33 pages • 1 hour read
Washington IrvingRip Van Winkle
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1819A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Literary Devices
Framing Device
A framing device is narrative technique in which a work’s main story occurs inside an unrelated, separate narrative. “Rip Van Winkle” is a Russian nesting doll of framing devices. The outermost framing narrative is Geoffrey Crayon, the ostensible collection of all the stories in Irving’s book describing how he found the papers of another fictional character, Diedrich Knickerbocker. This kicks off the second framing device, as Knickerbocker, in turn, explains how he recorded Rip’s story. Finally, Rip’s own story, the main narrative, takes place.
The effect of these many framing devices is to create the effect of hearsay and folklore. We are far from the tale’s original source, learning of the events third-hand (or fourth-hand, if Irving himself counts as another re-teller). Paradoxically, the framing device is making fun of official, historical works which cite sources citing sources citing sources.
Epigraph
An epigraph is a quotation from another work that an author includes at the opening of his or her own story to provide context or introduce a major theme. Epigraphs carry a sense of the epic, so by including one, Irving is satirically implying that his little story is a hugely important work of literature.
Irving’s epigraph, from Sir Walter Scott’s 1816 novel The Antiquary, is an oath to Wodin (the Norse god Odin) to tell only the truth. The epigraph has two functions. First, it cues us to pay attention to Norse or Old World themes. Second, it introduces the slippery idea of truth. Irving is fascinated with what constitutes “true” history, and where the line between legend and fact lies.
Lighthearted Comedy
Told in a different way, the Rip Van Winkle story could have dark implications. A deadbeat father abandons his wife and children for 20 years, returning only when he hears his wife has died. Irving directs us away from this reading with his frequent use of lighthearted comedy.
As quickly as Irving raises the specter of conflict, he puts it to rest again through humor, which softens even the bloody realities of the American Revolution. Even the stern ghosts of Henry Hudson and his men are playing a game, even if it doesn’t seem they are particularly enjoying it. Rip prefers daydreaming and teaching children to play marbles to worrying about the harsher realities of life.
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