An Inquiry into Mens Disposition - In Wakefield and Rip Van Winkle - Essay Example

A Man’s Place in the World: An Inquiry into Men’s Disposition in Wakefield and Rip Van Winkle One of the most explored s in literature and humanities is the male figure. A number of male characters have dominated the literary scene for their distinct human characteristics. Among them are Hamlet, Oedipus, Romeo, Achilles, and so on. These men are well-known for their strength and passion to achieve what they want. However, there are also some male characters who possess exactly the opposite characteristics. They refuse to accomplish great tasks and would prefer to sleep for as long they can. Hawthorne’s Wakefield and Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle are two examples of this type of characters. The two characters have a lot in common, thus the stories may be seen with closely similar themes (Person 49). In the short story Wakefield, we see a man who abandons his wife and idly lives near their house. In Rip Van Winkle, we see a man who chooses to mind other people’s business but rarely finds interest in his own affairs. These characters impart an angle of the male personality present in the Western society. An analysis of the themes of the stories will provide a further view of these men’s disposition in the world they live in. A number of similar themes can be noted in the two stories. The first and major theme of these stories is idleness. The second one is neglect of responsibility. The third is escape and isolation, and the fourth is indifference and alienation. These themes create a vision of the Western man apart from the machismo or the strong and powerful male stereotypes. Idleness Idleness in the stories is seen as the characters prefer to sit all day with nothing to accomplish. As the narrator recalls, “his mind occupied itself in long and lazy musings, that ended to no purpose, or had not vigor to attain it; his thoughts were seldom so energetic as to seize hold of words.” (Hawthorne 291). Wakefield is described as a petty and lazy man. Meanwhile, Rip Van Winkle chooses to engage in street gossips and storytelling with his neighbors instead of planting seeds in his farm to make a living. He would usually “sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar's lance, and fish all day without a murmur” (Irving ). However, Rip is a more interesting character than Wakefield because unlike Wakefield who does not seem to have passion in anything, Rip wins the favor of his neighbors. The narrator reveals that “He would never refuse to assist a neighbor even in the roughest toil...but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible” (Irving 12). Likewise, children are very fond of Rip for his jokes and stories. Considering these characteristics, Rip is not really in complete idleness for he partakes in the affairs of the town. However, if the standard for manliness depends on a day’s earning as the American dream connotes, Rip will never count as even half a man. The idleness of the two male characters appears to be worse as both of them are married and have children. If they are single and have no one to feed, there would have been different stories. However, the fact remains that Wakefield and Rip each has left a family that needs rearing, especially by a responsible father. This issue leads to another theme, that is, the characters’ neglect of their responsibility. Neglect of Responsibility Wakefield and Rip are both irresponsible fathers. The father is the head of the family. He is supposed to provide the material needs of his children and his wife. However, as readers may see it, Wakefield and Rip leave their responsibilities behind to attend to their own selfish motives. Notably, Wakefield is a worse father than Rip because he intentionally leaves his family and although it is not explained in the story, he lets them on their own, leaving them with nothing, even financial support. Similarly, Rip neglects his responsibility to his family by not working hard to provide their material needs, especially education. In the last part of the story, when Rip sees his exact duplicate in his son, he gets confused, saying “I'm not myself - I'm somebody else - that's me yonder - no - that's somebody else got into my shoes” (Irving 29). Unlike Wakefield who chooses to neglect his responsibility, Rip unintentionally fails to fulfill his responsibility because as the story reveals, Rip falls asleep for twenty years in the Kaatskill mountains. Although the truth of this revelation is somewhat unexplainable, it is clear that Rip does not intend to be a negligent father. Nevertheless, calling into mind his behavior in his younger years, Rip can still be considered irresponsible. His unbothered reaction to his son’s fate confirms this parental disposition. Escape and Isolation The theme of escape and isolation is evident as both Wakefield and Rip escape from the sight of their families. However, as previously mentioned, Wakefield submits to his isolation by living on his own at a small apartment near his own house, whereas Rip is trapped in the mountains. Nevertheless, Rip can be blamed for his fate because he will not get lost if he does not try to avoid his wife. The cases of isolation of the two characters are also far different from each other. Wakefield lives twenty years of his life with the thought that his family is just near him, whereas Rip is not aware that he is spending eighteen years of his life in the mountains. This view demonstrates how ill-minded Wakefield is for having isolated his family through all those years. As Colacurcio (490) claims, Wakefield has the syndrome of dissociated mentality for having behaved in this manner. The narrator asserts, “he could not be said to possess his right mind. He had contrived, or rather he had happened, to dissever himself from the world--to vanish--to give up his place and privileges with living men, without being admitted among the dead” (Hawthorne 296). The idea of observing one’s own family at a distance for twenty years is totally absurd, thus Wakefield can be considered to be out of his mind in this regard. The escape that the two characters perform is not limited to escaping their families. Rather, they attempt to escape reality and society. Both characters attempt to escape reality by neglecting their familial responsibilities. In addition, they seem to act in opposite direction to the progressive flow of their societies. Wakefield lives in the busy streets of London yet refuses to work or engage in something interesting while Rip prefers to sit idly at a hotel door and tell stories amid the political transformations of his time. Indifference and Alienation The themes of idleness, negligence, and isolation sum up to the theme of indifference. The characters exhibit obvious indifference towards their wives as they try to escape their responsibilities. Likewise, their wives may be said to share the same feelings towards them. On one hand, the narrator of “Wakefield” does not elaborate the reason for the indifference between Wakefield and his wife. On the other hand, the plot and setting of the story reveal a significant truth behind this indifference. Considering the society that Wakefield lives in, readers can probe that it is alienation that makes the couple indifferent towards each other. It is also alienation that makes Wakefield become an exceedingly irresponsible person. The society in which Wakefield belongs could provide the reason behind his irresponsible behavior. The story is set in London, and further research on the relevance of the name Wakefield would give one an idea of the setting used by Hawthorne. According to history, Wakefield is a city in England that progressed fast in the 1800s. This background may confirm the alienation that the characters feel towards each other. As the narrator puts it, the characters live in “busy and selfish London” (Hawthorne 296). The business of London is portrayed in the couple’s meeting after ten years of Wakefield’s disappearance. In this meeting, the couple was said to have a physical contact as “the pressure of the crowd forces her bosom against his shoulder” (Hawthorne 296). Wakefield will attempt to avoid his wife if he has the chance to but the thickness of the crowd does not allow him. The earlier statement that says the couple is drawn physically together, with his bosom against his shoulder, reveals another view of Wakefield and his behavior. This phrase suggests the contrast between him and his wife who is much taller than him. This revelation is quite amusing, and may be explored further to suggest that the distance between them could be due to Wakefield’s inferiority, for he is described as “lean” while his wife is “well-conditioned” (Hawthorne 296). Moreover, the carrying of the Bible by the wife may further imply contrasting religious views between Wakefield and his wife; however, this idea is not elaborated in the text. Nevertheless, some critics such as Fleming and Payne (40) affirm the indifference that Mrs. Wakefield likewise demonstrates. In Rip’s case, it is quite clear that his society serves to mold his personality. Rip lives in a Dutch settlement before the Revolutionary War breaks out in the U.S. His earlier society is characterized by old traditions and backwardness of life. This society serves as a cradle of idle men who would sit around a hotel door to joke around or tell stories, but this society does not contradict Rip’s character, thus it is not the sole reason for Rip’s indifference to his wife. Rather, it his wife that causes Rip to be indifferent. The wife is described as a “termagant wife” (Irving 11), who always nags Rip about his idle ways. Imagining Mrs. Van Winkle bombarding Rip with her sermons implies the woman’s discontent with the life she is living with Rip. As such, she represents progress and change, which is further suggested as she gets attracted to an English peddler after Rip disappears. The theme of alienation is applicable to the story of Rip Van Winkle only when Rip reappears but the idea of alienation is not strong in this story unlike in Wakefield. Wakefield and Rip Van Winkle share a number of attitudes and behaviors. Both are trivial, indolent, poor, and idle because they choose to be such. Moreover, they are indifferent to their wife, negligent of their responsibilities and alienated to their society because they refuse change and content themselves with whatever they have. These characteristics make them truly in opposition to individuals who aspire for progress and the American dream. In writing about these men, Hawthorne and Irving present an important message to their readers not to imitate these men and do every effort to avoid their fate. Works Cited Fleming, Richard, and Michael Payne. New Interpretations of American Literature. New Jersey: Buckwell University Press, 1988. Print. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Wakefield.” Tales and Sketches. NY: Literary Classics of the U.S., 1982. 290–307. Print. Irving, Washington. Rip Van Winkle: A Legend of the Kaatskill Mountains. Massachusetts: Digital Scanning, Inc., 2009. Print. Colacurcio, Michael J. The Province of Piety: Moral History in Hawthorne’s Early Tales. Cambridge: Duke University Press, 1995. Print. Person, Leland S. The Cambridge Introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print. Read More