Romanticism Literary Analysis

Amy Chen
Mrs. Smith
English II, Level H, Period 1
15 December 2014
Romanticism in Rip Van Winkle
Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle was intriguing and almost mystical, with a strong emphasis on soul and emotion. The tale manipulated time and cleverly used ambiguity, defining it’s philosophical and literary Romantic elements, as also seen in The Scarlet Letter, To a
Waterfowl, and Thanatopsis.
Nature plays a great part in many Romantic literary pieces. The mountains in Rip Van
Winkle were considerably personified and ranked highly, being described as at “a noble height”,
“lording” over their surroundings, with often changing “magical hues”. (Irving 1) Pearl, from
The Scarlet Letter, is also a Power of Nature, seemingly all­knowing and “never subjugated by human law”, as was the forest from The Scarlet Letter and the mountains in Rip Van Winkle.
(Hawthorne 224) Nature has a “voice of gladness”, and “healing sympathies”, but only speaks to those willing to listen. (Bryant, Thanatopsis, 4, 7) Nature in the eyes of romantic writers is beautiful and all­seeing, which indicates the greatness that She is, completely belonging yet at the same time unimaginable to be true. The supernatural and impossible are distinguished as an element of the spiritual part in Romantic writing.
The manipulation of time is a show of this mystical part of Romanticism, like Rip sleeping for twenty years and still waking up alive, or Pearl’s speedily aging. Time can pass fast, or slow, depending on what the character is feeling or doing. Rip slept from the strange potion

mysterious strangers of legend gave him, and in doing so, made him a legend, too, after the townspeople accepted him back as who he was. The scarlet “A”, too became a legend, “looked upon with awe”, after Hester’s traveled away for some time. (Hawthorne 289) Rip’s story of his journey, like the waterfowl's “lone wandering”, was peculiar and abnormal, yet they both were
“not lost” in their paths. (Bryant, To a Waterfowl, 17) It is not specified what exactly happened to the now­elderly Rip, or to the long­gone waterfowl, but their wanderings were specific to themselves, and readers have no business in knowing what happened.
Readers do not need to know what happened, either. The ambiguity the authors used in these romantic writings is very intentional, and gives the characters more of a life of their own, seeming more real than words on paper. Rip was gone for twenty years, and nobody knows what happened to him, not the readers, not the town, and really, not even himself. Was his tale even believable? But the uncertainty of it made it a legend, and that in turn made his story “beyond the possibility of a doubt”. (Irving 10) His disappearance into the mountains also seems to be a show of freedom from society, like Hester and Dimmesdale’s time in the woods, what had been on
Dimmesdale’s chest on the scaffold, and Hester and Pearl’s extended leave from New England after his death. The natural setting and mysteriousness of what was really real and true made for a romantic backdrop, unknown and unconfined by the prying eyes of a stubborn yet changing society. Rip’s freedom from his obtrusive and meddlesome wife, through her unceremonious death, represents a slightly darker side of Romanticism, in the beauty of death and darkness through the supposedly good nature of everyone.
Romantics have the belief that people are born naturally good. Chillingworth, despicable
“leech” as he was, still gave his inheritance to Pearl in longing of companionship. (Hawthorne

130) The “fowler’s eye” did not target the waterfowl. (Bryant, To a Waterfowl, 5) But Death is not a long long sleep, it’s a forever sleep, as Rip and his previous friends and wife were a contrast of, though a person could say that it is similar in many ways, going through a tremendous change. There is no need to fear death, because “all that breathe will share thy destiny”, in the forever sleep in the giant tomb of the Earth. (Bryant, Thanatopsis, 60) The unity in being unique and yet all the same also applies to Rip Van Winkle, who is in a changed world that is still in some ways the exact same. Though the generation was different, the people were willing to listen to him, because he was the same simple easygoing person.
These individual pieces of writings are all a part of Romanticism, and though they may be by different authors and about distinctive things, they are a piece of the family of
Romanticism. The philosophies of Nature as a teller of Truth, freedom of being an individual, and supernatural impossibles are prominent through the various stories, as are the literary devices used like personification of Nature, symbolism in extended metaphors, and ambiguity. Rip Van
Winkle is a strange person, but he is a part of the definition of Romanticism, too, in the world of literature today. Looking back, the humans of today cannot know what these authors were thinking as they wrote, as they are already entombed in the “mighty sepulcher”. (37) We can only analyze what is passed down, making every piece of writing critical to the world’s explanation of what Romanticism is. Individuals can likely find another perspective to what each word means, but like Rip, literary might never change drastically, though it’s meaning probably will with time.