Don Quixote

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1605

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Themes

Delusion and Reality

Quixote sets out on an adventure and at first everyone believes he is living out a delusion. Throughout the novel, Quixote fights in favor of his version of reality. He believes in a world in which he is a chivalrous knight on an important adventure while other characters see him as a “mad” middle-aged man in a cardboard helmet, riding a tired, worn-down horse. To this end, Quixote’s sense of reality is never quite settled. To many characters, he appears to be in a complete break from reality, while the narrator and the story eventually conclude he was sincere and validated in his beliefs. They may claim Quixote’s belief he is a knight is a delusion, though the narrative establishes that Quixote is a knight famous throughout Spain, who is known for his remarkable deeds and dedication to the code of chivalry. As such, the question of Quixote’s cognizance changes. He reshapes reality to suit his delusions; by traveling so far and speaking to so many people, he becomes the knight he always wanted to be. His reputation becomes his reality, and his legend precedes him wherever he goes. By the end of the novel, Quixote may or may not be in touch with reality, but there is no doubt he is a famous knight. As such, the fine line between delusion and reality becomes increasingly blurred.

Panza’s growth as a character illustrates the way Quixote reshapes reality to suit his delusions. At the beginning of their adventure, Panza is exasperated by his master’s insistence that distant windmills are actually giants. He laughs at Quixote’s failures and revels in the way his master’s delusions cause problems. But for all of Panza’s delight, he begins to share in his master’s delusions. He takes up the habit of blaming magicians and enchanters for every mishap, loathes the author of the counterfeit version of their stories, and even claims to have seen the world from hundreds of feet in the air while riding on a flying wooden horse. Panza’s friendship with Quixote becomes the most fundamental reality of the novel. While Quixote may have an unrealistic vision of the world and the two men may argue, they eventually realize the bond they share is more important than anything else. Panza renounces his governorship to return to Quixote because he values friendship more than wealth. The reality of life as a peasant means Panza would benefit from the money, but he happily embraces the altered reality of Quixote because it is more satisfying and rewarding than any material wealth. Panza realizes that his old, envious, penniless self was the delusion. The reality of his friendship is his most treasured possession.

Quixote’s delusion becomes reality for the other characters as well. They are so swept up in Quixote’s view of the world that it becomes reality for them. Carrasco is a wise young scholar, but he cannot help but become obsessed with fighting Quixote in a duel. Likewise, the characters at the inn vote a basin is actually a helmet because they find Quixote’s imagined version of reality more appealing than the dull lives they have experienced to this point. The irony of Quixote blaming his misfortunes on magicians is that he weaves a magic all of his own. Through his charm, his personality, and his sincerity, he convinces the society to accept his delusions as reality, making the questions of his “sanity” ultimately irrelevant.

Moral Codes and Virtue

When Quixote decides to become a knight, he wants to share a moral code with the world. He has spent his life reading about brave knights and their wonderful deeds. When he looks at the world around him, he finds it to be boring and empty. As such, he wants to reintroduce the chivalric code to modern society because he believes it will breathe new life into the world. The current social system he observes is dull, so he proposes a traditional moral code as a solution. Quixote wants to live by a code that has fallen out of fashion. Part of the reason he seems so absurd and far from reality is that the other characters do not understand the moral code by which he wants to live his life, but this relationship works both ways. Quixote does not understand his society, and the society does not understand Quixote. As a result, the competing moral codes create a narrative tension as Quixote seeks to find his place in the world.

Quixote is surrounded by alternative moral codes. His niece and housekeeper are representatives of his landowning status as a minor nobleman. They encourage him to stay at home and to rule over his small patch of land, continuing the social order they know and understand. This status quo does not appeal to Quixote. Likewise, Pero Perez represents religion. The priest abhors Quixote’s literature because he believes it has the power to corrupt individuals and endanger society. He begs Quixote to live his life as a good Christian. Again, Quixote sees no appeal in this moral code. Even Sanson Carrasco tries to tempt Quixote with the possibilities offered by scholarship and academia. He preaches rationality and wisdom above all else. Not only does Quixote reject Carrasco’s academia in favor of romantic chivalry, but he also forces Carrasco to become a knight and live by the chivalric code. Even the duke and duchess represent an alternative moral code. They claim to adhere to Quixote’s ideas of chivalry, but they are secretly mocking him. They are not sincere in their beliefs, and they lack virtue. As such, their insincere chivalry clashes with Quixote’s sincere morality. They lack his honor and his worthiness, thereby revealing their lack of morality.

One of the key issues in competing moral codes is virtues. Many of the characters Quixote meets are men who strive to be honorable and women who strive to maintain their virtue, often as the result of violent or dishonorable men. In Quixote’s moral code, women are to be protected and esteemed. Even half-imagined women like Dulcinea must have their virtue protected at all costs. Most of the women he meets are adherents to the status quo. In a society without knights, they are tricked and harmed by immoral men. The contemporary moral code of Spanish society shows the tension between Quixote and the other characters. While they claim to value women’s virtue, he is the only one who refuses all female attention. This refusal is somewhat absurd, as he insists he is dutybound to a woman who does not really exist, but his mistaken insistence harms no one while the actions of men like Fernando are harmful to the women these men claim to love. The contemporary moral code of the status quo as depicted in Don Quixote claims to value virtue in women, but only the moral code of men like Quixote shows a sincere belief in the protection of this virtue. Most characters claim to be moral but act in immoral ways regarding questions of virtue. Quixote’s reverence for virtue validates his moral code in an age when he is considered an outsider.

The Seductive Power of Nostalgi

Quixote is bored. He occupies a privileged position in society, but he feels disconnected from those around him and unfulfilled by his lifestyle. Though he does not want money, power, or fame, he feels something is missing from his life. Until he reaches middle age, he satisfies this yearning by reading books. His favorite books are tales of a long-forgotten world. The knights errant and the chivalric code depicted in these books shows Quixote a different world. He envies the lives of these characters and by the time he nears 50 he decides he needs to become more like them. Quixote feels a burning nostalgia for the past, and his adventure is an attempt to recreate this past in his present. He is seduced by nostalgia to the extent that he dedicates his life to the pursuit of a world he knows only through books.

After being enamored with nostalgia for the age of the chivalric knights, Quixote sets out into the world on an adventure. His plan does not please everyone. His niece and housekeeper ally with his friends Pero Perez and Master Nicholas to stop him. When Perez argues with Quixote, he points out the world of knights portrayed in books is a work of fiction. This point introduces an important complication to Quixote’s nostalgia: He envies a world that may never have existed. As Perez says, the tales of the knights are fictional. These knights may have been based on historical events, but the fantastical occurrences that are portrayed in the literature should not be considered factual. Just as Quixote chased down windmills believing they were giants, Perez seems to suggest Quixote’s nostalgia is based on a delusion. Quixote envies a lifestyle that did not truly exist, so his attempts to bring it back into the present are an example of his delusion.

Quixote rejects the suggestions the events in his stories about knights did not occur. To him, the knights and their code of chivalry hint at a more fundamental truth not based on facts or reality. The nostalgia Quixote feels for this moment is more intangible. He does not necessarily want to replicate the knights’ adventure; he wants to bring back the substance of their lives. To him, the knights in the books stood for something. They were men with a purpose and men whose lives had meaning. To Quixote the middle aged and irrelevant minor nobleman, the nostalgia is not for the fame or the fortune of the knights but for their raison d’etre. He envies the purpose of their lives rather than the lives themselves.

Quixote’s pursuit of nostalgia is his greatest triumph. He begins the story as an absurd figure and the center of many jokes, as a listless and bored individual whose life lacks any direction. When he ventures out into the world, he ventures out into a world in which knights and chivalry are long forgotten. By the time he has finished his adventure, every person knows about Quixote and what he represents. While Quixote may continue to be an absurd figure, he has reintroduced chivalry to the world. Whether the knights from the books were real becomes irrelevant as Quixote makes a meaningful and a substantive change in the world. The knights of the past may be fictional, but Quixote is real, and the ideology and nostalgia he shares with the society is real as well. Even if the nostalgic past was fictional, the nostalgic present is very real. The seductive qualities of Quixote’s sincere nostalgia convince other people he is right. He may not seduce women because he is dedicated to Dulcinea, but Quixote’s nostalgia for a questionable past seduces an entire society.