"With sunken cheeks and gray hair, he spends his time reading stories of chivalry: when errant knights roamed the mountains and the seas rescuing maidens in danger, killing dragons and giants, establishing kingdoms of justice."
Readings that inspire him and at the same time make him a little crazy, so crazy that Don Quixote he chooses the adventure caparisoned in a rusty creaking armor, inherited from his great-great-grandparents, in addition to his horse as elderly and bony as he is, which he calls Rocinante.
Man's instinct to follow any star, to escape the monotony of everyday life, is so common that entire generations have not only accepted the madness of Don Quixote as an understandable fact, but they believed that he actually existed beyond the imagination of his inventor, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Who claimed to have created the character after reading an unpublished manuscript by an Arab historian.
It is believed that Don Quixote is a character that perfectly embodies the personality of its author
Cervantes began writing the book when he was already 50 years old and, from what is known, after having fought windmills himself all his life
He sought glory in battle of Lepanto, where he lost the use of his left hand. He was a prisoner of Turkish pirates from Algiers for six years. Luck had never been on his side, both as a writer and as a public official and for unclear issues he had been twice in prison, where he was also locked up shortly before his death, he was 68 years old.
What emerges in reading the book is the fear of failure, financial disaster and terror of ridicule that combine to give rise to a psycho-physical evil
Accompanied by the squire Sancho Panza, the fat peasant who rode a donkey, but was as concrete in his choices as his master was exalted by madness, gave birth to the most sensational fiasco "the battle against the windmills".
One day Don Quixote was traveling the plain of La Mancha, when he suddenly saw a group of windmills which he mistook for giant long-armed outlaws. Sancho pointed out that they were simple mills, but Don Quixote took no notice of it and, lowering his spear, spurred his mount to face them. The creaking wheel of the mill, driven by the wind, broke the knight's spear, throwing him to the ground while he said in amazement: "Such is fate in war and if I think about it, I am sure that this must be the work of a magician who turned giants into mills only to take away from me the glory of conquering them".
The fearless Don Quixote always ignored the doubts and jeers of those around him
Spanish philosopher José Ortega Y Gasset in his "Meditations su Don Quixote”, he punctually describes how it is a fact that there are men who are determined not to be satisfied with the reality that surrounds them. They aim to change the course of things, for this reason they refuse to repeat the acts that custom and tradition would force them to perform. These are also the heroes, because being yourself means "heroism".
For a man who is committed to being true to himself, the greatest danger lies in questioning his own goal by accepting the reality of others. But at some point, total dedication to a dream can transform a person into a being that to others is just crazy. Don Quixote devoted his energies to straightening those that appeared crooked: he was on the side of the angels. Ultimately, one can forgive the folly of those who, by serving their own dream, in a certain sense also serve all of humanity.
With this novel Cervantes intended above all to lash out against books of chivalry and the immoderate consumption that was done at the time of these readings.
Tutto the novel can be interpreted in a symbolic key, as a mirror of a society in crisis, the Spanish one of the period: depopulation of the countryside, small owners who go to the city looking for fortune and the nobility who are no longer up to it. The great and noble values of heroism, generosity, grandeur, on which chivalrous civilization was founded, appear devoid of meaning and where humanity, confused by the lack of new ideals, exalts itself by idealizing the past, just like Don Quixote of the Tip.
In a world that still struggles to find ideals, logics and hopes, those who do not align themselves with the masses can often seem "quixotic" with success or failure. Why take it if someone attributes this noble term to us, much better than being perfect in a society that condemns morality. “Madness is therefore a comforting illusion: Don Quixote's greatest defeat lies in his coming to his senses. Ultimately, one can forgive the folly of those who, by serving their own dream, in a certain sense also serve the whole of humanity."
Taken from the book and audio-book le Butterflies of Antilia
