Cervantes - Don Quixote

Cervantes' greatest work, Don Quixote, is a unique book of

multiple dimensions. From the moment of its appearance it

has amused readers or caused them to think, and its

influence has extended in literature not only to works of

secondary value but also to those which have universal

importance. Don Quixote is a country gentleman, an

enthusiastic visionary crazed by his reading of romances of

chivalry, who rides forth to defend the oppressed and to

right wrongs; so vividly was he presented by Cervantes that

many languages have borrowed the name of the hero as the

common term to designate a person inspired by lofty and

impractical ideals.

The theme of the book, in brief, concerns Hidalgo Alonso

Quijano, who, because of his reading in books about

chivalry, comes to believe that everything they say is true

and decides to become a knight-errant himself. He assumes

the name of Don Quixote de la Mancha and, accompanied

by a peasant, Sancho Panza, who serves him as a squire,

sets forth in search of adventures. Don Quixote interprets

all that he encounters in accordance with his readings and

thus imagines himself to be living in a world quite different

from the one familiar to the ordinary men he meets.

Windmills are thus transformed into giants, and this

illusion, together with many others, is the basis for the

beatings and misadventures suffered by the intrepid hero.

After the knight's second sally in search of adventure,

friends and neighbors in his village decide to force him to

forget his wild fancy and to reintegrate himself into his

former life. The "knight" insists upon following his calling,

but at the end of the first part of the book they make him

return to his home by means of a sly stratagem. In the

second part the hidalgo leaves for the third time and

alternately gives indication of folly and of wisdom in a

dazzling array of artistic inventions. But now even his

enemies force him to abandon his endeavors. Don Quixote

finally recognizes that romances of chivalry are mere lying

inventions, but upon recovering the clarity of his mind, he

loses his life.

The idea that Don Quixote is a symbol of the noblest

generosity, dedicated to the purpose of doing good

disinterestedly, suggests the moral common denominator

to be found in Cervantes' creation. But in addition to

furnishing a moral type capable of bei...

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...the attractions of love,

faith, and enthusiasm. All who live in the human universe

of the greatest book of Spanish literature succeed or

destroy themselves, according to one of these opposing

trends.

When compared with such a prodigious book, all of

Cervantes' works which have not previously been

mentioned, no matter what their value, must be relegated to

a lower level. Among his dramatic works, La Numancia, a

description of the heroic defense of that Iberian city during

the Roman conquest of Spain in the second century b.c.,

and the amusing Interludes, such as El Juez de los

divorcios ("The Judge of Divorces") and El Retablo de

las maravillas ("The Picture of Marvels"), are

outstanding. Also worth mentioning is the verse Voyage

to Parnassus (1614), in which almost all of the Spanish

writers of the period are lauded, and Persiles y

Sigismunda, published posthumously in 1617. In this

last-named work the author returns to the theme of the

Byzantine novel and relates the ideal love and

unbelievable vicissitudes of a couple who, starting from

the Arctic regions, arrive in Rome, where they find a

happy ending for their complicated adventures.