The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha is often referred to only as Don Quixote. This is a classic piece of literature. In the past, I have made two attempts to read it, but due to its length and other factors, I never got around to finishing it. I started reading it again from the beginning and this time have completed it. There are numerous free sources online, I'm sure. My copy comes courtesy of Gutenberg.org.The novel is widely regarded as the first modern novel. Where there are famous novels, great popular works of literature, whose titles most people know of even if they have never read them, and even if those works are better known, Don Quixote is legendary. It is a ground breaking exploration into a new art form which remains one of the most popular and integral to basic education.
I have a set of mixed feelings about the central character, Don Quixote. There are certain parallels between his character and mine which are similar. Don Quixote has decided to become a knight errant, believing in the fictional universe which the books of knight errantry, a popular form of fantastic literature of the time, including the fantastical elements.
The scene between Don Quixote and the windmills wherein he mistakes them for giants, is comical, to be certain. In the literal sense, I laugh because of the physical comedy. But looking at it allegorically, Wikipedia has an article about the idiom, 'tilting at windmills', which means to attack an imaginary foe. Although I am wondering about the implacability of the windmills. Quixote cannot even begin to dismantle or really damage his foe, imaginary or not. The windmill does not react to his attack, but rather a quirk of the wind turns the wheel and the blade of the windmill defeats him. How often, I wonder, does one come against a foe such as this in another form? Imagine for instance a government who goes on undamaged, but the mere whimsy of the wind suffices to destroy the attacker.
The writer writes, and the characters submit, and even Quixote decides, that it was the books of chivalry which caused him his madness. However, today we might call it dementia. In those days they called it humoral theory: "not sleeping adequately — because he was reading — has caused his brain to dry." (wikipedia) But in some ways his particular dementia is a kind of gift. This creates the contrast of the beauty which he sees and the common ugliness that most of us exist and live within. The description of the Asturian lass goes as follows:
... a broad face, flat poll, and snub nose, blind of one eye and not very sound in the other... (later described as a dwarf of short stature and broad shoulders).Later she goes to his bed thinking that it is her lovers, and the contrasts between his vision and the so called reality becomes clear. I say so called reality, because reality itself is common perception. It's a kind of loose agreement between perceivers what the definition of a certain thing is based on its looks and or attributes.
He (Don Quixote) then felt her smock, and although it was of sackcloth it appeared to him to be of the finest and softest silk: on her wrists she wore some glass beads, but to him they had the sheen of precious Orient perals: her hair, which in some measure resembled a horse's mane, he rated as the threads of the brightest gold of Araby, whose refulgence dimmed the sun himself...
The beauty he sees, and the fineness of the textures, are what most of us have and see except in the twinkle of youth. He is blind, but his blindness is sweet.
There is a grudging kind of respect for the Moors whom the Spanish had recently (before the time wherein is the setting). And, though it is a single line throughout the book, the anti-semitism is quite remarkable as Sancho declares "... I am a mortal enemy of the Jews..." It is a kind of anger against the Jews for killing Jesus that has fuelled this long lived hatred. What irony it is, since Jesus, his apostles and mother, are all Jews. How fortunate for me, the reader, that this hatred resides in just this one line.
But as I go through the many trials of Don Quixote, many of which were unnecessary, I found myself coming to admire him. Though he sees common inns as castles, common beauties as profound, and his own abilities with arms the equal of any in the popular fictions of his day, he is experiencing a grand life of adventure and displaying a level of courage that he probably never felt or gave in his lifetime.
The second book of this two part story brings home an empathy for the central character. I hope for him victory, love, and success. But he is made into a famous clown by those around him. A duke and duchess discover him, bring them into their castle, to make plays and mockery for their entertainment. They turn Sancho into a pretend governor, who governs so well that they say of him that he was their best governor and made changes that at least until decades later in Saavedra's day, are still in place. Nonetheless, the people must keep playing their tricks on him: forcing him to starve, pretending an invasion in which he gets beaten badly. But, the treatment makes him realize that it is better to be a free man than a governor. He shows his true intellect here: uneducated, but of a stout wisdom. My favorite display of his wit is when he resolves disputes, and one in particular involving one man who loans to another some money but does not want to return it but says that he has. Sancho has him swear that he has given the other his money back, which he does. The trick is that before swearing he gives the other his staff before swearing that he has given it to him. Having done that, he asks for it back. Sancho then takes the staff, breaks it open, and there is the money which was owed. There are many other little trials, but this was the best and made those who watched him marvel and perhaps regret having to deceive and treat him so poorly.
The end comes from a friend. His neighbor defeats him in combat, and demands that he return home to give up knight errantry for one year. The way back home, they are subjected to further trials. But Quixote is done with fighting as he has sworn not to any more. He is slowly coming to realize how people really perceive him. When he gets home, his melancholy quickly kills him. When he approaches death, even those who had contrived to bring him home back to his senses would rather him go back to his madness. But by then, the blinders that had been on his senses have been removed. He makes out his will, commends himself to his religion, and perishes. But truly, he was the most heroic, most chivalrous knight errant ever to grace the literary kingdom.
Reading this book was at times a trifle difficult for all the side stories. But I did enjoy it, and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a monumental work of literature.
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