Rip Van Winkle is a short story by the American author, Washington Irving. The story is published in 1819 and it's set in Catskill Mountains of New York.
Story opens with a describe about the "magical" beauty of the Catskill Mountains. On a small village at the foot of these mountains, there lived a good-nature man named Rip Van Winkle. Rip's greatest trouble is his wife, Dame Van Winkle, who is very fussy and always complaining Rip, that he has no motivation to get a profitable job. Although, he likes to help work on the other's farm, he avoids work on his own farm and his land is severely run down. Every time his wife grumbled, his response is always resigned: he shrugs his shoulders, shakes his head, and looks up to the sky. The only way to avoid his angry wife is escape from his home.
Rip used to enjoy going to the inn and participating in idle talk with his neighbors. But then, his wife found him at the inn. Dame Van Winkle's discovery of the inn encouraged Rip to look for an escape elsewhere. Then, he explores the woods with his gun and his dog, Wolf. He involuntarily walked far enough into the woods. He is tired and decided to take a rest. When he wakes, he seems to hear a voice calling his name and immediately saw stranger standing on the path, carrying a keg on his back. Rip helps the stranger carry the keg up to the top of the peak, where a group of men is playing a ghostly game of ninepins (a game similar to bowling). Rip notices their clothes is antiquated, traditional Dutch clothes. When they see Rip, they stop playing, and silently direct Rip to pour the drink from the keg into flagons to serve them. Rip was scared at first, but eventually calms down and even goes so far as to sneak a sip of the drink. He found it so unbearable that he consumed a lot and fell asleep.
When Rip wakes up, it is bright and sunny outside. The strangers are gone, and there is no sign that they had ever been there. When he looks for his gun, all he can find is a rusty old one, and he believed someone swiped his gun and replaced it. Wolf is nowhere to be found. The strangest of all is Rip's beard now one foot long. Rip spends some time searching for his lost dog, but the area is strange to him, and hunger eventually drives him back to the village. When Rip reaches his village, he notices that it seems more populous and the buildings more numerous. His wife is gone, his dog is old and does not recognize him, and his house and property look as though they've been abandoned. Rip cries in confusion but then comforted when a woman carrying a baby comes forward to get a look at him, she is his daughter, Judith Gardenier. She is grown and has a son. Rip accepts that he has been asleep for 20 years, and tells his incredible story to his remaining family and the villagers. Rip moves in with his daughter and lives out his days in leisure.
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Name : Nadya Octaviana Pramana Putri
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