Don Quijote de La Mancha-the book, the individual, and its adventures

The Spanish author, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, in his work Don Quijote de la Mancha ("The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha"), concocted a fantasy background and this background was largely influenced by a manuscript written by a fictional Moorish historian, Cide Hamete Benengeli.

The novel pivots around Alonso Quixano, a man of the countryside, who after having gone through several novels on chivalry, starts believing that he is actually a knight errant. Thus "Don Quixote de la Mancha" , along with his simple squire, Sancho Panza, go on the lookout for any kind of exploration or other such exciting activity. Dulcinea del Toboso is the damsel whom Don Quixote wishes to protect from all harm- she is actually a fictional character carved from the image of a farm girl from the neighboring quarters whose actual name was Aldonza Lorenzo. According to Don Quixote, she is his lady love and he her knight in shining armor. However, “Dulcinea” does not make an appearance in the noel at all and of course she knows nothing about Don Quixote’s affection for her.

Don Quixote came out in a couple of volumes, separated by a decade. It is probably the most amazing and inspiring piece of work that rose from the Spanish Golden Age  and maybe in the whole of  Spanish literary history. The novel, generally, secures one of the top notches in catalogues of best fictions written- it is considered to be a pioneering work in modern Western literature. Don Quixote is also considered to be the best secular novel of all ages and also one that contains no political framework.

Don Quixote is an amusing and entertaining novel that unfolds in sequential episodes. It follows the picaresco form prevalent in the later half of the 16^th century. The Spanish term ingenioso is defined as "to be quick with inventiveness" and thus the novel’s heading actually reveals its motive. The novel is actually a farce, however the second part deals with the art of trickery and games that deceive and also philosophizes about such issues. Paintings of Pablo Picasso and Richard Strauss have been influenced by Don Quixote- thus it has not only inspired literary work but also compositions in art and music. Quixote is lanky, tall, a romantic and believes in everything fanciful or fantastic; Sancho Panza , on the other hand, is short, plump, plain and simple- this difference in characterization between the knight and his squire has been an aspect of great critical analysis ever since the release of the book. Don Quixote is extremely innovative and he imagines it all- Cervantes mocks his fancy beliefs and also cracks awful, rude jokes, making fun of Quixote’s strong conviction in his knighthood and his imagined adventures. Quixote is also subject to Sancho Panza’s deception much though Sancho does it not intentionally. The novel is actually a spoof on the conservatism, authenticity, truth and also patriotism. Cervantes expanded the concept of chivalric romance; through his work he put forward ideas and stories of knights and court ladies, though it is actually a lampoon.

It is through puns and word-play that the farce is manifested. The names of the figures in the novel present the paradox, the reversal and the irony at work.  Rocinante is a reversal where as Dulcinea is actually an insinuation to delusion. The very word quixote^[4] is , in all probability, a jibe on quijada or jaw. Cuixot is definitely the Catalan term meaning thighs and also alludes to a horse’s rump.

Cervantes, in Don Quixote, presented us with a new and innovative sphere belonging to the shepherds and the people who own the taverns and the inns. Soon the term quixotic was calqued in the vocabulary and this was obviously derived from the protagonist Don Quixote who soon grew very famous. Sancho Panza and Rocinante, Don Quixote’s stallion are radical figures who now stand as motifs for Western literary culture. “Tilting at windmills” is a phrase that defines a vain action and this had been taken from another famous chapter of the book.  

Don Quixote assisted in the upliftment of the modern Spanish language through its fame.   The phrase de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, "whose name I do not want to remember”, which is the first line of the book, turned into a standard Spanish cliché.