FREE ESSAY ON DON QUXIOTE

DON QUXIOTE

Don Quixote: Renaissance humor with a modern translation
A Spanish knight, about fifty years of age, gave himself up so entirely to reading the
romances of chivalry, that in the end they turned his brain, and nothing would satisfy
him but that he must ride abroad on his old horse, armed with spear and helmet, a
knight-errant, to encounter all adventures, and to redress the innumerable wrongs of the
world. As is the case in this epic tale by Cervantes, modern man is not immune to
prolonged sustained suggestion. All irony criticizes the imperfect ideas and theories of
mankind, not by substituting for them other ideas and other theories, less imperfect, but
by placing the facts of life, in mute comment, alongside of the theories. To be put in a
more tangible sense, after addressing a subject matter over a sustained period of time
one is apt to view them selves in the same light as the character of which they are
enamored by.
It plagues the news as high school children take arms and seek vengeance inside schools
today. As the Scapegoat they place the blame on television, violent movies, and video
games. Theorists and psychologists say that the harsh and abrasive nature of movies like
the Matrix and Rambo are absorbed into the maturing mind of adolescence and are seen as
fact. As is the case in Don Quixote where our chivalric hero takes arms after reading one
to many romance novels. 
Every one sees the irony of Don Quixote, and enjoys it in its more obvious forms. This
absurd old gentleman, who tries to put his antiquated ideas into action in a busy,
selfish, prosy world, is a figure of fun even to the meanest intelligence. But, with more
thought, there comes a check to our frivolity. Is it possible that the criticism is
double-edged, and that what we are celebrating with our laughter is the failure of the
world?
But, Don Quixote, it may be objected, is mad. Here the irony of Cervantes finds a deeper
level. Don Quixote is a high-minded idealist, who sees all things by the light of his own
lofty preconceptions. He shapes his behavior in accordance with the ideas genuine
chivalric behavior, and is laughed at for his pains. Much like how out of the norm
children are chastised and ridiculed for their absence from "normality". The discernable
difference between Don Quixote and the Students from high school shootings is that Don
Quixote was infatuated with antiquated goodness.