The most remarkable thing about Washington's Irving's Rip Van Winkle is that he is transported through history. The meanings of Irving's story must, therefore, be associated with this fact. The character of Rip Van Winkle and his circumstances must also reflect the theme of the story. Irving's story is, of course, humorous and its meanings are not terribly serious. Rip Van Winkle stepped forward in history from the period just before the American Revolution to the period just following that war. He had, in his sleep, become a citizen of a totally new kind of country. Through this strange adventure, Irving comments on the difference between life in the new republic and life under British rule. He uses the story to poke fun at the pretensions of Americans who believe they have so completely transformed the world and produced a society that is entirely new.
The humor of Rip Van Winkle's situation comes largely from his relations with his wife and from his own flawed character. He is said to be "an obedient, henpecked husband" and his wife is described as a "shrew" under whom their home becomes a "fiery furnace of domestic tribulation" (31). In the end, through his long sleep, he has escaped the "despotism" of her "petticoat government" and has gotten "his neck out of the yoke of matrimony" (45). Despite the fact that this seems quite misogynist it was certainly as clear to Irving as it is to the modern reader that Dame Van Winkle had a great deal to complain about. Rip Van Winkle's unwillingness to work, his wasting of his inheritance, and his self-deluding claims that his farm was not even worth farming all add up to a portrait of a man who is not much use to his family and leaves his wife to take responsibility for everything. Her harassment of her husband was mild compared to his failure in his role. The added insult of his willingness to help out everyone else makes her bitterness even more understandable. Much of t...