The Literature Book

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imitation of them. Yet unlike these

romantic heroes, the characters of

Don Quixote worry about everyday

concerns, such as food and sleep.

They travel through a world of

taverns and windmills, along fairly

nondescript roads and paths. The

characters occupy an ordinary

setting that resembles our world.

On another level of engagement,

the novel also operates according

to the literary approach known

as “realism”: everything happens

within the unities of time and

place (the action in the book is

contemporary with the time it was

written, it adheres to a specifc

geographical region, and is broadly

chronological), without magical or

mythical intervention.

Giants of the imagination

Despite this realism, illusion has

its place in the novel—but only in

the mind of its central character.

Don Quixote’s encounters with

innkeepers, prostitutes, goatherds,

soldiers, priests, escaped convicts,

and scorned lovers are magnified

by his imagination into the kind of

chivalrous quests that might be

undertaken by the knight Amadis

of Gaul, in the romances that bear

his name. Donning his rusty armor,

mounting the ancient horse he

renames Rocinante, and enlisting

the simple laborer Sancho Panza

as his “squire,” Don Quixote—in

the best tradition of chivalric

romances—announces his love for

the peasant girl he calls Dulcinea.

In his realm of fantasy the everyday

is transformed into the extraordinary,

the lasting symbol of which are the

windmills of La Mancha, elevated ❯❯

See also: The Canterbury Tales 68–71 ■ First Folio 82–89 ■ The Decameron 102 ■ Amadis of Gaul 102 ■

The Tin Drum 270–71 ■ Hopscotch 274 –75 ■ If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler 298–99

RENAISSANCE TO ENLIGHTENMENT

The book is grounded

in the humdrum realities

of everyday life—the inns, roads,

and windmills of La Mancha.

The characters know that

they are written about in a story,

keeping the reader aware that they are

engaging with a fictional tale.

Don Quixote thinks he is able to choose

his own identity, taking on the role of a

questing knight.

Quixote’s madness transforms

the mundane into the extraordinary –

windmills become giants, for example.

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