08 Introduction to Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” (Excerpt)

1. Summary of content

The first two parts of "Don Quixote" mainly describe Quixote, a poor Spanish country squire. He is fascinated by reading knight novels and wants to imitate the knight's behavior. Ranger adventure life. He changed his name to Don Quixote, found broken helmets, shields, and spears from the relics of his ancestors, gave his thin horse the reputation of "Rare Crossbow", found a girl from a neighboring village as his suitor, and then started He went out on adventures, three times in a row; for the last two times, he hired his neighbor Sancho Panza as a servant. Along the way, he rescued the beaten servants from the landlords, regarded the windmill as a giant, the inn as an enchanted castle, the barber's copper basin as the magician's helmet, and the convicts as persecuted knights. Seeing a group of people carrying idols to pray for rain, he thought that robbers had robbed a good girl, so he rushed to rescue her. Then he went to Montenegro to practice hard for love. He was also tricked into the Duke and Duchess's castle and was teased. Every time the knight took action, he had noble motives, but because he did not understand the actual situation and rushed recklessly, he made many jokes and was beaten to the point where he almost lost his life. Don Quixote had no choice but to abide by his previous agreement and go home. Don Quixote fell ill after returning home. Before he died, he realized that chivalrous novels were harmful to people. He left a will and asked his only relative, his niece, not to marry a knight, otherwise he would not inherit his inheritance. This book is an excerpt from Chapter 11 of the first volume of "Don Quixote".

2. Introduction to the author

Miguel de Cervantes Sevedra (1547-1616)

An outstanding figure in Spain during the Renaissance novelist. He was born into a declining aristocratic family near Madrid. He was homeless as a boy and experienced ups and downs as an adult. He served in the army, worked as a prisoner, and worked as a military supplier, and was arrested and imprisoned many times. The poetic tragedy "The Siege of Numancia" was written during this period. In 1602, Cervantes began writing "Don Quixote". The first volume of the novel was published in 1605 and was a great success. In 1613, he created and published the "Collection of Exhortations". The second volume of "Don Quixote" was published in 1615. In 1616, Cervantes, who was poor and ill, died at the age of 69.

3. Social role

"Don Quixote" extensively and profoundly reflects the late 16th and 17th centuries through Don Quixote's adventure journey of imitating the knight errant and his character description. In the early days of the Spanish Empire, the social reality of being strong on the outside but weak on the inside, full of crises, and declining day by day satirized the Spanish rulers' desire for success and the people's illusory national pride. .

4. Character

Don Quixote

is a character with contradictory personalities:

On the one hand, he is addicted to Fantasy, divorced from reality, full of chivalry, imitating the knights in knight novels, completely ignoring the real world around him that is governed by the logic of daily life; and he does not know how to learn from his failures, so he makes a fool of himself and harms others. Harm yourself.

On the other hand, Don Quixote’s knightly ideals and behaviors also have many reasonable and correct elements. The ideal knight in his mind is an all-rounder who is proficient in astronomy, geography, law, theology, medicine, and mathematics. In Chapter 11 of the selected first volume of this book, "The Story of Don Quixote and Several Shepherds" and other chapters, he believes that knights should eliminate evil and promote good, help the weak and the poor, love the country and the people, and uphold justice. He longs for a "golden age" in which everyone treats each other sincerely, wealth does not distinguish between you and me, and there is justice, peace and friendship. He believed that freedom was a natural right of human beings, and he advocated that human beings should respect reason and virtue, and should not be judged by birth. Although these thoughts and beliefs are under the banner of knighthood, their spiritual essence is humanism. Don Quixote not only has firm and noble beliefs, but also has the courage to act and defend the truth with his life. He is a brave warrior image. Don Quixote's imaginary world of rivers and lakes is full of demons and monsters, and he will encounter hardships and tests at all times, but he is always indomitable and moves forward bravely, even though he is scarred and has no regrets. Don Quixote is still a childlike, wise and interesting person. During the journey, he and Sancho often asked and answered questions. Don Quixote at the dialogue level not only shows a flexible and clear mind, but also is full of wisdom. Listening to Don Quixote talk endlessly about life, society, etc. is a wonderful enjoyment.

Sancho Panza

is a typical example of small farmers under the feudal patriarchal system.

He is full of utilitarian considerations, timid, short-sighted, and greedy for petty gains. But he also has many advantages in his character: he is simple, kind, loyal, has compassion and a sense of justice, and has experience and wisdom in dealing with daily life. Sancho's character is also characterized by development. During his journey as a knight-errant, he was gradually influenced by Don Quixote's lofty character and ideals. In terms of values, there is a tendency to "converge" with Don Quixote, and in terms of personality, they complement Don Quixote, becoming a true knight-errant partner.

5. Artistic Features

Drawing on the strengths of knight novels and tramp novels, the plot unfolds with the protagonist's knightly travels, creating conditions for the novel to reflect a broad picture of social life; the protagonist three times The experiences of traveling echo each other; the main line of Don Quixote's knight-errant and some independent stories are related to each other, overcoming the common problems of loose plots in knight novels and tramp novels, and making the plot structure more rigorous. "Don Quixote" can be called a model of comic art. The author exposes the absurdity of chivalric literature by parodying the typical plots of chivalric novels.

When creating the two characters of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, contrast and exaggeration techniques are used to make them form interesting contrasts in everything from physical identity to character and thought; they often exaggerate the characters Certain characteristics of the body make it go to extremes, which further enhances the effect of humor and irony. In addition, the novel is full of puns, jokes, irony, and word games, which also make readers laugh.

6. The ideological content of this article

1. It embodies Don Quixote’s social ideals and life ideals.

2. It reflects that the purpose of Don Quixote's knight-errant is to rectify the evils of the times and restore the ancient prosperity.

3. Through the songs sung by Antonio, it also expresses the author’s love ideal and affirmation of beautiful love, and embodies the humanistic spirit of the Renaissance.