8/13/2019 Question 8-Rip Van Winkle Woman as a Cultural Villain

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Rip Van Winkle: Woman as a Cultural Villain

The expression Cultural Villain in this case refers to Dame Van Winkle the wife

of Rip Van Winkle. To be able to discuss Dame we have to approach her from discussing Rip Van

Winkle at first.

Rip is described as a good natured, simple man. e was fancied b! ever!one in

the village. e liked to tell interesting stories to the village children. e also liked hunting, fishing and

walking.

The theme that would become characteristic of the "# thcentur! fiction was that

the male character represented, simplicit!, goodness, free spirit$ on the other hand the female character

represented the forces of sensibilit!.

%n this case Dame wants Rip to be a hardworking, practical producer. &he stands

for 'uritan values of hard work, diligence, responsibilit! and dut!. These are the things which Dameexpects from Rip. (ortunatel! or unfortunatel!, Rip is nothing from the above mentioned. Dame cannot

accept his husband as he is, so she is constantl! giving lectures. &he is constantl! telling him that he is

a la)!, good for nothing husband. Dame cannot see her husband*s other values. &he is not aware of the

fact how good a stor!+teller he is. &he does not regard artistic values as something she or for that matter

he would benefit from. Thus she prevents him to tell stories and this makes her a cultural villain. &he

prevents Rip from becoming a writer. %n order to produce art one needs the knowledge but also one

needs time to absorb that knowledge, which poor people didn*t have since the! were force to work and

support their families, and due to this all the writers and poets originated from rich, aristocratic

families.

When Rip comes back from the mountains he gets to know that his passed awa!.

Rip had got his head out of the !oke of matrimon! and finall! gained his freedom. t the end of the

stor! he established himself as an artist, the village stor!+teller who is telling stories about the past.

-etaphoricall! observed Rip is getting rid of Dame as merica from ritain. Rip represents the

colonies, while Dame represents the crown$ this is wh! she is referred to as 'etticoat /overnment. The

relationship between her and Rip represents the relationship between the colonies and the strict

-onarch!.