How Is Rip Van Winkle A Romantic Hero

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Romantic Hero Literary Analysis Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving tells the story about a man who takes a nap in the mountains for twenty years. Van Winkle might not qualify as a stereotypical hero, but he possess qualities of a Romantic Hero. A Romantic Hero is a literary archetype referring a character that rejects established norms and conventions, has been rejected by society, and has the self as the center of his or her own existence. Through having a child like innocence, mistrusting women and going on an aimless journey into nature Irving demonstrates the value of independence. Rip Van Winkle possesses the Romantic Hero quality of having a child like innocence. Instead of doing his work, you could often find Van Winkle playing with the town children,“ he assisted in their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles” (161). His wife despised that and would scold him every time he did. Even after waking up from this twenty year nap, he still “preferred making friends among the rising generation”(165). He demonstrates that by making friends with the upcoming generations, he still enjoys spending time with children. By Van Winkle disobeying his wife and spending time with the children, it showed that he wanted to be independent.…show more content…
He was described as a “henpecked husband”(155) with a “termagant wife”(155). He would get scolded all the time by his wife for being “ready to attend to anybody’s business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, it was impossible.”(154). When Van Winkle awakes from his twenty year nap, he finds that his wife had died. Even in her last hours, she was still termagant and her death was caused by a breaking blood vessel in her neck while yelling at a peddler. Rip was pleased to hear about her death because it was a sign that he was now independent from her
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