A Brief Tale of Don Quixote and His Chivalric Ideals
Because idealism without the ability to back it up will bring more harm than good to you.
Every time the concept of idealism passes through my mind, the memory of Don Quixote's story will always come out as a natural response to reminding me that our idealism will be worth as much as how we can actually realize those ideals. Because if we can’t actualize those ideals into the real world — we’ll only end up as a fool like how Don Quixote is.
Modern society perceives Don Quixote as a noble dreamer trying to achieve a greater good in a bleak and grim society. If we actually read the whole tale and pay attention to each of his stories, you will understand that he is an unstable, violent, and typical eccentric individual who won’t stop bothering you until you have to literally knock him out of his senses. So let me get the fact straight, and start exhibiting questionable deeds that our hero Don Quixote has done in the novel The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha.
The Disconnection Between His Eyes and Reality
One of the most obvious traits of Don Quixote is his delusional view of the world around him. He is so obsessed with the tale of chivalry, knights, heroic battle to the point that it started to change his reality. He saw an inn and treat it like it’s a castle while begging for the innkeeper (who he saw as the owner of the castle, a lord) to officially knight him.
Another story of how disconnected he is to the real world is when he and his loyal squire Sancho got beaten up and have to be treated to the nearest inn (where he still think of it as a castle) and met with the innkeeper’s daughter which he immediately assumes as a princess. Don Quixote who sees himself as a true knight who values the honor of a gentleman believes that the ‘princess’ is absolutely in love and fascinated by how great of a knight he is. So to make things ‘right’ in his situation, in the middle of the night he mistakenly grabbed another woman thinking that it was the ‘princess’ and confess that he appreciate her ‘love’ for him but he is far too loyal and dedicated to his princess Dulcinea back at home.
For your information, Dulcinea is just a farm girl back in his hometown who never even speak to him. His delusion is just too strong at this point.
Known For Assaulting Random Strangers Based on His Judgment
His strange view on reality actually brings more harm to himself and the people around him. He got involved in a pointless fight is definitely not a rare occurrence in the stories because he keeps on attacking someone/group which he sees as a threat to society.
One of his fights is not even against a human but against a windmill — where he immediately charged with his horse thinking that the windmill is a giant (yes he thought that windmill is a human-eating giant) and ‘unfortunately’ the spinning sails shatter his lance and throw him off of his horse.
One of the most memorable stories about Don Quixote is where he met a line of galley slaves along with their guard. Don Quixote, who thought that these slaves are innocent people on their way to being sold and abused try to rescue them right away. The guard already explains to him that they are galley slaves and have the right reason on why they are in that position in the first place. But Don Quixote has 0 intention of listening to logical reasoning starts assaulting the guards, and successfully free the galley slaves. Ironically, once these slaves have their freedom — they immediately rob Don Quixote and Sancho along with their belonging except his armor.
The recorded assault in this story is mostly because he always judges someone and accuses them of being an evil spawn, a sorcerer, a criminal, etc. thus creating a non-stop fight in every of his journey.
Mentally Unacceptable But He Is Actually Good At Heart
His questionable act throughout the story has always been based on his chivalric ideals. The idea of a knight as a savior, a beacon of light, the people’s champion has always been his fantasy. In the story, there is a moment where he helped a young man under cruel punishment from his master. Don Quixote, who just can’t ignore the sound of someone asking for help immediately stops the punishing act (even though it ended up making the young man under a much more painful punishment after Don Quixote leaves). His loyal code to his non-existing girlfriend is also quite commendable for all that is worth honestly.
If only he is not so delusional and in the right state of mind instead, I would love to call him an actual hero. Unfortunately, he is quite a lunatic.
Conclusion
I don’t think that Don Quixote is the right model even in modern society where individual thoughts matter a lot these days. But what I want to learn from him is his fire to keep going on despite he keeps getting beaten up in almost every fight — and he is an old man in his late 50’s or early 60’s.
As I reach the epilogue of Don Quixote tales, it was revealed that Don Quixote is actually aware that all of his adventures are just a delusion. But to him, they were still real in his heart, with his spirit and love of adventure. To him, life was the greatest adventure, and by living life to the fullest, with excitement and loving life, he died a happy man knowing that his journey has come to an end.
