Washington Irving-Rip Van Winkle

I really enjoyed reading Rip Van Winkle. I have heard of it many times in my life but never seen the movie or read the story, so it was nice to finally be able to see what it's about. I thought t was a very well written short story, and it kept me turning pages. It was definitely interesting to see what he thought about his wife in the story. She was a big nagger, and I understand the feeling of being oppressed by such a person, as Rip was. But later in the story when he came back after 20 years, he was very happy to hear that his wife was dead. As annoying as she may have been, was there not even a bit of remorse that his companion in marriage for so long was dead? He didn't seem to think at all of the effects that may have had on his children too, for they believed he had shot himself in the woods and was dead. And then their mom died too. That would be a very hard thing to deal with, and yet there was no mention of any possible remorse for that from Rip. He was just happy that he had gotten out of his "petticoat government" and had "got his neck out of the yoke of matrimony". I was fairly amazed that someone wasn't saddened in the least by the death of a family member, no matter how obnoxious she had been.