Rip Van Winkle as Cautionary Tale

We decided that it is difficult to make the case for "Rip Van Winkle" functioning as a "morality tale," but it can be viewed as a cautionary tale. We had a few examples of those when we read The Canterbury Tales last year.

In simple terms, a cautionary tale is a traditional story told in folklore with the purpose of warning its hearer of a particular danger (e.g., playing with matches). The cautionary tale consists of three essential parts.

1. A taboo or prohibition is stated: some act, location, or thing is said to be dangerous.

2. The narrative itself is told: someone disregarded the warning and performed the forbidden act or acted in a prohibitive way.

3. Finally, the violator comes to an unpleasant fate, which is frequently related in large and grisly detail.

So, what is the taboo or danger that Irving warns his readers about in "Rip Van Winkle"? No, he doesn't warn against a life of idleness. He doesn't counsel us not to drink liquor with little people who have large beards and small piggish eyes. His warning is directed to wives: Wives, do not henpeck your husbands. Dame Van Winkle is the termagant transgressor who has henpecked her husband to a point that he wants to escape his intolerable domestic life. We might even consider that she's the cause of Rip's laziness around his house and farm, especially since the other village wives put him to work quite easily around their own homesteads, doing work they can't get their own husband's to do.

And, in the end, who comes to a "bad" end? Not Rip, but the no-name Dame Van Winkle. Her homestead goes to wrack and ruin; she loses her husband, and dies an early death.

Irving based some of his folklore stories on the German folklore tradition, which has a long lineup of short cautionary tales written in verse. You may enjoy some of these from Heinrich Hoffmann such as Cruel Frederick, The Dreadful Story of Pauline and the Matches, The Story of the Inky Boys, The Wild Huntsman, and Slovenly Peter:

See Slovenly Peter! Here he stands,
With his dirty hair and hands.
See! his nails are never cut;
They are grim'd as black as soot;
No water for many weeks,
Has been near his cheeks;
And the sloven, I declare,
Not once this year has combed his hair!
Anything to me is sweeter
Than to see shock-headed Peter.