What is the conflict in "Rip Van Winkle"?

One of the main conflicts in "Rip Van Winkle" is the tension in the marriage between Rip and Dame Van Winkle. The two characters have such different personalities, and their lack of compatibility is so blatant, that one might wonder how they ever got married in the first place.

Their marriage, such as it is, is riddled with conflict based on their diametrically opposite personalities and on their radically different outlooks on life. Dame Van Winkle is described as a "termagant" and a "virago," a woman with a sharp tongue and fiery temper. Rip Van Winkle, in contrast, is described as a "simple, good-natured" soul who just wants a quiet life.

Much to his wife's annoyance, Rip does little or no work around the house or farm—preferring to fish, hunt, do odd jobs around the village, or spend time at the inn instead—and the little he does do is invariably ineffective. It is not surprising, then, that Dame Van Winkle is constantly nagging Rip about his failings as a farmer and a husband.

It is in order to avoid his wife's nagging that Rip regularly takes to the Catskill Mountains to hunt and to enjoy some much-needed peace and solitude. It is during one such jaunt that he ends up falling into an enchanted sleep. When Rip wakes up from that sleep twenty years later, he finds out that his wife has passed away. In that sense, then, one could say that it took Rip's lengthy slumber to resolve the conflict between him and his wife.

What types of conflict (physical, moral, intellectual, or emotional) are in "Rip Van Winkle"?

One of the main conflicts in this story is between the "Old World" European-style apathy Rip represents and the energy and vibrance of the new United States.

Rip annoys his wife by not having drive or ambition, though he is happy enough to hunt, fish, or help neighboring women with small tasks. He likes to hang out in front of the local inn, significantly under the portrait of King George III. He and his similarly apathetic friends enjoy discussing "news" in newspapers that are months all.

When Rip falls asleep and comes back after twenty years, a whole new world confronts him. He fell asleep during a very significant twenty-year period in American history. When he began his snooze, America was a group of English colonies. When he wakes up, it has fought the Revolutionary War and become a new nation.

The new nation is electrified with the energy generated by participatory democracy. Unlike the happy-go-lucky Rip, who was content to be a passive subject of a king, the new generation is on fire to be involved in the upcoming elections.

In the conflict between old and new, a moral conflict, the new and better has won. The old and apathetic has been replaced by a spirit of moral vigor and purpose. Rip can do nothing but hang around as a relic and reminder of a time when the colonies were dependent on Britain—a time that luckily is no more.