Don Quixote: Reality, Freedom, and the Power of Imagination
Multiple Interpretations
This book presents a wealth of topics, offering different avenues for reading and interpretation, ranging from simple to more complex analyses.
Don Quixote’s Reality
Alonso Quijano, a man consumed by chivalric romances, decides to embody the reality of his literary heroes. Motivated to live as a knight-errant, he arms himself and embarks on a quest for adventure, upholding justice and equality. He adopts the name Don Quixote de la Mancha.
Within the narrative, Don Quixote is often labeled as mad because he inhabits a reality that seems incongruous with his age and surroundings. However, one could argue that he is not insane but rather an individual who chooses to live in a self-constructed reality fueled by his imagination. Don Quixote finds the world of chivalric literature more captivating than his own life, opting to manifest his fantasies and construct a valid and coherent existence rooted in medieval ideals.
For Don Quixote, the adventures he reads about are more exciting than his own life. He chooses to actualize his fantasies, constructing a valid and coherent reality where he revives medieval values. To others, he appears mad, acting outside the accepted norms of reality. His desire to perceive reality through a different lens is deemed a form of insanity caused by excessive reading of romances. However, the consistency demonstrated in his adventures suggests that he genuinely inhabits his fantastical reality. Where ordinary people see windmills, he sees giants; where others see an inn, he sees a castle. This is not a matter of hallucination but rather an inversion of reality, a parallel existence where his life is lucid and valid within its own framework.
Sancho Panza’s Transformation
The consistency of Don Quixote’s reality is further validated through the character of Sancho Panza, his squire. Initially driven by greed and the promise of governing an island, Sancho perceives Don Quixote as a madman. He sees reality as others do and attempts to make Don Quixote aware of it, believing his visions to be hallucinations. However, as they share more adventures, Sancho undergoes a gradual “Quixotization.” He begins to embrace Don Quixote’s reality, and by the end of the first part of the book, Sancho becomes fully immersed in the knight’s worldview. Recognizing the consistency and appeal of this perspective, Sancho chooses to partake in this alternative reality.
Consciousness and Freedom
Don Quixote is a conscious being, aware of his identity and potential. As he declares after his first failure, he does not confuse reality with fiction but rather constructs his life project from fiction. He lives his fantasies, his imagination, arguably exercising a form of freedom. He aims to reinstate a world with better values, a better world. By choosing this life and realizing his imagination, he remains a free person.
According to the first Surrealist manifesto, imagination is the realm of freedom. In this space, there is no repression, and all desires can be fulfilled. We are not conditioned by societal rules or conduct but are free to be ourselves in our imagination. In this sense, Don Quixote enjoys great freedom. He does not repress his desires but lives them out. His life becomes a continuous realization of his imagination, his fantasies transported into his daily existence. He revels in the freedom to actualize his desires without stifling them.
Societal Conflict and the Parameters of Madness
This is precisely why the society of his time labels him as mad. He does not conform to the norms and expectations of his era. In other words, Don Quixote does not fit within the parameters of his socio-temporal context. The culture of his time represses his way of life and deems it insane, unable to conceive of the freedom he exercises in pursuing his life project.
Don Quixote not only lives his freedom in his imagination but also within his chosen reality. However, this reality has certain limitations. By assuming knighthood, he subjects himself to the code of chivalry. Yet, this does not necessarily restrict his freedom, as the knightly ideal itself embodies a notion of freedom.
Utopia and the Crisis of Values
Freedom also entails renunciation. In Don Quixote’s case, it means renouncing his contemporary world and embracing a new project. This is a utopian project, as knighthood represents a set of ideals that he seeks to implement in his society. Don Quixote recognizes the absence of values in his society and envisions a utopia where equality, freedom, and justice prevail. He desires to restore a Golden Age, a time when humanity was happy and governed by these ideals.
Arguably, Don Quixote’s motivation to become a knight stems from his desire to realize these ideals, highlighting a crisis of values in his society. This crisis drives him to seek a return to the Golden Age, a better society.
Ideals in Action
The ideals he pursues are evident in his adventures, all motivated by the defense of the unjustly treated and the needy. He also holds an idealized view of individuals he encounters, treating prostitutes as maidens and always maintaining a polite demeanor, as dictated by the code of chivalry.
Love and Intertextuality
Love in the work is also idealized, conforming to the conventions of chivalric literature. Dulcinea del Toboso is the knight’s great love, an idyllic figure he never truly sees or knows. Yet, Don Quixote remains completely faithful to her, invoking her name in his battles as a source of motivation.
All of Don Quixote’s ideals are derived from the books he has read. Thus, the work exhibits intertextuality. To understand the protagonist’s life project, it is essential to be familiar with the world of chivalry and its codes, as presented in the various books cited within the narrative.
Literature and the Literaturization of Existence
Don Quixote’s existence is largely shaped by the literature he has consumed. One could say that he has “literaturized” his own existence, fulfilling aspects of the works he has read. His initial motivation to revive medieval values is sparked by chivalric literature, which profoundly influences his imagination and subsequently his reality. Literature fuels his vivid imagination, which in turn shapes his reality.
The work also includes a critique of literature. In one episode, the priest and the barber engage in a sort of literary inquisition, determining which works are worthy and which are not, thus debunking some of the chivalric romances.
Learning and Movement
Don Quixote is a character who has been educated through literature. He is a voracious reader, and his vocabulary and knowledge are derived from the numerous books he has encountered throughout his life.
Following the conventions of his literary models, he embarks on his knightly adventures. He actively seeks situations and ideals to defend, constantly in motion. In the first part of the book, Don Quixote undertakes two major journeys, traveling extensively, mostly accompanied by Sancho. These journeys are driven by his desire to implement his life project and his reality, which often clashes with the realities of others, leading to failure. Yet, Don Quixote persists in his pursuit of the knight-errant ideal.
Conflict, Crisis, and Parallel Realities
Throughout his travels, Don Quixote finds opportunities to enact his knighthood, continuously creating his own reality through interactions with various characters. The realities of these characters often conflict with Don Quixote’s, creating a crisis between reality and dream. It becomes difficult to determine what constitutes the “true” reality, leading to confusion between the real and the imagined. Don Quixote’s reality is as valid as that of the other characters, making it impossible to definitively declare one as true and the other as false. This continuous conflict between different perspectives on reality is a defining feature of the work.
This clash of realities contributes to the perception of Don Quixote as mad. However, following the argument presented here, Don Quixote is not insane. It is not a matter of distinguishing between fiction and reality but rather acknowledging two different ways of perceiving and inhabiting reality.
In Don Quixote’s terms, the dream would be the windmills, the prostitute, the inn, Aldonza Lorenzo, and so on. For others, the dream is the giants, the maidens, the enchanted castle, and Dulcinea del Toboso. Both are realities, neither dream nor fiction. Neither can be definitively labeled as true or false. It is plausible to consider them as parallel realities. If we could all see reality through our own unique perspectives, without adhering to the dominant view, we would not be forced to accept a single, imposed reality.