Title: “Rip Van Winkle” Summary & Analysis | LitCharts
Headings: “Rip Van Winkle”
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“Rip Van Winkle” Summary & Analysis

Content: The strange insistence on Knickerbocker’s historical accuracy introduces questions about the difference between history and storytelling or folklore. The author admits that Knickerbocker did not use books or impartial sources, and that critics were at first very skeptical of the truth of Rip Van Winkle’s story, and remain skeptical of its literary merit. The comical suggestion that cakes immortalize Knickerbocker reveals that he isn’t well-respected, but also suggests that other forms of immortalization – like getting your face on a penny – are also sort of silly and not all that permanent either. That Knickerbocker enjoyed his research mirrors Rip’s own philosophy of work: that it’s less important for it to be profitable than for it to be done freely and happily. Active Themes
Related Quotes with Explanations
Knickerbocker’s story opens with a poem by Cartwright about truth. He then proceeds to describe the “magical” beauty of the Catskills. He zeroes in on a small village at the foot of these mountains, where a good-natured man named Rip Van Winkle lives. Rip’s greatest trouble is his wife, Dame Van Winkle, who is shrewish and constantly nagging Rip about hisbiggest weakness: that he can find no motivation to engage in profitable labor of any kind.