Don Quixote Don Quixote is a fool in many respects. His speech is ridiculous, his ideas are hopelessly out of date, and he has lost touch with reality. Yet readers admire him and know immediately he is the hero of the story. All the things which make him a fool, however unbelievable as it may be, add to his heroic appearance and lets the reader know where Quixote is coming from. Along with this, his foolish nature adds a sense of artlessness and purity, very heroic aspects. Don Quixote’s speech is ridiculous.
In the play, Man of La Mancha, Quixote uses mindless speech. ‘It is easy to see, replied Don Quixote, that you are not used to this business of adventures. Those are giants, and if you are afraid, away with you out of here and betake yourself to prayer, while I engage them in fierce and unequal combat.’ (Page 888) He talks as if he is in the eighteenth century and says exactly what is on his mind. No matter what the idea he has is, it is always known by the people around him the moment he thinks it up.
Don Quixote’s ideas are hopelessly out of date. For instance, he thinks that he is a knight. He rides around on a horse, and he wears armor. ‘Fortune, said Don Quixote to his squire, as soon as he had seen them, is arranging matters for us better than we could have hoped. Look there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or more monstrous giants rise up…
.’ (Page 888) He thinks windmills are giants; as a result, he tries, and foolishly does so, to engage them in combat. Don Quixote has obviously lost touch with reality. ‘What giants?’ said Sancho Panza. Those you see there,’ answered his master, with the long arms, and some have them nearly two leagues long.’ Look, your worship,’ said Sancho. What we see there are not giants but windmills… .’ (Page 888) Not only does he think that windmills are giants, he refuses to believe the windmills to be anything but giants.
The Essay on Quixote’s Counsel To Sancho Is A Parody To Machiavelli’s Advice To The Prince
Quixote’s counseling of Sancho over the governing of his island is a parody to Machiavelli’s advice to the prince. In the book “The Prince” Machiavelli gives leaders key tactics on how to retain power. He points out key things that a prince should adhere to in order to be successful. He states that a prince must be cruel occasionally in order to keep the subjects obedient and faithful (Davis, Paul ...
Once his mind is set, no one can change it. When he goes to fight the giants and gets ‘hit’ by one, even though it probably feels like a hard piece of wood, he still believes that it is a giant. Cervantes does an excellent job of making Don Quixote look like a hero, even if his main character has ridiculous speech, hopelessly out-of-date ideas, and has lost touch with reality. These qualities help the reader understand where Don Quixote is coming from and it adds a sense of innocence that the reader can relate with.
It is these qualities which make Quixote the easily recognized and admired hero the Man of La Mancha.
