DON QUIXOTE AND THE WINDMILLS

(EXCERPT)

Miguel De Cervantes
WHAT SOCIAL ILLS DO YOU KNOW?
WHAT IS A WINDMILL?WHAT POWERS IT?
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA
 Spain's greatest literary figure
 His magnum opus, Don
Quixote, considered to be the
first modern European novel, is
a classic of Western literature,
and is regarded amongst the
best works of fiction ever
written. was published in two
parts in Madrid. Part I
appeared in 1605; the second
part in 1615. The novel was an
immediate success. The first
part went through six editions
the year of its publication, and
was soon translated into
English and French.
 The fame of Don Quixote brought Cervantes to
the attention of a wide audience. In 1613 his
completed collection of short stories appeared
in Madrid. His influence on the Spanish
language has been so great that the language
is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the
language of Cervantes"). He was dubbed El
Príncipe de los Ingenios ("The Prince of Wits").
VOCABULARY
 two maravedis
 a former gold coin
issued by the Moors in
Spain
 turned to his squire
 A shield/armor bearer
of the knight
 succor him in his peril
 Aid/assist him in
danger
 so great the enmity he
bears me
 mutual hatred/animosity
 shall not fall into
desuetude
 disuse
 pusillanimous
 coward ; fainthearted
ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION

 Characters
 Comprehension questions

 Theme
ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTERS
 Don Quixote de la Mancha
 The title character of the novel, Don Quixote is a gaunt,
middle-aged gentleman who, having gone mad from
reading too many books about chivalrous knights,
determines to set off on a great adventure to win honor
and glory in the name of his invented ladylove, Dulcinea.
He longs for a sense of purpose and beauty—two things
he believes the world lacks—and hopes to bring order to
a tumultuous world by reinstating the chivalric code of
the knights-errant. Initially, Don Qui-xote’s good
intentions do only harm to those he meets, since he is
largely unable to see the world as it really is.
SANCHO PANZA
 The simple peasant who follows Don Quixote out of greed,
curiosity, and loyalty, Sancho is the novel’s only character to
exist both inside and outside of Don Quixote’s mad world.
Other characters play along with and exploit Don Quixote’s
madness, but Sancho often lives in and adores it,
sometimes getting caught up in the madness entirely. On the
other hand, he often berates Don Quixote for his reliance on
fantasy; in this sense, he is Don Quixote’s foil. While Don
Quixote is too serious for his own good, Sancho has a quick
sense of humor. Whereas Don Quixote pays lip service to a
woman he has never even seen, Sancho truly loves his wife,
Teresa. While Don Quixote deceives himself and others,
Sancho lies only when it suits him.
DULCINEA DEL TABOSO
 The unseen, unknown inspiration for all of Don Quixote’s
exploits, Dulcinea is a simple peasant woman who has no
knowledge of the valorous deeds that Don Quixote commits
in her name.
 Despite her absence from the novel, Dulcinea is an
important force because she epitomizes Don Quixote’s
chivalric conception of the perfect woman. In his mind, she
is beautiful and virtuous, and she makes up for her lack of
background and lineage with her good deeds. Don Quixote
describes her chiefly in poetic terms that do little to specify
her qualities. She is, therefore, important not for who she is
but for what her character represents and for what she
indicates about Don Quixote’s character.
ANALYSIS
 The scene when Quixote perceives the windmills
as giants, is perhaps the most famous scene of
the novel. Don Quixote's imagination turns the dull
Spanish countryside into a magical place. Jostling
between Sancho and Quixote's point-of-view, the
reader sees the juxtaposition of an ordinary
landscape and an absurd daydream. Because
Cervantes shows us what Quixote sees, it is easier
for us to empathize with the knight. At the same
time, we can also understand why Sancho feels so
confused by his irrational master.
 The two major themes in this section are delusion and
deception. Quixote's experience with the windmills is
definitive of delusion and the motif of "mills" will recur
several times in the novel. The theme of deception is
initiated once Don Quixote is deceived by his friends and
family. This will continue throughout Books I and II.
Indeed, it will become important to separate the
"delusion" of Quixote from the "deception" of others, if
only because both run rampant. Quixote's friends and
loved ones ultimately spend considerable time and
energy deceiving Quixote as a means of protecting our
hero from himself.
THEMES
 Incompatible Systems of Morality
 Don Quixote tries to be a flesh-and-blood example of a
knight-errant in an attempt to force his contemporaries
to face their own failure to maintain the old system of
morality, the chivalric code. This conflict between the old
and the new reaches an absolute impasse: no one
understands Don Quixote, and he understands no one.
Only the simple-minded Sancho, with both self-
motivated desires and a basic understanding of
morality, can mediate between Don Quixote and the rest
of the world.
THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CLASS AND WORTH
 Distinguishing between a person’s class and a person’s
worth was a fairly radical idea in Cervantes’s time. In Don
Quixote, Cervantes attacks the conventional notion that
aristocrats are automatically respectable and noble. The
contrast between the Duke and Duchess’s thoughtless
malice and Sancho’s anxiety-ridden compassion highlights
this problem of class. Despite his low social status, the
peasant Sancho is wise and thoughtful. Likewise, the lowly
goatherds and shepherds often appear as philosophers. In
contrast, the cosmopolitan or aristocratic characters like the
Duke and Duchess are often frivolous and unkind.
Cervantes’s emphasis on these disparities between class
and worth is a primary reason that Don Quixote was such a
revolutionary work in its time.
THE WINDMILLS OF MY LIFE

 Make a creative concept web showcasing a

windmill at the center and the blades
representing all the wrong decisions, obstacles,
vices or downfalls you have experienced as a
person. Adjacent to each blade will be any icon
that you may think of that can represent the
results or effects of these failures into your life,
what impact these brought to your life as a
person.
SATIRE

 What is your idea of a satire?

 When does satire become effective?

 If you were to write a satire, what human follies

would you address?
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING

 People perceive life in different ways: that of

realism and idealism. While it pays to have
ideals, it is proper to remain attune to the
realities of life.