Rip Van Winkle is a child at heart. He would rather play and help others than do his own work. As a consequence, his wife is always nagging him to get his own work done. His wife is so domineering that he does whatever he can to escape from her. His farm is a shambles because he neglects it. One can sympathize with his wife because Rip is so irresponsible in this way. But she is exceedingly condescending.
However, Rip is happy, sans the times he is being scolded by his wife. He is happy spending time hunting, fishing, and sitting with the so called "sages" of the village. But even at this philosopher's club, Rip was not safe from his wife. She would find him there, scold him, and Rip would be driven off. As a result, he would retreat into the woods:
Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and clamor of his wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods.
When Rip falls asleep for twenty years, he discovers that his wife has died. Rip has finally escaped from his wife: for good. The suggestion is that Rip had fallen asleep as a result of the drink from the flagon he'd had with the strange mountain men. So, this final phrase simply means that other henpecked husbands might prefer to sleep twenty hears until their unruly wives have passed on. This type of sleep is an ultimate escape from one's problems.
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