overview
Rip Van Winkle Summary
Rip Van Winkle Characters Analysis
Geoffrey Crayon
Rip Van Winkle
Dame Van Winkle
Derrick Van Bummel
Nicholaus Vedder
Judith Gardenier
Rip Van Winkle, Jr.
Hendrick Hudson
Peter Vanderdonk
Themes in Rip Van Winkle
Freedom and Tyranny
Constancy and Change
History and Fiction
Volunteerism vs Work for Money
Active vs Passive Resistance
Labor vs Productivity
Rip Van Winkle Analysis
Narrative Style
Local History and Mythical Narrative
Self Identity
Overlapping of Time
Rip as an Anti-American
Negative evasiveness of Rip’s Wife
Rip as Negation of Traditional American Hero

Content: Rip Van Winkle Characters Analysis
Geoffrey Crayon
He is the storyteller of the collection of stories. He is an eager wayfarer and interested in the history, culture and tradition of Dutch people. Rip Van Winkle
He is the protagonist of the story who is a descendant of the gallant Dutch line. He is a kind, generous person who is always ever ready to help, neighboring men. He lives in a village inhabited at the foot of the Catskills mountains in the United States. His nature is tranquil and submissive that he obeys his wife and speaks nothing before her even though she often scolds him. Everyone in the village loves him even the dogs do not bark at him. But he is infamous for showing sluggishness towards households. Dame Van Winkle
She is the wife of Rip Van Winkle. She is a bad-tempered woman who spends time scolding her husband for doing nothing and earning zero profit from the farmhouse to run their expenditures.