Method to Madness
Don Quixote is a middle-aged gentleman of La Mancha who reads one too many books of chivalry and decides to become a knight. He polishes an old suit of armor, takes a peasant named Sancho Panza as his squire, and sets out into the world to do good deeds in the name of his love, Dulcinea. To the concern of friends from his village, he has dozens of hapless adventures: he rescues prisoners, defends the weak, and reunites old loves. He also battles enemy knights and soldiers. His only problem is that he often gets things wrong, mistaking strangers for enemies, falling off his horse, and being beaten senseless by mule-drivers. He blames every failure on the magic of an evil enchanter he believes to be his nemesis. Everywhere he goes, Don Quixote sees the everyday as the legendary: he confuses inns for castles, windmills for giants, and prostitutes for princesses. These misinterpretations often make him the center of other people's jokes: a duke and a duchess play tricks on him, even Sancho and his friends the
Don Quixote travels throughout Spain, from La Mancha and the Sierra Morena to Barcelona, stopping at countless inns and villages along the way. He befriends goatherds and gentlemen, and his story is written as a history . The knight is sometimes triumphant, as in the battle with the Knight of Mirrors, and sometimes ridiculous, helplessly trampled by cattle or pigs as the result of some misadventure. But in each of his exploits, he ignores social convention and remains faithful to his fantastic vision of the world. When he finally renounces chivalry on his deathbed, his once-skeptical friends beg him to reconsider, and even the practical Sancho Panza longs to resume their adventures. Though he is out of place and often ludicrous, Don Quixote's innate goodness and unwavering commitment to chivalry persuade those around him that his madness is profound. barber and the priest try to fool him for his own good from time to time. But just as often, Don Quixote's vision of the world asserts itself in the lives of those around him, and those who begin b
Some common words found in the essay are:
La Mancha, Sancho Panza, Don Quixote, Knight Mirrors, Quixote's Madness, Don Quixote's, Dale Wassermann, Morena Barcelona, Quiana Quixote, don quixote, la mancha, Aldonza Quiana, don quixote's, don quixote de, quixote de, sancho panza, vision world, de la mancha, de la, quixote de la, knight mirrors,
Approximate Word count = 709
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
