Cervantes’ Don Quixote is a classic that’s still loved 400 years later. Let’s take a look at why his adventures and philosophy are timeless.
The plot of Don Quixote
Alonso Quijano, a 50-year-old man living in the Spanish town of La Mancha, is obsessed with medieval knightly novels and sets out to become a real knight by donning an old horse, rusty armor, and helmet. He calls his horse Rocinante and names himself Don Quixote.
Along the way, Don Quixote comes across a magnificent castle, but it’s a dilapidated inn. Don Quixote calls the innkeeper the lord of the castle and asks him to make him a knight. Don Quixote wants to be a knight because only then can he go to battle. Don Quixote says that in exchange for the knighthood, he will guard the chapel. When the innkeeper sees Don Quixote calling him lord of the castle, he thinks he has lost his mind and plays a prank on him. He orders Don Quixote to stand on fire in the front yard of the castle. Don Quixote does as the innkeeper orders and stands in front of the inn. At this point, Don Quixote considers the people who came to fetch water as enemies and attacks them.
When the innkeeper sees that Don Quixote has attacked the villagers, she fears that things will escalate, so she sends him away. The innkeeper announces that he will make Don Quixote a knight, and orders him to leave at daybreak for a distant place to seek justice. Don Quixote swears to the innkeeper that he will always fight for justice.
When Don Quixote finally receives his knighthood, he returns to his hometown to gather the things he needs to be a knight. The first person he needs is his beloved princess. When Don Quixote wonders who he should name his princess, he names her Dulcinea after his former crush, Lawrenc, and calls her Princess. Don Quixote also seduces Sancho, a naive neighboring peasant, by offering him an island if he will be his servant. Sancho drops everything to travel with Don Quixote on the offer of an island.
While traveling with Sancho, Don Quixote sees a windmill on a hill and decides that a giant with long arms is blocking their path. Don Quixote rides Rocitante to the windmill, only to be knocked backwards by the blades. Sancho tells Don Quixote that the giant with the long arms is the windmill. But Don Quixote doesn’t believe Sancho, and vows that one day he will get his revenge. Once again traveling with Sancho, Don Quixote meets monks from a Catholic monastery traveling in a carriage in the middle of the road. Don Quixote brandishes his sword at them, demanding that they release the princess in the carriage. One of the monks, startled, runs away. The other monks tell Don Quixote to get out of the way, but when he refuses to back down, they confront him. Don Quixote knocks the friar down on the spot and raises his sword in the air to demand surrender, but the friar is spared when a woman steps out of the carriage and begs Don Quixote to have mercy on her. After sending the monks away, Don Quixote sits under a tree on a hill to rest. After a while, Don Quixote sees sheep herding in the distance and tells Sancho that an army is coming. Sancho reassures him that it is only a flock of sheep, but Don Quixote does not heed Sancho’s words and rushes toward them, swinging his sword among the sheep and attacking them. The shepherds are dumbfounded and attack Don Quixote with slingshots. Sancho saves Don Quixote from being thrown from his horse by the slingshot. They set out once again, but continue to hear unrecognizable sounds in the distance. Don Quixote leaves his last words to Sancho and rides his horse to the source of the sound. But it turns out to be the sound of a waterwheel. On a rainy day, Don Quixote meets a barber riding a donkey with a brass basin over his head. Don Quixote mistakes the barber for a knight with a golden helmet and attacks him. The barber is frightened and jumps off his donkey and runs away. Don Quixote recognizes the brass basin on the ground as the golden helmet, picks it up, and puts it on. Sancho asks Don Quixote if he can take the donkey that the barber left behind, but Don Quixote says that knights should not steal, and orders Sancho to leave the donkey alone. The rain stops and the sky clears. On the road, Don Quixote encounters prisoners being led by a convoy of soldiers. Don Quixote asks each of them the names of their crimes and attacks the convoy to free them. At this point, Sancho steals a key from the convoy and frees the prisoners. The prisoners attack the convoy, throwing stones at them, and when Don Quixote asks them to take responsibility for their crimes, they call him “graceless.” Don Quixote is angry, but the prisoners say that Don Quixote has made them commit more crimes, and they beat him and Sancho. They take away the donkey Sancho was riding and the money they were carrying. Don Quixote comforts Sancho, who is distressed by the loss of his donkey, and promises to give him three donkeys when he returns home. Sancho is relieved. When they come to the village of Tobos, Don Quixote tells Sancho to go to the village and tell them that Don Quixote has come. Sancho finds a donkey in the woods that has lost its owner, and he rides it into the village. Realizing that this is no place for a princess, let alone a palace, Sancho meets three country maidens along the way. Sancho thinks of tricking Don Quixote into thinking they are Princess Dulcinea. When Don Quixote hears that he has found the princess, he quickly rushes to her. When Don Quixote sees the country maiden that Sancho claims to be a princess, he is disappointed because she is so different from his image of a princess. However, when Sancho gets down on his knees and pretends to be a princess to the maidens, Don Quixote thinks that a sorcerer has cast a spell and made the princess appear to be an ordinary maiden. When the maidens see Don Quixote and Sancho, they realize that he is trying to pull a trick on them and go on their way. Don Quixote laments that the enchantment prevented him from seeing Princess Dulcinea’s beautiful appearance.While traveling, Don Quixote and Sancho rest in the woods and meet the Knight-Errant. The Knight-Errant has a princess named Casildea. He tells Don Quixote that he has fought many knights in Spain, but that his toughest opponent was Don Quixote. Don Quixote is surprised, because he has never dueled this knight before. Don Quixote challenges the Knight-Errant to a duel, and the Knight-Errant agrees to duel Don Quixote after promising that the loser will grant the winner’s demands unconditionally.
Don Quixote wins the duel and vows to give the honor of victory to Princess Dulcinea. The Knight-Errant, on the other hand, thinks about sending Don Quixote back to his homeland. In fact, this Knight-Errant is performing the play for a priest from Don Quixote’s hometown of La Mancha. However, the Knight-Errant loses the duel with Don Quixote. The Knight-Errant is forced to return home empty-handed, and Don Quixote is encouraged and sets out on his way again.
Along the way, Don Quixote and Sancho come across a carriage. Don Quixote asks the watchmen what is in the carriage, and they tell him that it contains a hungry and ferocious lion. Don Quixote orders the door of the carriage to be opened, saying that he must defeat the lion, which the sorcerer has sent to endanger him. Sancho is frightened and hides in the woods. The guards are forced to open the cage in the carriage, and inside is a huge lion. However, the lion doesn’t seem to care about Don Quixote and continues to sleep. Don Quixote orders the guards to enter the cage and beat the lion with a club to bring it out, but the guards say that Don Quixote’s bravery has been proven and that they should leave the lion alone. Don Quixote agrees, asking to go to España and spread the word of his bravery. Sancho, who knows nothing, thinks that Don Quixote has defeated the lion and admires him even more. One day, while passing by the river, Don Quixote sees a ferry tied up in the river without its owner. Don Quixote sees the ferry and believes that God has given it to him for those who need it, so he takes it and goes out into the middle of the river. Sancho follows Don Quixote, telling Rocinante and the donkey to wait for us. Don Quixote sees a ramshackle farmhouse with a waterwheel and thinks it is an impregnable castle. Don Quixote believes that inside the castle, a noblewoman is suffering all kinds of hardships, waiting for Don Quixote to save her. Sancho says it’s just a spinning wheel, but Don Quixote says it’s enchanted and that he must go and rescue her. However, the ferry Don Quixote and Sancho are traveling in is swept away by a torrent of water from the mill and capsizes. Sancho, who can swim, manages to get out of the river, but Don Quixote, who is wearing heavy armor, barely escapes with the help of the mill workers. After reimbursing the ferryman for the fare, Don Quixote and Sancho barely make it back to Rocinante and the donkey.
Meanwhile, the priest of Ramachan sends Samson to bring Don Quixote back home. Samson tells Don Quixote that he is the Knight of the White Moon and orders Don Quixote to confess that the Princess of the White Moon is more beautiful. Don Quixote challenges him to a duel, claiming that he has never seen a more beautiful princess than Dulcinea, but unlike their last encounter, Samson defeats him this time. Samson tells Don Quixote that he will spare his life and that he should return to his homeland. Don Quixote thanks Samson for sparing his life and promises to honor his promise as a knight and return home with Sancho.
When Sancho and Don Quixote return to their hometown, they are welcomed by their people. Don Quixote lies in bed for six days and doesn’t get up. Sancho sees him and cries for him to get up and go on an adventure. After a long sleep, Don Quixote awakens and regrets his behavior. With the help of a priest, Don Quixote makes his last will and testament, falls into a coma, and dies a few days later.
Don Quixote reflection
Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, was a Spanish novelist. He suffered many injustices during his lifetime and was imprisoned twice, the second time at the age of over 50 for taxes, which is said to be the inspiration for Don Quixote. Don Quixote was published in 1604 and was so well received that he wrote a sequel, Don Quixote, in 1615. Cervantes, who lived in the same era as Shakespeare, may have found solace in the character of Don Quixote. The story can be divided into four parts. The first part is where Guido, who is obsessed with medieval knightly novels, becomes a knight and begins his journey. The second part is about Don Quixote’s travels, and the third part is about a knight who tries to bring Don Quixote back home, but fails, so Don Quixote continues to travel and bad things happen to him. In the fourth part, a knight named Samson, once again from his hometown, challenges Don Quixote to a duel to bring him back to his hometown, which he loses, and Don Quixote eventually returns home, where he dies reflecting on the time that has passed.
The first part of the story focuses on character introduction and the goals of the main characters, which are Don Quixote, Princess Dolcinea, and Sancho. Don Quixote’s goal is to be knighted and set off on a journey, which is played out in a very comical way by the innkeeper, which is a good indication of how the novel will unfold. The second part describes Don Quixote’s journey, which includes a confrontation with a windmill on a hill, a duel with monks, a confrontation with a flock of sheep, a duel with a barber, a confrontation with a convoy of soldiers, and an encounter with the enchanted Princess Dolcinea in the town of Tobos. Each episode focuses on Don Quixote’s exploits to a ridiculous degree. In the third part, Don Quixote is met by an eccentric knight at the behest of a priest in the town of La Mazza. The eccentric knight is ordered to bring Don Quixote back to his hometown, but he fails to do so because he loses the battle with Don Quixote. This is followed by the Watermill episode, in which Don Quixote finds a ferry and boards it to reach the watermill, only to be swept away by the rapids and nearly lose his life. At this point, Don Quixote loses everything and his journey comes to an end. In the fourth part, Don Quixote fights a duel with Samson, sent back to him by the priest in the town of La Mazza, and loses, so he returns home. Upon returning home, Don Quixote reflects on his life, makes his last words, and closes his eyes.
What makes Don Quixote so beloved by readers 400 years later is his ideals. Don Quixote’s beliefs create ideals, and he strives to realize them. We all have our own ideals, but they can’t even make a sound in the face of the waves of reality, but Don Quixote fulfills the needs of modern people by boldly pursuing his ideals.
