A Hero’s Journey In Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle

Literature has evolved from the cultures of people. Their hopes and fears, their love and life battles, and their capacity to overcome obstacles have shaped it. It reflects the deepest aspirations and ambitions of a particular group, and their desire to succeed and overcome their fears. Karen Hunter’s biography of Joseph Campbell states that Campbell developed a theory to predict the plots of stories with a hero, called A Hero’s Journey. This term was originally coined by James Joyce. He defined the monomyth to be “…a universal hero pattern, which is repeated across all cultures and individuals’ lives”. This monomyth will influence how people examine literary works, like Ripvan Winkle. The Hero’s Journey can be used to compare the two and affect how people perceive heroes.

Rip van Winkle begins in a predictable way, with the development of characters and settings. Rip van Winkle’s description is “a simple and good-natured person; he acted as a neighbor, and was an obedient wife with henpecked hair”. This portrays him in a way that is easy to relate to. His home is an old town where “houses from the first settlers are still standing in a few short years with latticed windows, gablefronts, and small yellow bricks that were brought over from Holland”, which gives readers a sense of normality. Kathee Jones argues in a recent article that a hero’s journey begins with his “… biological endowments, including talents, disabilities or interests. The ordinary world of the hero is one where social expectations are well-known and respected. Irving’s description of Rip VanWinkle’s life in a quiet, average town with few turbulent incidents is consistent with Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. Because the plot followed the Hero’s Journey’s principles, readers could predict that the focus of the tale would change.

The story becomes more intense and dramatic as Rip leaves the town. Rip was upset when his wife told him that his friends were encouraging him to smoke and sit in bars. It was embarrassing and upsetting, so he took his gun with him and walked away from his wife. This scene is when Rip gets upset after having a fight with his wife. He then goes into the wilderness to escape from her, which introduces the reader to a different setting. Jones believes this perfectly illustrates the classic Hero’s Journey. Rip Von Winkle’s atmosphere is slowly intensified by the departure from the familiar. This is in line with the monomyth.

Rip is in an unusual situation after helping someone with a large keg to climb a mountain. After consuming the contents, Rip falls into a deep sleep surrounded strange men that did not speak. After waking up, Rip discovers that he is without a gun, dog or any explanation to his wife’s hounding. When he returns to the town, however, his wife’s situation isn’t as important. He noticed that the village had changed. There were houses he’d never seen and familiar haunts had vanished. He felt scared and confused. He entered the bar of his old friend, but was immediately turned away. “They’ve changed my weapon, and everything’s changed. And I’m transformed, I can’t even tell what my name is, or who am I !”‘. Rip finds himself in a very tough position. He does not know what has happened with his belongings and cannot explain to his family. Rip’s mental breakdown is imminent in a bar. Due to his difficult situation, the readers infer that the climax is this moment.

Jones’ Hero’s Journey has given us guidelines for how to write a story. This would be a good example because, in the second stage of the journey (Initiation), “In the Special World, the Hero faces countless trials.” Rip, who has lost his sense of direction, is forced to find a new home in a world that is distorted. Jones had predicted that a hero would have to go through a character test before he could return to his normal life. This is not the case. Rip van Winkle’s journey does not follow the Hero’s Journey in its entirety, as he technically returns to his original home, but the place is completely unrecognizable. He is in a completely different place than the original setting that was described at first. This scene is also described as part of the ‘Return phase’ of the Hero’s Journey. This should be the next step after ‘Initiation.’ But for Rip, this trial is the toughest he has to face.

After asking the people in the bar for information about his family and friends, he discovers that most of them have died or are gone because of the civil war. Rip is left feeling alone and saddened by all the new losses. Rip discovers that his melancholy friends’ fates led him to his happiness, when he meets his long-lost, loving daughter. The legend of Kaatskill Mountain explains his unfortunate fate. Peter Vanderdonk revealed that his ancestor, the historian, had told him the truth about the Kaatskill Mountains being haunted. Rip was unable to remember the war because they had caused him 20 years of sleep.

Rip finally found the explanation he was looking for. Jones states that “heroes must learn to integrate their knowledge of a special world into the reality of everyday life and become masters of two worlds”. This concludes the fact that returning to the first world isn’t always the most happy of endings. The readers found it heartwarming that Rip was reunited his daughter after his ordeal and able return to his normal routine. After all this turmoil, a simple man was able “to make” friends with the younger generation and gain their favor. He also “got out of the yoke [of marriage] and could come and go whenever he liked, without dreading Dame Van Winkle.” The end of the story showed that he did indeed master the skills to handle past grievances as Campbell described and enjoy the moment.

Rip van Winkle’s journey is similar to the Hero’s Journey in many ways. In the phases of trials and climax, the protagonist received no guidance from a guide or anyone else. This was compounded by the fact that the setting of the story at the end was not exactly the same as it had been in the beginning. The story was only slightly different from the monomyth when all of its attributes were considered.

Rip VanWinkle highlights the Hero’s Journey by starting with a hero living in a typical setting, then moving on to a new one where he faces trials before finally returning to a life of peace and enlightenment. Rip is the perfect example of how Rip fulfills the requirements for a hero. He is a typical guy who can grow and develop into something more. According to ChangingMinds.org, “…this much-admired, much-copied model has been criticized because it leads to’safe,’ movie-making. Writers use his structure to make movies, which results in ‘boring repeats’, albeit in a different outfit”. The Hero’s Journey is a predictable story that ends with a cultural hero. This is why it has such a profound impact on literacy. Campbell and Irving’s works capture this desire for adventure, which can lead to a more mature person.