Don Quixote

Don Quixote is a classic novel from 1605 which portraits the life and insightful journey of Don Quixote de la Mancha, a Spanish man who seems to be losing his mind on his quest to become a knight and restore chivalry alongside with a farmer named Sancho Panza, with whom he fights multiple imaginary enemies and faces a series of fantastic challenges.

Don Quixote read a lot of books that sparked the “madness” in his head. He believed that his favorite books portrayed the world as it is. So he started to see everything with magical eyes. The problem was that nobody else was sharing his vision, so he had to face a lot of misunderstanding and challenges in his relationships.

While his friends didn’t believe in his vision, Don Quixote was sure that he was a knight in a chivalry world. Everything seemed to be normal to everyone else. But to him, they were fantastic beasts and enemies that he had to fight. Moreover, he took on a quest to help the poor and defenseless. He also wanted to do away with the wicked and evil, just like a true knight would do.

However, the problem was that to all those around him, there was no need for knight-errantry. There were no enemies to fight, and no fictional world to live in. For the protagonist, it looked like everyone was turning against him. And that no one was understanding his vision. Unfortunately, the loneliness and the eventual realization that his beloved books were not in fact expressing the reality of the world brought the bitter end to his life.

Initially, Quixote started his quest all by himself. And his first challenge as a knight happened at an inn he stopped by on a night. The first signs of his delusional mind showed when he believed the inn to be a castle. To initiate his purpose, he was looking for someone to officially knight him, as custom dictates. As such, he asked the innkeeper to do so. And he went along with it, seeing that the man wasn’t sane. Soon after, Quixote knocked out two men who touched his armor, and he was kicked out of the inn. Seeing this, the protagonist realizes that he needs a squire and more supplies. He returns home to recruit a farmer named Sancho Panza in his quest. He also promised him to make him the governor of an isle upon their return. The two men faced many challenges in their mission. The first one consisted of over thirty windmills that Quixote took for giants that he and Sancho had to fight. Unfortunately, the windmill breaks his lance and drags him with the horse…