Chapter 18; Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes.
May, 20th, 2015.
Summary.
The main character got introduced as Alonso Quixano, a financially independent old man who spends all his time on reading tales about medieval knights ‘s slaughtering dragons and saving princesses.
He became so obsessed with this subject that one day he puts on his bet grandfather’s harness, changes his name into Don Quixote and starts out for the countryside on the outlook for adventures. Since dragons and giants actually don’t exists, his fertile imagination turns regular day to day objects (as windmills, sheep, etc..) into giants and monsters.
Very soon he got a companion, Sancho Panza, who didn’t share the don’s delusions, but hoped to nick some of his wealth. The guy was such a maroon that after a while he started to share some of his master’s delusions, to the extent that he believed that Don Quixote would reward him with an island to govern.
They set out for a series of adventures that consist of so many plotlines that cannot be summarized briefly. Some relatives and friends tried to cure him from his delusions but underestimated the degree of his delusions. In the end, one of them, dressed up as a knight, defeated him in a duel and made him swear not be an errant knight for a whole year.
Thus deprived of living his delusions, he realized that he went completely of the record and implored everybody not to take chivalry books for true stories. The loss of his fantasy world caused him to fall physically ill and due to the severe fevers that this induced, he died.
Comments
This was a fascinating book that I kept reading and researching this for a whole month to finally come to an understanding why the Norwegian Book Club rated it as the absolute topper of the world literature, scoring with at least 50% more than whatever other book listed into their top 100.
The first part was published in 1605 and grew immediately to the first bestselling novel of all times. Because Cervantes took his time to publish the second part, a ghostwriter took it upon him to pick up the thread where Cervantes dropped his pen. This irritated Cervantes so much that finally in 1615 he published the second part and made sure that his hero died at the end to prevent further ghost sequels.
Cervantes principal reason for writing this book was his infatuation with his contemporary fellows who very often took novels and fables about chivalry for granted historical facts (to compare with people who’re thinking that The Matrix is for real), due the fact that they were written down into a book thus elevating them to historical and moral beacons.
He wanted to give an example what could happen to someone who took all these tales and fictional values as an orientation for setting their moral compass. He demonstrated that this would result in a complete delusional character.
In fact, people who into their own life have had experience with delusional people may find it difficult to read Don Quixote as a comedy. When he was not fighting windmills that he believed to be giants he was, on occasions, actually harming and robbing people.
The book demonstrated some of the old attitudes towards the mentally ill as a source for amusement and exploitation with little consideration for the close circle of friends and family who were trying to cure him from his delusions.
But the story offers more than the adventures of a madman and his moronic but loyal squire. It mirrors that particular period in Spanish history by describing to detail its morals, social problems and politics.
The Maharajagar 