Don Quixote Analysis

Don Quixote is one of the oldest forms of the modern novel. Written in the early 17th century it follows the adventures of Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza. In Don Quixote, Cervantes satirizes the idea of a hero. Don Quixote sees himself as a noble knight among the ignorant common folk, but everyone else sees him as a bumbling idiot who has gone mad. Therefore, the novel’s longevity in the western canon is due to the humorous power struggle and the quest of a hero Don Quixote faces throughout the story.

Cervantes characterization of Don Quixote as a mad man and idiot is opposite of the mindset in which Don Quixote possesses. While Don Quixote believes himself as a noble chivalric hero during the duration of the novel Don Quixote is

Cervantes never intended Don Quixote to be a hero, this is backed when he says “by now quite insane, he conceived the strangest notion…to become a knight errant” (Cervantes 27). By calling Don Quixote insane when describing his characteristics removes any type of respect a reader has for Don Quixote. This does not stop Cervantes from presenting Don Quixote as the hero of the text. Don Quixote carries himself as the savior of the people he comes in contact with, but they do not return the favor. This belief in one’s abilities is a theme Cervantes pushes throughout the

Don Quixote asked Sancho to be his sidekick because Sancho is an illiterate farmer who could be easily manipulated by Don Quixote. But in actually Sancho went along with Don Quixote because he is expecting riches at the end (Cervantes 62). This raises the question of what is a hero; Don Quixote has become a knight errant because he loves the books and loves the culture of knight errantry, while Sancho does it because he expects to get a monetary benefit from the sallies. Both of these characters are considered heroes, but their motivation for being a hero is drastically different. Cervantes humorously creates a power struggle between the