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Adilbek Sultanov

Professor James Nikopoulos

Introduction to the Novel

26 September 2013

The Book Review of Don Quixote by Cervantes

Don Quixote by Cervantes, commonly considered as the first true novel, is a story

about the importance of an individual. The main character, Don Quixote, is an hidalgo who

becomes insane as a result of excessive reading of chivalric romances, and starts thinking of

himself as a knight. Together with his squire, a farmer named Sancho Panza, they take

ridiculous adventures and eventually become famous after the publication of a book about

them. In the end Don Quixote returns home defeated in battle and dies of natural causes. The

novel satirizes the fiction of chivalric romances by confronting it with reality, thereby

shortening the distance between the novel and the reader and making reading a more equal

and interactive experience. I will argue that Don Quixotes madness is used as a tool for an

individualist reinterpretation of societal norms, which is paralleled in the equalizing form of

the novel.

A common theme in the novel is the equality between people that legitimizes

individual freedom. Cervantes promotes the idea of equality by challenging traditional

authority of the state. Don Quixote finds it unjust that prisoners in the caravan are taken as

slaves by the decree of the King, since God and nature made people free (Cervantes, 183).

Because of his madness he challenges the Kings monopoly of legitimate violence, and puts

the authority of his individual reasoning higher. Later he reiterates that people are ultimately
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equal once the play is over, that is when they die (558). The message is that a person has a

natural right to think independently instead of blindly submitting to the rule of the King.

Similarly, the model of Don Quixote shows that a person does not have to be defined

neither by society nor by the Church. Don Quixote deviates from being a proper hidalgo

which makes the society, particularly his friends and relatives, try to discourage and fix him.

In response to one of such attacks, Don Quixote says that he knows who he is and that he can

be any of the knights if he wants to (49), thus emphasizing personal choice. In the case of the

Church, the priest proclaims that chivalry books are of devil, and so orders to burn them

because they corrupt peoples minds (51). However, he is no less ideological and dogmatic

than Don Quixote in his approach because he just assumes that books are to blame. The

conventional dogma of the Church simply overpowers an individual dogma, which does not

mean one is more legitimate than the other. In other words, ideas of one person can be on par

with the set social structure because people are equal.

The form of the novel also reflects this idea of equality and importance of non-

exclusion. Because the readership is diverse, Cervantes avoids peculiar expressions and

endless sonnets so as not to exclude his less literate readers, which is especially important in

the age of mass publishing (12). In doing so Cervantes goes against the convention of the

time and makes something original, repeating the principle of Don Quixotes individualism.

The very fact that Cervantes talks about the details of his writing process suggests that he

includes the reader as an equal participant with a right to know every detail. Indeed,

Cervantes invites the reader to freely express their opinions about the history, without any

respect and obligation, because the reader has free will and a soul in ones body (11-12).

Importantly, because the reader has access to the details of writing, Cervantes is encouraged

to be truthful and meticulous in details. He has to explain, for example, what happened to

Sanchos donkey and one hundred escudos (508).

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Miguel de Cervantes being an innovator in literature also promoted the idea of

individual thought and free will in his work. He comes up with the excuse of madness as a

driver of Don Quixotes continuous norm violation, which eventually gains the hero public

recognition. Following the idea that all people are free by nature, he derives that they are also

unaccountable to anybody in their actions, including institutions like the Church, the state,

and society in general.

References:

Cervantes M. (1605). Don Quixote. Penguin Books.