Don Quixote Chap 1- 9

Cervantes- Don Quixote - Chapters 1 – 9
According to www.merriam-webster.com, quixotic means: “Foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals; especially: marked by rash, lofty romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action.”
This definition is extremely relevant to Don Quixote’s character and his consequent actions. The ideals by which Quixote conducts himself are those of the stories and characters in the books he sacrificed his livelihood to acquire. Quixote became consumed by the fantastical stories he had access to in these books, and he craved the next level of satisfaction; to be a part of such chivalrous tales.
My reading was interrupted by a call from my boyfriend who, when I told him I was reading Don Quixote, recalled that his father used to refer to my boyfriend and his childhood best friend as “Quixote y Sancho.” At this point, I had only read the first chapter and asked my boyfriend why he wasn’t offended that his father called him that name? Didn’t he know that Quixote was a crazy-lunatic wrapped up in a storybook world? But, my boyfriend clarified that his father called him Quixote because of his extraordinary imagination and fantastical adventures that he and his best friend constantly tried to portray between the ages of 5 and 10.
This discussion reshaped my perception of Quixote from an old, creepy, crazy idiot, to more of a dreamer with an incredible imagination, who chose to ignore the rules created by society and the church, and live his life through literature & imagination. Because of this revelation, from the point of my phone discussion through the ninth chapter, I began to imagine Quixote as a small child – a boy dressed up in plastic armor, makeshift cardboard helmet, wielding a plastic lance on his rocking horse. (However, his true age and ignorance is obvious with the predicaments he finds himself in after he decides to charge at men with his shattered lance and decrepit horse.)

1) The extreme capabilities of Quixote’s imagination are first revealed when he arrives at the inn and the events that ensue.
Quixote uses his literary knowledge and imagination to transform his perception and sight; as he approached the inn with prostitutes standing outside, into a castle with a moat, drawbridge, and towers.
Then, Quixote used his vast imagination and “stories” to manipulate his own sense of reality and expectations for what he believes is to ensue; thus he believes that he cannot only control what he perceives within himself, but also the actions of others that he anticipates and accepts as reality, (despite knowing they come from his own imagination). Quixote paused as he approached the “castle,” because he was waiting for “some dwarf to appear upon the embattlements and announce with a trumpet-blast, the arrival of the knight,”(p.32). He didn’t see a dwarf with a trumpet as he approached, but he expected the dwarf to appear since he believed himself to be a knight (though he acknowledged he had not been knighted officially), arriving at a castle, (perceived through his own manipulated sight and reality).
Furthermore, the fact that the prostitutes and “wag” of an innkeeper are laughing at Quixote and mocking him, bring to light how ridiculous he must be acting – so ridiculous that the “scum” of society are mocking his actions.
Quixote establishes himself as the opposite of a true knight; he represents everything that knighthood is not – especially when he beats the muleteers who he is supposed to be protecting, because he removes Quixote’s armor from the pig’s trough! The fact that his armor, absolutely sacred to true knights, is in a pig’s slop dish makes a big statement about his false knighthood and just how perverted it is!
The ridiculousness of this entire night is filled with various moments that Quixote acts radically, and makes himself look insane – even to prostitutes and muleteers at a brothel. This is where we first see the scary reality of Quixote’s mental state.
Also to note: 1) Everyone stares at Quixote through the window because the moon is so bright, they all see him pacing back & forth, sometimes stopping to lean on his lance; all the while Quixote is blatantly seen, exposed “transparent.”
2) Quixote transforms the disgusting salted cod and moldy bread into a feast in his mind – which he is unable to eat because he refuses to cut the ribbons holding his helmet on! These ribbons give him a certain femininity, and also childishness, which are two attributes that valiant knights would not possess.

2) I also thought the scene where Quixote finally awakens after two days in bed (post-injury), and is unable to find the library which his “friends” sealed off and burned most of his books to prevent any further perversions of the mind.
The barber, priest and housekeeper assumed a “three-stooges” image as they judged which books were worthy of being burned, and which should be saved.
The fact that their plan to seal up the wall to the library and burn his books seems so childish and futile, as there are obvious alternatives to finding this poisonous literature, but their trick works on Quixote! (But ultimately backfires).
They also tell Quixote that the devil….err, an enchanter (whose name is disputed) carried his books away. This only feeds Quixote’s distorted sense of reality as he now has an adventure to pursue in the quest of his books.
Quixote’s acceptance of such a ridiculous notion, which propels him to continue his fantasy adventures, is proof that he has completely separated his mind from reality. He is living, and interacting with the people around him, but he is not thinking rationally or in terms of what society finds acceptable. Quixote cannot just “snap out of it” as his friends hope he will, but it seems that despite Quixote is crazy, his friends are more ignorant than he. So who is really worse off?

Quixote’s character is described mockingly, sarcastically, and blatantly.
1) “He was ingenious enough,” (p.28) to make a makeshift helmet with cardboard.
2) “He strung these absurdities together with many others, all in the style of those that he’d learned from his books. This made his progress so slow, and the sun was rising so fast and becoming so hot, that his brains would have melted, if he’d had any,” (p.31)
3) “During his idle moments, (which accounted for most of the year), the hidalgo took to reading books …”(p. 24).
From all this I am thinking back to Dante- and how Quixote is the epitome of how NOT to use fictitious literature. People can find truth beneath the surface of chivalrous, romantic tales, but Quixote spends his time trying to live out the fantasies of the books that were created to clothe the “naked truth,” and entice readers to delve beneath the surface in order to learn something. Instead, Dante became so mesmerized by the language and images that he fell victim to literature’s false front.