Since the beginning of the novel, it has been obvious to the reader that Don Quixote is crazy. From the previous reading we had to do, I thought he was changing and starting to grow out of his delusional tendencies but from the last reading, I realized that he was back to his old self again. There are many examples of how he has stayed or even become more delusional from the past reading and I will provide you with some examples.
One example is from chapter forty-six when Don Quixote believed Dorothea when she said the inn was enchanted. She said this because Sancho told Don Quixote that he saw Dorothea and Ferdinand kiss. Sancho was trying to convince Don Quixote that Dorothea was not a princess by telling him that if Dorothea kissed Ferdinand, she must not be a real princess. For some odd reason, Don Quixote believed Dorothea over his trusted Squire Sancho. This proves that he has not changed at all because rather than trusting his noble squire who has been with him throughout all of his journeys, he trusts Dorothea just because thats what he wants to believe in.
Don Quixote believes in another fake enchantment in the end of the same chapter. This happens when the priest and the barber try to capture him and take him to his village. The priest and the barber put him in a cage blindfolded and the barber pretends to be a sage and predicts his r
eturn to his village and that he will get married to his beloved Dulcinea. He believes this lie and goes with it. It is really down right stupid of him to believe he is being enchanted when in reality he is being captured and put into a cage while blindfolded.
Probably the best example to show how Don Quixote is delusional is from chapter forty-nine. In this chapter, Sancho is trying to convince Don Quixote that he is not enchanted by asking him if he needs to use the restroom. I guess it was common sense for people back then to believe that enchanted people never needed to use the bathroom. Don Quixote tells Sancho that he does indeed need to use the restroom proving Sancho’s point that he is not enchanted. But when Sancho expresses his point to Don Quixote that he is not enchanted, Don Quixote immediately says in response on page 421, “but I have already told you that there are many forms of enchantment, and it well may be that in the course of time one sort has replaced another, and perhaps in the kinds they use nowadays those who have been enchanted do everything I do, although they did not do so before.” Don Quixote is just refusing to believe the truth at this point because he went so far as to make up a whole idea that there are different kinds of enchantments and that his enchantment allows him to still need to use the restroom. He also attacks a group of penitents thinking they are rouges but this example has become so usual in the novel that is doesn’t prove as much as the other examples that he is delusional. From believing Sancho is enchanted to believing himself is enchanted to believing he has some kind of special enchantment proves that is consciousness has completely gone awol. His attack on the group of penitents only adds to my point. From this reading, I have come to the conclusion that Don Quixote will never be mentally stable.
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