Irving erected an elaborate facade for the book in which this story first appeared. Purporting to be the work of “Geoffrey Crayon, Gentleman,” The Sketch Book featured primarily literary “sketches” of the type popularized by Joseph Addison a century earlier and influenced writers as late as Charles Dickens. Irving’s sketches are chiefly travel essays of an American in England, written in a graceful, well-bred manner calculated to appeal to the English gentleman as well as his American readers. As a result, Irving became the first American literary man widely read abroad.

Irving further distanced himself from his narrative by means of a headnote alleging the story to be a posthumously discovered work of “Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentleman of New York” and a postscript to the effect that Knickerbocker himself had it from a “German superstition,” though Irving more or less retracts this suggestion by including a note reputed to be Knickerbocker’s own in which the old gentleman claims to have talked with the real Rip Van Winkle himself.

This sort of elaborate hocus-pocus was common in American fiction up to about the middle of the nineteenth century, and readers may compare Irving’s frame for this story with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s lengthy customhouse essay at the head of The Scarlet Letter (1850). Common to both works is a desire both for the freedom from any obligation to respect prosaic everyday life and for an air of authenticity these writers seemed to feel readers of the time required.

Unlike Hawthorne, however, Irving does not aspire to profundity, and his style is much more colloquial and familiar. The dialogue is extremely simple and straightforward, and the descriptions, while effective, are rather understated. Irving’s simplicity, which has helped make his tales enduringly popular school texts, is somewhat deceptive, for although Irving is not an ambitious artist, he has an artful way of suggesting more than he seems to say. Thus, the allusions to Franklin and Washington establish the standards of duty and accomplishment against which Rip’s withdrawal from responsibility is to be measured. Unlike his greatest American contemporary in fiction, James Fenimore Cooper, Irving seldom overwrites. By describing his mountaineers very little and keeping them absolutely silent, he creates the desired atmosphere of enchantment. He understands the value of describing Dame Van Winkle indirectly through her effect on Rip. In a century of writers always poised to spin great webs of words, Irving demonstrates the virtues of an economical and unpretentious style.

For all its derivative nature, simplicity, and modest statement, “Rip Van Winkle” achieves universal significance. It depicts the pastoral contentment yearned for in a society aware of its own increasing complexity but shows this peace to be purchased at the expense of the protagonist’s full manhood and maturity. With considerable justification, “Rip Van Winkle” has been called the first successful American short story.

Dutch village

Dutch village. Unnamed village of Dutch settlers in New York that is the home of Rip Van Winkle, who sleeps in the woods for twenty years and then returns to the village. Rip’s twenty-year absence from the village gives Irving a chance to reflect and comment on changes that occurred in the United States between the period shortly before the American Revolution and the early years of the independent republic.

Irving first describes the village as one of “great antiquity,” founded by the original Dutch colonists who settled in New York. The village rests at the foot of the Catskill Mountains and seems to be a charming and quaint place. Its people are friendly and—except for the henpecked Rip—happy. When Rip escapes from his wife’s nagging, he plays with the children of the village and runs errands for all the goodwives. All the village dogs know him and greet him. The familiarity and friendliness of the village before Rip’s sleep is shown so that Irving can contrast it with Rip’s return from the mountain. When Rip returns from his long nap, children stare at him and mock him, and dogs bark at him.

Before Rip’s sleep, the village had a “busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquillity.” Rip returns when an election is taking place, and villagers want to know for whom he is voting. The town’s former tranquillity has been usurped by the new politics. Rip eventually comes to grip with these changes, even if he does not quite understand them. He even takes his place as a patriarch of the village on the bench. He settles into place and his new role, much like the new country he encounters.

Village inn

Village inn. Besides moving the plot along, the changes in the village after Rip’s sleep also provide a pointed look at the changes in the new republic. Before Rip’s twenty year absence, the center of town was an old inn sporting a portrait of England’s King George III. On a bench in front of the inn, the elders and idle of the village would gather and discuss events. The innkeeper, Nicholas Vedder, presided over the gatherings and let his feelings on the discussions be known by how he smoked his pipe. Outside the inn stood a great tree that shaded the building. When Rip returns, the inn has changed, and definitely for the worse. Its great tree is gone, replaced by “a tall naked pole” from which hangs a strange flag. The old inn itself has been replaced by a “large rickety wooded building . . . with great gaping windows, some of them broken and mended with old hats and petticoats.” It is no longer the old country inn, but the Union Hotel. King George’s portrait has been painted over with one of George Washington.

*Kaatskill (Catskill) Mountains

*Kaatskill (Catskill) Mountains. New York range bordering the village. From the beginning of the story, Irving describes the beauty of the mountains and gives them a magical air as he describes them as “fairy mountains.” Rip goes up on a mountain to hunt and avoid his nagging wife. The mountain is also the home of the somber Henrik Hudson and his men who play at ninepins. In a hidden amphitheater, the strange little men drink wine and play their game. Rip also helps himself to the wine which leads to his twenty-year sleep. He awakens outside the amphitheater only to find the scenery changed. The use of the Catskills, a chain familiar to American readers of Irving’s time, helped to Americanize the German folktale.

Frame Structure

While the core narrative of "Rip Van Winkle" is relatively straightforward and follows a chronological order, it is both preceded and followed by additional material that does not directly advance the plot. This type of structure is often referred to as a frame structure because the introductory and concluding elements serve to frame the main story. Before the actual tale begins, "Rip Van Winkle" includes two preliminary pieces (a verse quotation and a note explaining the story's origin). Most editions also feature an epilogue (a note from the narrator vouching for the story's truthfulness and quoting a letter from Knickerbocker asserting that the story is "beyond the possibility of doubt"). In 1848, Irving added a postscript containing Native American lore from the Catskill region, though this section is omitted in most modern editions.

Through this framing device, Irving underscores the tale's veracity while simultaneously distancing himself from any responsibility for that truth. In essence, he overstates his case. He doesn't expect readers to take the story seriously, and his repeated assurances of its accuracy only serve to cast further doubt on it.

Only Rip himself knows what he witnessed on that mountain. Although he has recounted the story many times, he is not the narrator of "Rip Van Winkle." In the note at the story's conclusion, Knickerbocker asserts that he heard the tale directly from Rip and gives it his "full belief." However, Knickerbocker is not the one narrating the story either; the tale is recounted by a different narrator. Readers familiar with the entire The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. know that the narrator is Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (short for "gentleman"), the supposed author of the book. Crayon claims to have discovered the manuscript of "Rip Van Winkle" among papers left behind by Knickerbocker after his death and holds Knickerbocker in high regard for his "unquestionable authority." This frame introduces multiple layers of doubt. Crayon, whose judgment is questionable, obtained the story from the unreliable Knickerbocker (assuming he is truthful about the manuscript), who in turn got it from Rip, who initially "varied on some points every time he told it." Ignoring the frame while reading the story means missing Irving's clear indication that the tale is fictional.

Mock-Heroic

Comic writers often employ the mock-heroic technique, which involves borrowing elements from epic literature to narrate a trivial or absurd story. An example of this is the quotation that opens "Rip Van Winkle," attributed to playwright William Cartwright. This passage features an unnamed speaker swearing by the god Woden to always be truthful. True epics, which the mock-heroic mimics, typically begin with an invocation—a plea to a deity for guidance in the forthcoming writing. The quotation from Cartwright, seemingly provided by the narrator himself, reinforces a claim of truthfulness using dramatic language to lend it a solemn tone. Throughout the narrative frame, Irving maintains a serious demeanor while claiming to tell the truth, subtly revealing that he is not.

In traditional epics, the hero is often compelled to leave home and venture into the wilderness, where they encounter new and threatening individuals and engage in battles or contests. Similarly, Rip is driven from his home by his wife's temper. When he heads into the woods with his gun, he soon encounters a group of oddly dressed men bowling. The core structure remains the same, but the individual elements in "Rip Van Winkle" are presented with a serious tone despite their silliness.

Romanticism

Romanticism is a literary movement that began in Europe and later spread to the United States during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It influenced literature, the arts, philosophy, and politics, characterized by a departure from formal, classical structures and an embrace of imagination and spirit over intellect. Several characteristics of romanticism are evident in "Rip Van Winkle."

A key theme in romantic literature is a deep reverence for nature. Rip's departure from the city to the rugged mountains, where he experiences a life-changing event, is a common romantic plot element. When overwhelmed by the stresses of civilized, city life (particularly his wife), Rip feels compelled to "stroll away into the woods." Nature in the story is described with a blend of imaginative and accurate detail: the "fairy mountains" surrounding Rip's village reach a "noble height" with their "magical hues and shapes," and the cliffs open and close with "no traces." Additionally, the drug-induced sleep, the mysterious strangers, and the possibility that they might be ghosts from the past are frequent motifs in romantic literature.

Critics frequently pinpoint the start of the romantic period in American literature around 1830, a decade after "Rip Van Winkle" was published. However, romanticism thrived in Great Britain starting around 1798. As an enthusiastic reader and traveler, Irving excelled at drawing from the literatures of various cultures and incorporating their themes and techniques into his emerging American literature.