The Don Quixote experience is a combination of kindheartedness and crazy. Based on the things Don Quixote does, he can come off as a very kind person or as a weirdo dressed in armor. Don Quixote’s actions also have two different effects on the people around him. His actions can help people and make them feel better or his actions can cause harm to himself or others. The Don Quixote experience is certainly entertaining but maybe, due to its hot and cold nature, not something that would be wise to get entangled in.

 

Don Quixote, being the hopeless romantic that he is, is always able to bring light to any situation, good or bad. He is able to see the best in people which allows the people around him to see the best in themselves. From Aldonza Lorenzo to the innkeeper to the prostitutes, Don Quixote only sees these people as them as their best selves. Don Quixote doesn’t see a poor farm girl, nor a regular innkeeper, nor a couple of lowly prostitutes. Don Quixote sees the love of his life, Dulcinea, he sees the keeper of a castle, and he sees two beautiful princesses. Don Quixote brightens up the lives of the people around him and now he is offering his services to Marcela.

 

This quote from Chapter 2 shows how Don Quixote sees Dulcinea.

“O Princess Dulcinea, lady of this captive heart, a grievous wrong hast thou done me to drive me forth with scorn, and with inexorable obduracy banish me from the presence of thy beauty. O lady, deign to hold in remembrance this heart, thy vassal, that thus in anguish pines for love of thee.”

 

It’s Don Quixote’s crazy personality that I believe is the beginning of the entire story. If there was no crazy side then the story would not have existed. It’s also Don Quixote’s craziness that keeps him as a relatable character in the story, in that if he were only a great person helping people and having no flaws he wouldn’t be someone people could relate with.

 

Don Quixote’s craziness gets him into a lot of trouble. He fights the guests at the inn. He gets beaten up by the merchants. He fights the monks. He is always getting into trouble when he tries to help people. When he fights the guests at the inn he is causing harm and being reckless but Don Quixote thinks he is doing the right thing. And that is what is most interesting about every time he gets himself into trouble like this. He always thinks he is doing the right thing.

 

For a somewhat elderly man riding around on horseback wearing knights armor in a time where knights are a thing of the past is not something normal. Now for this man to go around Spain and either touch the hearts of those around him or cause harm to them is even more strange. I believe that the strangeness of the story is the reason we still talk about it today, and because this story is the first of its kind, and in a way it’s the only one that has truly stood the test of time.