Setting in Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle

In Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving, a great number of changes in the setting are presented throughout the whole story. These changes include everything from nature, to the town, and to the people. These changes make Rip Van Winkle realize that he was asleep for much longer than he originally thought when he first woke up. These differences are exactly what forces the reader to understand what Rip was experiencing. They also develop the plot and enrich the structure of the text.
The story starts out by painting a picture of nature and the surroundings of the village. We get a picture of beauty and grace with explanations such as of the one used to describe the Catskill Mountains, “a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family” . It states that the mountains “are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers”. Using the description of the mountains’ summits that looks “like a crown of glory” we imagine them like something great and majestic. We also glimpse into the overall picture of the “little village of great antiquity”. Thus, showing the reader a complete picture of the world around Rip Van Winkle as well as setting up the plot for the story. It is necessary to set the scene here so we know what it looked like before Rip slept for twenty years.
As the story progresses, we are allowed seeing the sight of the village. We are shown that the village is somewhat worn down and old looking. Most of the houses built were built from the original settlers, exactly “by some of the Dutch colonists, in the early times of the province, just about the beginning of the government of the good Peter Stuyvesant (may he rest in peace!)”. They were constructed from “small yellow bricks brought from Holland” having “lattice windows, gable fronts surmounted with weathercocks”. Irving goes on to say that Rip Van Winkle’s house was “sadly time-worn and weather-beaten”. By showing the reader the very sight of what Rip Van Winkle may have seen, we learn of his surroundings, which give us an understanding of how it all changes after he wakes up.

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