Don Quixote Chap 36-45 (Part 3)

3) Quote 2 – Chap. 37 & 38 Quixote esteems Knight Errantry above Scholars over Dinner

(a) “This is a goal that is certainly noble and generous and praiseworthy, but less so than the goal that arms have before them, which is peace, the greatest good to which men can aspire in this life,”(Don Quixote, chapter 37, page 354).

-Quixote earns the eager attention of everyone at the table with his arguments for peace, supported by the divine “letters” of the Bible – as God asks us to fight for peace. But as he shifts to talking about chivalry, his audience deems him as crazy with a “good brain.” It also interesting that he makes such a strong argument for peace when he spends so much of his time fighting with everyone he encounters – he later states that peace is the goal of ALL war, the ultimate treasure.

(b) “So although the soldier’s hardships are greater, his reward is much smaller.’ ‘…Grappled together the soldier has no more room for his charge than the two-foot wide timber at the prow; and despite this, and seeing before him many ministers of death threatening him as there are guns being aimed not a lance’s length from him, and knowing that one slip of his feet will send him down to visit the depth’ of Neptune’s dominions, he still, with an undaunted heart, and sustained by the honor that inspires him, makes himself a target for all those harquebuses and tries to storm his way across such a narrow bridge into the enemy vessel. And what is even more astonishing is that as soon as one soldier falls, never to rise until doomsday, another take this place; and, if this one also falls into the sea that waits him like one more enemy, another and another replace him without a moment’s pause between their deaths: the finest example of courage and daring to be found in all the extremities of war,”(Don Quixote, chapter 38, pages 357-358).

-Quixote compares and contrasts the importance and also the sacrifices made by scholars who write letters and knights who fight for peace. He argues that knighthood is not solely based on physical action and fighting, but that it also takes brain-power and logical reasoning to discern which battles are worth fighting to obtain the greatest good.

-Quixote is careful not to criticize letters written in the Bible, instead he esteems these as the most noble and valuable letters ever written, which articulate the ultimate goal that he and all knights fight for: peace.

-He also notes that “arms & letters” have a symbiotic relationship; letters/laws are needed in knighthood because there are laws in war, just as arms are needed to protect these letters/laws through defending each nation and government that carries out the letters of scholars.

-I was taken aback by Quixote’s arguments about the costs & rewards of being a soldier vs. that of a scholar. Things that cost the most are the things we value the most – this still rings true today and is relative to both material goods, but also the freedom of our country and lives of Americans that we fight so hard to defend today. He also talks about death, which is the COST for a soldier fighting for peace. The risk of one’s own life is the biggest and most costly sacrifice that once can give; we are no longer in existence without our own life. Quixote also describes the honor and courage that is upheld by soldiers, who in the face of death stand their ground because of their deeply rooted values. Also that for every soldier that falls to death, there will be another waiting to take his place.

-I don’t think that Quixote was talking like a crazy man at all – I think that his audience only looked at the surface of his speech, and assumed that Quixote was diminishing the value of an education and exalting knighthood (as he so often does). However, his illustration of what the TRUTH of honor, virtue and sacrifice are as individuals perform their functions in society and “fight for peace,” in their own way – some risk their lives, others take a less drastic approach. Luscinda demonstrated the characteristics of a soldier when she said she was willing to give her own life for her own virtue and truth - if she could not live her life truthfully and faithfully with Cardenio, she would rather die.

-Finally, I found it interesting that Quixote (the crazy fool) and Dorotea (a mere woman of inferior rank) are the characters bringing the TRUTH to light in these chapters. Dorotea and Quixote represent radical views of roles of women in society, and the role of the soldier in society – but they use valid arguments to defend knights and truth of honor and duty in society. Cervantes’ turns his back to what society deems as “reality” and uses the fiction of Quixote and inferiority of women to show everyone else what is the TRUTH & the SEEDS OF ENLIGHTENMENT. Making EVERYONE ELSE who esteems ABOVE Cervantes’ truth bearers (Quixote & Dorotea).

-Cervantes flips fiction, reality, societal truth & virtuous truth on its head.