Rip Van Winkle - Use of Description

Rackham, Arthur. Rip Van Winkle. Arthur
     Rackham's Illustrations to Rip Van
     Winkle, www.artpassions.net.
     Web. 11 December 2010  

    Washington Irving uses description greatly 

throughout all of Rip Van Winkle. He uses it when talking about the forests around him and the other characters in the story. When speaking of the nature around him, everything is described in perfect detail. And when introducing a new character, he allows for every features to be explained.  Let's look at a few...

     First up, Mrs. Van Winkle. It is made ver clear that Rip Va Winkle is not quite fond of his wife. Whether or not she was as bad as he made her seem is unclear. The story tells that she is constantly nagging on Rip, asking to him to do things that he clearly is not interested in doing. Mrs. Winkle even made it a point to meet up with Rip and the group of men he "gossiped" with just so she could nag him some more and let the rest of the men know that he was bringing ruin on his family. "Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and every thing he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence." (Irving) The story tells us that she is so frightening that even the dog, Wolf, kept his space from her. Wolf was so appalled by her behavior, that when he entered the house his tail would instantly droop and his demeanor would change. Evidently so was a woman you did not want to be around.

     Next, the description of the pipe smoker. Nicholas Vedder was the man who controlled the opinions in the "gossip" circle. The story tells us that this man, every morning, would take his seat outside his inn. Morning till night he would move out of the sun and into the shade of a tree. He did this so well that all of his neighbors could tell the hour just by the way he sat. The other thing about Vedder was that he rarely spoke. He didn't have to speak because people knew what he was thinking just by the way he smoked his pipe. If he did not like something he heard or read he would smoke forcefully with short angry puffs. However, if he heard or read something that pleased him, he would smoke slowly sending light smoke clouds into the air. With these little descriptions of Mrs. Van Winkle and Nicholas Vedder, I was able to have a ver clear portrait painted in my head.

     Lastly, Irving's description of the forest. The day that Rip wandered up to the top of the mountains is described for us wonderfully. It says that Rip was sitting on a green knoll, covered in herbage. It describes how from the opening between trees he could see all of the country for miles. Out to one side of the mountain, Rip tells us he can see the Hudson and in it a purple cloud reflecting. On the other, we are told that Rip is looking down into a deep mountain valley, filled with bits of the cliff and lightly lighted by the then setting sun. It tells us Rip lay there just looking at this scenery. The way he described it, I wouldn't mind doing the exact same thing.

Sources:

Irving, Washington. "Rip Van Winkle." The Oxford Book 

     of American Short Stories, ed. Joyce Carol Oates.