SOURCE: “Washington Irving, the Nineteenth-Century American Bachelor” in Critical Essays on Washington Irving, edited by Ralph M. Aderman, G. K. Hall & Co., 1990, pp. 253-65.

In the following essay, Banks analyzes Irving's conflict between individual freedom and social responsibility as evidenced in his writings about women and his life.

The theme of growing up and accepting adult responsibility is central to a study of American literature; and relationships between men and women are a central element in this maturing, as such different critics as Leslie Fiedler and Judith Fetterley have shown. Washington Irving's “Rip Van Winkle” is often cited as a peculiarly American example of flight from this responsibility. Fetterley has noted that in fact Irving borrowed this story from German folklore and set it in an American scene; but among his most significant additions is the character of Dame Van Winkle, whom he presents as the cause of...