"Rip Van Winkle": Metempsychosis and the Quest for Self-Reliance

"Rip Van Winkle": Metempsychosis and the Questfor Self-Reliance DANIEL L. PLUNG "Rip Van Winkle," the best known American short story, affords valuable insights into our national character, but much of our ability to interpret Washington Irving's message has been obscured by the recurrent cries of plagiarism, and by the continued search for similarities rather than differences between the American story and its European counterparts and predecessors. Since the tale's publication in The Sfetch Book in 1819, critics have insisted the account of the Dutch farmer who strays from city to mountain where he meets elves, drinks, becomes enchanted, and sleeps for twenty years, is no more than the transplanting of a German legend that Irving may have read while studying the language in Europe. Though it is true there are analogues that closely parallel portions of Irving's story, there have not been any evaluations of the changes he incorporated into the legend, changes that create specific correspondences to American life and thought; the investigations of the tale's genesis fail to account for Irving's conscious artistry in the genre he was to make an American tradition. If the tale is an act of plagiarism then it has no right to remain our most famous short story, but if the tale is reexamined in terms of the changes made and in terms of Irving's artistry, then it may be possible to understand important aspects of the story that have been overlooked for a century and a half. Irving was the first American to utilize the short story as a means by which to convey, succinctly and expressly, concepts previously considered the sole domain of the novel in America. He was well aware of Daniel L. Plung teaches in the English Department at Idaho State University, Pocatello. ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW65 the form's potential, and voiced his belief in an oft-quoted letter to his friend, Henry Brevoort: For my part, I consider a story merely as a frame on which to stretch my materials. It is the play of thought, and sentiment and language; the weaving in of characters, lightly, yet expressly delineated; the familiar and faithful exhibition of scenes in common life; and the half-concealed vein of humor that is often playing dirough the whole; — these are among what I aim at, and upon which I felicitate myself in proportion as I succeed. I have preferred adopting the mode of sketches and short tales rather than long works, because I choose to take a line of writing peculiar to myself, rather than fall into the manner or school of any other writer; and there is a constant activity of thought and nicety of execution required in writings of the kind, more than the world appears to imagine. It is comparatively easy to swell a story to any size when you have once the scheme and characters in your mind; the mere interest of the story, too, carries the reader on through pages and pages of careless writing, and the author may often be dull for half a volume at a time, if he has some striking scene at the end of it; but in these shorter writings, every page must have its merit. The author must be continually piquint; woe to him if he makes an awkward sentence or writes a stupid ,/age; the critics are sure to pounce on it. Yet if he succeed, the very variety and piquancy of his writings — nay, their very brevity, make them frequently recurred to, and when the mere interest of the story is exhausted, he begins to get credit for his touches of pathos or humor; his points of wit or turns of language.1 Each story Irving was to write carried this concern for artistry, and the first story to bring him worldwide acclaim was no exception. Despite our knowledge that "Rip Van Winkle" is founded upon a common German legend, one reason the story is "frequendy recurred to" is because we realize the tale is inherendy American. Similarly, Irving believed he had modified the tale enough so that he was willing to acknowledge that which he had borrowed. "Letter to Henry Brevoort, 11...