Don Quixote Sanity of Insanity
Don Quixote was written by Miguel De Cervantes to mock the popular novels of chivalry which glorified the ideals of courtesy, bravery, and loyalty. ... Don Quixote is also a picturesque novel, a biography of a wandering, idealistic, partly insane rogue who undertakes a series of adventures accompanied by his realistic companion Sancho Panza. Cervantes’s Humorous tone, excessive contrasts, and his ambiguous hints at Don Quixote’s possible sanity all convey his message of the troubles with outdated morals. Don Quixote is probably the most ambiguous character in literature. Among the many confusing aspects of Don Quixote’s character the most puzzling is his state of mind. Don Quixote draws a large amount of pathos as he bungles through adventures with his altered perception. This would quickly cause the reader to believe Don Quixote is insane, However, Don Quixote manages to impress a number of characters along with the reader through good speeches, intelligent outlooks and surprising logic. The existence of such confusion involving Don Quixote’s state of mind is probably why the most notorious knight in literature is referred to as a “Sane Madman”. Don Quixote’s partially sane grip on his outdated ideals take away from the pain of his many mishaps and add to the fluent humorous tone that dominates Cervantes’s comedy. Despite his intelligence Don Quixote refuses to acknowledge anything that proves his insanity wrong by swiftly blaming his blunders on an evil magicians enchantments. Throughout the novel , it appears that Don Quixote experiences different perceptions of the world that surrounds him, and the interaction of realist and imagination affect his mind. The contrast between reality and what Don Quixote sees creates two dimensions, one inside his head, and one that directly affects Don Quixote due to its contrasts. When the two world are too different for Don Quixote to logically explain he blames enchantments put forth by the evil wizard Freston. For instance, after Don Quixote’s disastrous episode with the windmills he explains that the giants now appear to be windmills because the evil magician Freston was playing a trick on him. Other characters contribute to Don Quixote’s madness also, in fact every character in the novel uses his madness to either help him recover from his insanity such as the barber and the priest, or they do so to relish in the humor he presents such as the innkeeper and Duke do.