Three Stages of Inquiry on Don Quixote
I. Grammar Stage Inquiry [The What]
These are the summaries of each chapter posted to and running on my blog.
Who are the central characters? Don Quixote and Sancho Panza
What is the most important event in the book, in which the character(s) change? I keep coming back to the final chapter of the second book when Don Quixote falls ill and unexpectedly comes to his senses that the books of chivalry and knight-errantry were nothing but foolishness and a sham. The strongest supporting statement for me is when he says that his “sole regret is that the discovery comes too late to allow [him] to amend [his] ways by reading others that would enlighten [his] soul.”
However, at the start of the second book, Quixote and Sancho set out to meet Dulcinea, and with the aid of Sancho’s plotting, he convinces his master that she is enchanted, which now becomes the new concern and focus of Quixote throughout the second book: to see to the disenchantment of Dulcinea, whatever it takes.
II. Logic Stage Inquiry [The Why and How]
Is this novel fable or chronicle? Don Quixote is a chronicle because it takes place in the real world with real people who experience real consequences for their behavior; yet, I think within the personal world of Quixote he is living in a sub-world of fable, in which events are always explained away or described as enchanted. What comes to mind is the cave of Montesninos, which we never will know the truth because we are dealing with a madman; also the example of the giants, which were very real to Quixote, were nothing but windmills or machines to those of us in our right mind.
The author secures this novel as a chronicle through both physical and psychological specifies. He uses continuous detail in the landscape of Spain from its countryside, mountains, and its beautiful city and ports of Barcelona to the lifestyles and culture of the people. A constant theme for Cervantes is the emotional desire for love and honor between beautiful and youthful people and their tangled means of achieving relationships.
What does the central character(s) want? My first thought for Quixote is adventure, honor, and the esteem of the Lady Dulcinea, until the second part, his desire is more specific: for the disenchantment of Dulcinea; for Sancho it is a form of government or title until he is governor for a week and decides he prefers the simple life.
What is standing in their way? Quite frankly I think reality and truth are standing in their way. No one lives like this anymore as a knight seeking adventure and the honor of a lady, and we know that Dulcinea is simply not enchanted; and certainly Sancho’s way is not the way to earn a government or title. The world looks at them as madmen because their means seem unreasonable and irrational.
What strategies does the character(s) use to overcome their difficulties? Quixote and Sancho persevere through each and every adventure either by good luck or timing or by accepting the unexplainable or a defeat as an enchantment: the insults by the peasant wench “Dulcinea” were because she was enchanted; the destruction of the puppet show by Master Pedro was because Quixote was enchanted; the vanquished Knight of Mirrors was not Carrasco at all, but someone enchanted to look like him.
Who is telling the story? I believe the one telling the story is Miguel De Cervantes, the author, and therefore, in this case, it is an omniscient point of view. Cervantes can tell us what any character is doing, saying, thinking, and feeling. When Sancho is a governor, Cervantes goes back and forth between the two central characters to tell us how it is with each.
Where is the story set? Cervantes set the story of Don Quixote in his charming Spain showcasing its arts and culture, people and their lives and livelihoods, and he interlaced those factors into the adventures of Quixote and Sancho.
What style does the writer employ? It is obvious to me that Cervantes’ style of writing is complex by far. It was not usual to find sentences containing over 70 or even 100 words. (At least for moi, it is a lot!)
I also found that Cervantes used a common style of language and cultural standards among the people of 17th century Spain, which crossed socioeconomic levels and did not seem out of place.
However, there is a stark contrast between the farmer Sancho and the gentleman Quixote since Sancho does not share the same vocabulary or comprehension of Latin phrases used by Quixote.
Does the author use a repeated image or metaphor? Let me come back to that.
Beginning and Ending: What draws you in? What is the resolution in the end? What is the logical exhaustion, which demonstrates a philosophy about human nature?
What draws me in is Quixote’s love of books and his quest for adventures. Who does not like new adventures, especially when you, as the reader, do not have to risk your life for it?
The resolution in the end is that Quixote dies with his sanity. The logical exhaustion is that the story of Quixote is complete; hence, no other historian can take Cervantes character and continue writing about him, as was done before book two was written. In fact, Cervantes says, in the voice of his fictitious historian, Cide Hamete, that “For me alone Don Quixote was born, and I for him. He knew how to act, and I knew how to write. We two alone are as one…” Cervantes was done writing about Quixote; hence, the life of Quixote was laid to rest.
III. Rhetorical Stage Inquiry
Is this book an actual portrayal of life? Is it true?
Do you sympathize with the characters? Which one(s), and why?
Do I sympathize with Don Quixote because he is on a quest for adventure and honor, especially for the honor of someone else? Sometimes it appears that he is just out to start trouble, such as he did when he challenged travelers on the road minding their own business or set prisoners free or demanded the lion cages to be opened. Often I thought he deserved his misfortune as a result of his mischief.
I can say that I found myself hoping he would be treated with honor, even if he behaved oddly and had a strange desire to be a knight when he was a little outdated. For example, I do pity Don Quixote during the times when he became the subject of pranks with the duke and duchess and all those who worked for them. The duke and duchess knew of Don Quixote from book one, and they took complete advantage of his condition, be it naiveté or mental instability. Don Quixote was very trusting of the duke and duchess, believing he had reached the pinnacle of knighthood and was only being treated accordingly. Never once did they treat him as a simple human being, as they would have expected to be treated.
As for Sancho, his desire for a title or government, and for what he thinks is a better life, was farfetched and ignorant. I empathize with his gullibility in trusting Don Quixote who told him he could earn his governorship if he served as his squire for some time. I think Quixote believed it, too, but the reader knows that it is improbable and that Sancho’s life will never change.
Did the writer’s times affect him? Absolutely, the writer’s time did affect him. Don Quixote was written during the Golden Age (1492-1695) in Spain when literature and art thrived. This age is on the heels of the High Medieval period and deep into the European Renaissance. Cervantes includes literary works of his time and influential works of the past, as well as poetry and sonnets; and his characters are well versed in story telling, as Europe begins passing on from oral tradition into printed works.
Cervantes included many of his own personal life experiences within the story of Don Quixote, such as his experience as a soldier and prisoner in Algiers; pirates on the Spanish coasts; and the exiled Moors, many of these familiarities which come up later in the short stories written about people not connected to Quixote
Is there an argument in this book? I have to come up with something, so for now I am choosing to consider this: the character, Don Quixote, is obsessed with the traditional and outdated, honorable code of chivalry to the point where it forms his world and drives him mad. It becomes his reality. At times Quixote is vain or prideful, and often that gets him into trouble. He is so blinded by his obsession that he can never be wrong and, therefore, he or everyone else is enchanted.
How many times have we done this? How many times have we become obsessed with someone, something, or some idea that it has become our whole world, our whole existence, and essentially drives us mad? We become so blinded by our obsessions that we ignore truth, and believe that everything that works against us is wrong.
Have we ever been successful in convincing someone else that our mad world is a worthy reality? The madness catches on, just as what happened to Sancho, or at least sometimes and when he was not more focused on his own gain.
Do you agree? Is this work true about human experience? I think I can say yes. Humans can easily become captive of their obsession for vain and prideful conquests.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Share your thoughts...