The famous The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha has always been a timeless classic in society. The story focuses on the life of Don Quixote, or Alonso Quixana at the time. Alonso Quixana, due to reading too many books of chivalry, has gone mad, and declares himself a knight-errant, sallying forth in search of adventures. Don Quixote dubs himself Don Quixote de La Mancha, and recruits Sancho Panza, a farmer, as his squire. Don Quixote then goes on through various fantastical “adventures,” with Volume I concluding with a note that the author has discovered further documents outlining Don Quixote’s adventures. Volume two then continues onto a third sally, ending with Don Quixote achieving sanity yet passing away. The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha also plays an important role in history; despite being initially received as a comic novel, it later was interpreted as a critical analysis of Imperialistic Spain at the time. Descriptions of Don Quixote mock how little Spain has progressed from the middle ages, hiding the true purpose of the work under a false comedic pretense.
An extremely important thematic topic found within Don Quixote is idealism, where Cervantes creates a stark contrast between dreams and reality. Don Quixote is a symbol of idealism, while Sancho Panza is of realistic intentions. Don Quixote believes in doing good for the world out of honor and courage, while Sancho Panza sees the opportunity for becoming a squire as a chance of becoming rich, allowing him to eat and live comfortably. Furthermore, Sancho refuses to partake in most of Don Quixote’s adventures, writing them off as too violent to his liking, further establishing his practicality. This, however, does change later on. It is interesting to note that despite Don Quixote being idealistic and Sancho Panza being realistic at the beginning and throughout volume one, their positions switch near the end of volume two. After being defeated by the Knight of the Crescent Moon (the bachelor Samson Carrassco, previously disguised as the Knight of the Mirrors or the Knight of the Woods), Don Quixote falls ill, and seems to be restored to sanity. However, Sancho Panza urges Don Quixote to take up arms again, attempting to remind him of his old life, mentioning the disenchantment of Lady Dulcinea de Toboso, their adventures, and his government. At the end of volume two, Don Quixote, or Alonso Quixana, is the realistic one, and Sancho Panza the idealistic.
Irony seems also to be present everywhere within The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha. The author was able to include irony in various forms, the most obvious of which in the form of intention and consequence. Don Quixote’s attempt to help the shepherd boy only resulted in his being beaten even more severely after his departure, and not his intended goal of having the farm owner pay the shepherd boy his wages. Don Quixote’s freeing the galley slaves resulted in his being beaten, stolen, and being marked as a general enemy due to his releasing fugitives into the public. Irony can also be found in smaller and more subtle forms, such as the infamous scene of the book burning. The priest calls the books abominations, stating that no one should ever read books of chivalry, as their contents are entirely not true. However, in his analysis and rating of the different books, we see that he actually is quite knowledgeable on the contents. The irony then lies in this — if the priest calls them abominations, then how come he is
Volume two of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha explores quite an interesting concept of the characters inside the story being aware of the fact that they are written about. Don Quixote’s third sally involves numerous adventures where the others involved in said adventures were previously aware of Don Quixote’s existence and condition, resulting in quite an amount of practical pranks to be played upon him. The most notable of the incidents involve a pair simply known as the “Duke” and the “Duchess”. These two are extremely fond of Don Quixote’s past sallies, and conjure up imagined adventures for Don Quixote to partake in. A fake part two of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha is also mentioned a few times within volume two, allowing for some humor within the story. This act also subtly condemns the author of the fake part two as well as the work itself, and brings legitimacy to Cervantes’s work.
The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha is a deeply meaningful and philosophical book covering themes of idealism and realism. The author, Cervantes, employs various literary techniques, the most notable of which is irony, to illustrate his points. The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha is divided into volumes one and two, with volume two being special in the way that it is assumed that the common people is already familiar with Don Quixote, having already read volume one. This book also plays a major role in history, and is often considered the first modern novel.
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