Washington Irving’s short story, “Rip Van Winkle,” is about two changes in regime: 1) from the “petticoat government” (40) of the household controlled by Rip’s wife to the more peaceful precincts of his daughter’s household, where he goes to live after his long sleep; and 2) from colonial rule, under which he is a subject of King George III of England, to national independence, making Rip “a free citizen of the United States” (40).

In the story, Rip sleeps through the events that enable these transitions (e.g. the death of his wife, the Revolutionary War, etc.).  When he returns to his village, the life he remembers no longer grounds his relation to the world, or to the future.  Returning to his village after his long sleep, he experiences mounting “bewilderment” (38), which reaches its crisis-point in a moment of profound self-alienation.  He asks the unfamiliar crowd: “Does nobody here know Rip Van Winkle?”:

    “Oh.  Rip Van Winkle?” exclaimed two or three—“oh to be sure!—that’s Rip Van Winkle—yonder—leaning against the tree.”
    Rip looked and beheld a precise counterpart of himself, as he went up the mountain: apparently as lazy and certainly as ragged!  The poor fellow was now completely confounded.  He doubted his own identity, and whether he was himself or another man.  In the midst of his bewilderment the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was,—what was his name?
    “God knows,” exclaimed he, at his wit’s end, “I’m not myself.—I’m somebody else—that’s me yonder—no—that’s somebody else got into my shoes—I was myself last night; but I fell asleep on the mountain—and they’ve changed my gun—and every thing’s changed—and I’m changed—and I can’t tell what’s my name, or who I am!” (38-39)

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