Personae in Irving and Franklin

The personas of the narrators in Franklin and Irving’s writings greatly differ. In Franklin’s Autobiography he is vain and self-indulgent while at the same time being self-deprecating, this is entertaining to the audience but it also causes the audience to lose trust in the authenticity of the story. Irving, on the other hand, narrates his stories with illustrative descriptions and poetic language to entertain his audience. Even though the events of Irving’s stories are fantastic and otherworldly the narrator gives the impression to the audience that the events happened exactly as told. Irving’s narrator never gives the audience the impression that he is embellishing the story in any way. Franklin cannot maintain this trust with the audience, he often refers to his own vanity and this gives the impression that he has changed some of the stories to make them more interesting. Another interesting comparison is between Franklin and Crane and how they contrast with Rip Van Winkle. Although Irving depicts Crane as an unlikeable character he and Franklin are still very similar. Both are well-educated, professional, metropolitan men, who represent the new modern American. Rip Van Winkle, on the other hand, represents the free, wild, untamed America that was already disappearing when these stories were published. Irving uses Rip Van Winkle to mourn the death of the wild and truly free America.