Don Quixote by Cervantes

DON QUIXOTE BY CERVANTES

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(4, July, 2010)

Don Quixote by Cervantes

Don Quixote by Cervantes

Introduction

This is a book review of the book “The Adventures of Don Quixote” which is

authored by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and published by Penguin Classics on February 28,

1951, located in New York. This volume is 944 paged and was originally done in Spanish on a

paper back and later translated in English by J. M. Cohen. This novel the author depicts chivalric

romance theme and projects an episodic structural formation of literature pegged on the 16th

century picaresco writing style.

Review Body

The plot of the novel evolves around a character named Alonso Quixano a gentleman in

his late fifties whose retired and devotes his time in reading chivalric literature, this later turned

on to obsession with the heroic quest in the literary work. Quixano engages in redound acts of

knightly quest and renames himself as Don Quixote de la Mancha, also without the consent of

Aldonza Lorenzo a neighboring farm help as his lady love and names her Dulcinea del Toboso.

His imaginary quest would later makes him a mockery of the town fighting imaginary villains,

this would later upset the villagers and he would get a harsh welcome wherever his alleged quest

takes him getting beaten up now and then (Miguel de Cervantes, 1951). Don Quixote later

recruits Sancho Panza as his squire for a bounty of governorship in an imaginary island and

together they indulge in imaginary heroic quest that makes them absurdly popular to many and

mockery to others, Sancho Panza dies a broken poor man.

Don Quixote according to the doctrines of chivalric literature is a wannabe hero whose

quests are imaginary; this would deny him the title of hero. The only heroic traits and virtues that

Don Quixote posses are persistence and courage, however he lacks knowledge of differentiating

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Don Quixote by Cervantes

real from fiction, this is best observed from his heroic quest as a knight-errant whose is in quest

for adventure. Because of the imaginary nature of the adventure Don Quixote strength and

weakness are one and the same. According to Miguel de Cervantes (1951) the ideology that the

critics of the works of this literature which deems that Don Quixote represent the illusion as a

dreamer and Sancho Panza as the realist is true. The scene of the windmill truly represent the

clashing of illusion and reality sides as Sancho Panza sees the windmill as the real structures,

while Don Quixote is delusional and subjects them to being monstrous giants servants of Freston

whose is the imaginary evil magician. After the injuries sustained from his imaginary quest and

after sanity set in, Don Quixote family members are melancholy as his gentleman face in the

village is ravaged with cruel practical jokes about his knight-errant quests.

Conclusion

Cervantes uses reality and illusion to eradicate and teach the truth behind the imaginary

and the reality of life. The fundamental question here being that although the novel to some is

orthodoxy, it has teaching that explores the individualism in the character of an individual

mindset, this allows us to set reality forward before illusion so as to maintain sanity this is as

echoed by Miguel de Cervantes (1951).

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Don Quixote by Cervantes

References

Miguel de Cervantes, S. (1951). The Adventures of Don Quixote. New York: Penguin Classics.

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