Irving

Irving was a Romantic, yet he was also a satirist. One element in his story that he is satrical is women. He is very satirical and against women. In both The Devil and TOm Walker and in Rip Van Winkle, Irving shows that he is against women. In The Devil and TOm Walker, Irving describes Tom's wife as termagant. SHe is constatntly nagging at Tom. Tom want's to get away from her; and he doesn't even care about her death. Instead, he cares more about the silverware and the money he can get. In Rip Van Winkle, Rip's wife is also termagant. Rip doesn't like being near her. Instead, he is seen more with other children and helping other people. In both the tales, there is a wish fulfillment. Both Tom and Rip are able to have theire wives go away and they are free from them. Tom and Rip are similar in both stories, as they both have termagant wives. And in the end, both their wives end up dying. Irving probably had something against women during his life. That's probably why he made both women in his stories termagant.