IS DON QUIXOTE A LOSER?

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One of the most controversial issues in academic discussions has been the inconsistent characterisation of Don Quixote as a madman with instances of sanity. What this article is mainly concerned with is the analysis of particularly the ending of this well known work where the representation of Don Quixote is completely left ambiguous in terms of his being triumphant or a loser. There is no critical agreement on the reasons why Cervantes created such an ambiguous character. However what seems to be clear regarding this issue is that, from the very beginning of the novel, Cervantes tries to portray Don Quixote as a madman, because the story begins with the narrator’s explicit interpretation about a poor gentleman called Alonso Quijano who seems to go insane from reading too many chivalric romances and decides to become an errant knight. Nonetheless, Quixote’s madness and naiveté seem undoubtedly to have put his life in danger while his restoring his health seems to have killed him. Therefore, the primary goal of this article is toclarify whether his alleged madness represented through his chivalric deeds makes him a loser or not.

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Loser , madness , society , hypocrisy , insanity

dicle university journal of social sciences institute

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dicle university journal of social sciences institute