Is "Rip Van Winkle" tragic, comic, or mock serious? Explain.
"Rip Van Winkle" is a comic piece. First, it adheres to the broadest sense of the definition of "comedy," which is a work of literature with a happy ending. Rip loses twenty years of his life but in many ways is happier at the end of the story than the beginning, for his wife is dead, his children grown, and his hated adult responsibilities—always his nemesis—are over.
If we define comedy as a funny or laugh-inducing text, "Rip Van Winkle" also qualifies. We are meant to chuckle at the happy-go-lucky Rip's troubles with his shrewish wife, who is a comic type rather than a fully developed character. There's also humor in Rip's confused return to his village after 20 years, including his initial incomprehension that the United States is now an independent country. We are meant to laugh at and with this lovable but ambition-free main character.
The...
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story has, however, a more serious purpose. The chief clue to this is the time period of Rip's long "nap": he bridges a period of profound change in America as it moves from colonial status to independent democracy. Rip represents the old, apathetic, unfocused ways of America when it was under British domain. He is the opposite of the active, involved citizen of the new republic.
Irving is part of generation of writers involved in establishing a national identity for a new country. Irving contributes to this by showing the new vigor brought about by independence compared to the lackadaisical attributes of a character like Rip. This too is a "comic" vision: we are presented with an independence narrative that is a rousing success.
In my opinion, this is clearly a comic piece. At times, Irving pretends to be serious, but I think this is just one of his ways of making the story more amusing.
Irving pretends to be serious by telling us where the story came from. He cites his sources, in effect, and seems to be trying to show us that the story is serious.
But most of the story is amusing. Irving describes Rip and his relationships with others in rather funny ways, for example. One example of this is
A termagant wife may, therefore, in some respects, be considered a tolerable blessing; and if so, Rip Van Winkle was thrice blessed.
Much of the story revolves around the relationship between Rip and his wife and how henpecked he is and that is generally seen as amusing.
Is "Rip Van Winkle" a tragedy or comedy?
While its themes regarding the passage of time are melancholy in nature, "Rip Van Winkle" is nothing less than a comic story. Firstly, comedies traditionally have happy endings (indeed, this was the defining element of comedy in the past), and "Rip Van Winkle" certainly ends on a happy note, with Rip free of his shrewish wife and allowed to idle away his days in peace. A tragic ending might have Rip mourning his lost time and unable to enjoy the rest of his life or finding himself an entirely unwanted outsider in his community. However, the story ends with Rip accepted by the community and taken in by his daughter, Judith.
Rip himself is a comic creation, with his lackadaisical and free-spirited nature. There is nothing of the tragic about him. He has no particularly noble flaws that bring about suffering and catharsis. Rather, his lack of ambition is used for humor. His condition at the end of the story is mined for comedy, particularly when Rip Van Winkle becomes a fish out of water in his village twenty years later. His good-natured, easygoing ways are contrasted with the busyness and energy of the villagers who have grown up in the wake of the American Revolution. All of this makes "Rip Van Winkle" a comedic story.