Download
1 / 36
E N D
Setting of the Story The story begins about five or six years before the American Revolution and ends twenty years later. The action takes place in a village in eastern New York, near the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains. The river was named after Englishman Henry Hudson, who explored it in 1609. The Catskill Mountains were named after Kaaterskill, the Dutch word for a local stream, Wildcat Creek. The Catskills contain many other streams, as well as lakes, waterfalls, and gorges.
A NOTE ON THE THEME OF THE STORY Irving's taste was essentially conservative and always exalted a disappearing past. This social conservatism and literary preference for the past is revealed, to some extent, in his famous story "Rip Van Winkle." The story is a tale remembered mostly for Rip's 20-year sleep, set against the background of the inevitably changing America. Rip went to sleep before the War of Independence and woke up after it. The change that had occurred in the 20 years he slept was to him not always for the better. The revolution upset the natural order of things. In the story Irving skillfully presents to us paralleled juxtapositions of two totally different worlds before and after Rip's 20 years' s1eep. By moving Rip back and forth from a noisy world with his wife on the farm to a wild but peaceful natural world in the mountains, and from a pre-Revolution village to a George Washington era, lrving describes Rip's response and reaction in a dramatic way, so that we see clearly both the narrator and Irving agree on the preferabi1ity of the past to the present, and the prefer ability of a dream-like world to the real one. Irving never seemed to accept a modern democratic America.
Plot Summary The story of Rip Van Winkle is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War. Rip Van Winkle, a villager of Dutch descent, lives in a nice village at the foot of New York's Catskill Mountains. An amiable man whose home and farm suffer from his lazy neglect, he is loved by all but his wife. One autumn day he escapes his nagging wife by wandering up the mountains. After encountering strangely dressed men, rumored to be the ghosts of Henry Hudson's crew, who are playing nine-pins, and after drinking some of their liquor, he settles down under a shady tree and falls asleep. He wakes up twenty years later and returns to his village. He finds out that his wife has died and his close friends have died in a war or gone somewhere else. He immediately gets into trouble when he hails himself a loyal subject of King George III, not knowing that in the meantime the American Revolution has taken place. An old local recognizes him, however, and Rip's now grown daughter puts him up. As Rip resumes his habit of idleness in the village, and his tale is solemnly believed by the old Dutch settlers, certain hen-pecked husbands especially wish they shared Rip's luck.
Characters Rip Van Winkle: Meek, easygoing, ne’er-do-well resident of the village who wanders off to the mountains and meets strange men playing ninepins. Dame Van Winkle: Rip’s nagging wife. Nicholas Vedder: Owner of a village inn where menfolk congregate. Derrick Van Brummel: Village schoolmaster. Wolf: Rip’s dog. Man Carrying Keg Up the Mountain: Spirit of Englishman Henry Hudson, explorer of the Hudson River. Ninepin Bowlers: Henry Hudson’s crewmen from his ship, the Half-Moon. Brom Dutcher: Neighbor of Rip who went off to war while Rip was sleeping. Old Woman: Woman who identifies Rip when he returns to the village after his sleep. Peter Vanderdonk: Oldest resident of the village. He confirms Rip’s identity and cites evidence indicating Rip’s strange tale is true. Judith Gardenier: Rip’s married daughter. She takes her father in after he returns from his sleep. Mr. Gardenier: Judith’s husband, a farmer. Rip Van Winkle II: Rip’s ne’er-do-well son. Rip Van Winkle III: Rip’s infant grandchild. Its mother is Judith Gardenier. Van Schaick: Village parson. Jonathan Doolittle: Owner of the Union Hotel, the establishment that replaced the village inn. The Catskill Mountains: See Personification. Various Men, Women, and Children of the Village
RIP VAN WINKLE DAME VAN WINKLE THE OLD GENTLEMAN THE OLD MAN ANSWERING THE OLD WOMAN JUDITH GARDENIER Mr. Miao Miss Xu Mr. Rui Miss Min Miss Ji Miss Xu THE CAST (in the order of appearance) Adapted from Washington Irving’s story under the same name.
Postscript • Rip now resumed his old walks and habits; he soon found many of his former cronies and preferred making friends among the rising generation, with whom he soon grew into great favor. • He had got his neck out of the yoke of matrimony, and could go in and out whenever he pleased, without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle. Whenever her name was mentioned, however, he shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and cast up his eyes; which might pass either for an expression of resignation to his fate, or joy at his deliverance. • He used to tell his story to every stranger. Some always pretended to doubt the reality of it, and insisted that Rip had been out of his head, and that this was one point on which he always remained flighty. But it is a common wish of all hen-pecked husbands in the neighborhood, when life hangs heavy on their hands, that they might have a quieting draught out of Rip Van Winkle’s flagon.
领衔主演：苗雨、徐田滢 参加演出：闵祥静、季向平、 王以泉、白军伟 旁白解说：刘金 灯光：季向平 化妆：季向平 特别鸣谢：王以泉、白军伟
