A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

OF
DON QUIXOTE AND THE WINDMILLS







Submitted by:
Shairamae Go

Submitted to:
Mr. Matt Guitguiten


A Critical Analysis of a Short Story
Don Quixote and the Windmills is an excerpt from a Spanish novel Don Quixote written
by Miguel de Cervantes. Don Quixote was cited as the "best literary work ever written. It is
considered the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire
Spanish literary canon. The novel talks about a man named Don Quixote who gets wrapped up in
the fantasy world of knights and heroes, hopes that he could also become a knight and become
famous and rich. He is very delusional about everything and hopeful of becoming wealthy and
famous someday. In Don Quixote, Cervantes contrasts reality and imagination through Don
Quixote and Sancho Panza. Miguel de Cervantes shows how imagination, fantasy and reality
will be presented and will play an important role in the life of Don Quixote.
The story begins with a man named Don Quixote, a Spanish gentleman who spent most
of his knight reading books about knights and adventure books. He decided to become a knight,
traveling around the world in shining armor and with a horse which he called Rosinante as he
searched for adventures. He thinks a knight should have a fair lady so he decided on a healthy
farm girl he had once admired and named her Dulcinea del Taboso. Don Quixote convinces a
simple farm boy, Sancho Panza to go with him as his squire and off they went on series of
adventures. Sacho Panza agrees to be his squire because of Don Quixotes promise that he will
become rich, famous and governor of the islands or the kingdoms that they won.
They come across a field of windmills, which Don Quixote sees as a group of giants. He
tells Sancho he is going to slay them and take their riches. Sancho tells him that they are not
giants but windmills. Don Quixote retorts that Sancho is not experienced in this matter of
adventures and that explains why he cant see that they are clearly giants. Sancho gets confused
but tries to convince Don but he races towards the windmills. He attacks one of the windmills
with his sword and his lance gets caught in the windmills sail, throwing him and Rocinante to
the ground. Sancho comes to help and tells him that it was foolish to attack a bunch of windmills.
When it becomes clear to Don Quixote that it was just a bunch of windmills, he argues that the
evil magician Freston changed the giants into windmills in order to deprive him of his victory.
With the aid of his squire, the knight once more mounted on Rocinante, who stood there badly
injured.
After spending a lot of time reading books about knights and their adventures, he decided
to become a knight himself. He gets a shining armor, a horse which he names Rocinante, a fair
lady who he named Dulcinea del Taboso and everything that a knight should have. This shows
that he is so involved with these fantasies that he slowly starts to lose touch with reality and
begins to believe that he is one of these fiction heroes. He has gone delusional and doesnt know
the difference between reality and fantasy anymore. The books of chivalry have left Don Quixote
incapable of seeing reality.
When Don Quixote convinces Sancho Panza to be his squire, he promises Sancho, that
among the knights-errand of old it was very common custom to make squires governors of the
island or the kingdoms that they won. This clearly shows how confident and proud he is that he
will be able to keep his promises to Sancho without being hesitant for a second that he might not
be able to accomplish or fulfill his promises. We can say that Don Quixote is blinded by his ego
that everything will turn out well and that he can do anything. He is also very persuasive.
Furthermore, the part where Don Quixote perceives the windmills as giants and tries to
attack one of the windmills, we can see that Don Quixote persists in living in a fantasy world
even when he is able to see reality for a moment. Don Quixote briefly connects with reality after
Sancho points out that the giants are merely windmills, but Don Quixote immediately makes an
excuse, claiming that the evil magician Freston changed the giants into windmills. Don Quixote
has deceived himself with his books of chivalry that he seeks to make up excuses even in the
face of reality. He seems so foolish and stupid for not realizing the truth.
Miguel de Cervantes is trying to say that humans would rather believe in lies and
falseness rather than live their own lives which they perceive as boring and uninteresting, this is
especially true during the old times when what people did the most during their past time was
just reading. Miguel de Cervantes heeds a warning to all who want to live a life of irrationality
and how a perception away from reality can become dangerous when taken seriously.