Rip Van Winkle Alcoholism Analysis

How does a short story based on borrowed ideas, misogyny, and transformation come to be one of the most widely read and loved pieces of American literature? The answer is simple: by using memorable and an amiable protagonist that is easy to relate to. “Rip Van Winkle” is the story of Rip, a man tormented by his wife, escaping into the mountains and falling into a deep sleep for twenty years. When he wakes up, he finds himself twenty years in the future and free of his tyrant of a wife – at least according to most interpretations. However, Rip Van Winkle’s twenty year sleep is an allusion to his alcoholism and a normalization of drunken behavior in the nineteenth century. Alcoholism is a pattern of alcohol consumption involving problems controlling

Alcoholism leads to a reduction of personal hobbies, a lack of motivation to work, child neglect, and marital conflict. The first instance of Rip’s lack of interest in the workings of his farm and family is seen when Irving declares that Rip finds “family duty” and “keeping his farm in order” impossible (42). Rip’s once considerable estate has “dwindled away under his management”(43). Rip refuses to do work around the farm, or to find work in the village, due to his lack of interest. He would rather spend his time at the inn, drinking with his friends and gossiping. Another effect of alcoholism is child neglect, which is illustrated through a brief description of Rip’s children. Rip Van Winkle’s offspring are described as being “ragged and wild as if they belonged to nobody”(43). He doesn’t care enough to ensure his children’s wellbeing, he is indifferent. Also, there are numerous examples of marital conflict. Rip describes his wife as being a tyrant, but this is only because she is constantly nagging him to go out and care for the farm, his children, or to do something with his life. Rip, if left to himself, would have “whistled life away in perfect contentment” (43). But his wife, Dame Van Winkle, keeps “dinning his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family”(43). What was his response? He would shrug his shoulders, roll his

Drinking was considered to be the “fashionable vice of the day” ( Ferguson 532), much in the same way that smoking was the fashionable the twenties and excessive dieting and is now. The use of alcohol in America reached its peak of per capita consumption during the first half of the nineteenth century, the same time that “Rip Van Winkle” was published. (Ferguson 532). Excessive drinking in public was considered to be normal, it was even encouraged for young males to drink in public. It was a bonding activity, an excuse to gossip like women, and an escape from their home life. In Ferguson’s essay on Rip Van Winkle, he states that there was a “male drinking cult that pervaded all social and occupational groups” (532). It wasn’t an outing or successful get together unless the party was drinking and made sure everyone knew they were doing so. The tavern, or inn, in Rip Van Winkle is described as a “perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village”(Irving 44). The bar was a gathering place where men could get together and complain about their lives and the inner workings of the town, and, because of their drunken states, there was no blame placed upon them because they were not responsible for their actions. In the early part of the nineteenth century, heavy drinking was considered to be a sign of individuality and personal expression rather than a