Rip Van Winkle Questions and Answers - eNotes.com

Rip Van Winkle Questions and Answers

Give 3 adjectives that describe Rip Van Winkle in the beginning of the story. What has made him that way?

What is the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution for "Rip Van Winkle"?

In "Rip Van Winkle," what is the setting of the story?

What happens at the end of "Rip Van Winkle"?

What are three ironic elements in Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle"?

What are the supernatural elements of "Rip Van Winkle"?

What is different when Rip Van Winkle wakes up that was not there before he fell asleep?

Describe the "great error" in Rip's character in "Rip Van Winkle."

What details in "Rip Van Winkle" reveal a romantic fascination with the past and nature?

What is the conflict in "Rip Van Winkle"?

What does Rip Van Winkle symbolize?

At the end of "Rip Van Winkle," do most of the inhabitants of the village believe his story?

This story is supposed to have a light-hearted tone and entertain the reader. Find and write down a line where Irving uses humor.

What elements of "Rip Van Winkle" are satirical?

Why did Irving make Rip sleep for twenty years in "Rip Van Winkle"?

Who is Irving's target audience in "Rip Van Winkle"?

Who is Wolf in "Rip Van Winkle"?

What is a character description of Dame Van Winkle in "Rip Van Winkle"?

Is "Rip Van Winkle" a true story?

In "Rip Van Winkle," how did Rip react when he realised that everything had changed?

What are one similarity and one difference in the journeys of Young Goodman Brown and Rip Van Winkle, and how did each journey change the character?

What are some figures of speech in "Rip Van Winkle"?

How does the fictional character of Rip Van Winkle contrast with the historical character of Benjamin Franklin, the self-made man?

What is the point of view and theme in "Rip Van Winkle"?

Compare the village before and after Rip's 20 years sleeping in "Rip Van Winkle."

Do the names of characters in "Rip Van Winkle" carry any symbolic meaning?

What American stereotypes do you see in "Rip Van Winkle"?

What literary devices are used in "Rip Van Winkle"?

What is Rip Van Winkle's personality flaw?

How would you describe the amphitheater before Rip falls asleep, and how would you describe it after he wakens? How do they compare? What is the significance?

Describe the appearance and behavior of the group that Rip meets on the mountains. What causes him to fall asleep?

What is the moral of "Rip Van Winkle"?

What imagery does Irving use to portray nature in "Rip Van Winkle"? How is nature portrayed?

What was changing in Rip Van Winkle's world during Rip's twenty-year sleep?

What about Rip Van Winkle's personality would have made him contented if he hadn't had a family?

How would Dame Van Winkle retell the story of "Rip Van Winkle"?

Whose portrait was said to be hanging in front of the town inn in "Rip Van Winkle"?

Compare and contrast "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." How are the stories of these men similar and how do they differ?

How is Rip Van Winkle changed by the events of the story?

What are some symbols in "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving?

How does the inn reflect the political and social changes that have taken place in the country as a whole?

What does the "most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed" symbolize in the story "Rip Van Winkle"?

Describe Rip Van Winkle's appearance.

How does Irving use his two narrators (Crayon and Knickerbocker) to defend the tale's credibility, and how would you describe the tone in these introductory passages?

Do you, as a late twentieth-century reader, find the story humorous, or is it too outdated to be funny to us today? Explain your response.

Who finally recognizes Rip Van Winkle when he returns to town?

Is there a defined thesis for the story "Rip Van Winkle"?

What happened to Rip Van Winkle's wife?

Why did Rip Van Winkle fall asleep?

What is the symbolic meaning of the the rumbling peals like thunder that came from the old men's bowling balls?