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"When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams—this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness—and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be."—Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Mancha

Few literary characters have captured the paradox of human existence as profoundly as Don Quixote. He is the madman, the dreamer, the fool—and yet, within his supposed insanity lies a radical truth: he refuses to see life as others do. While the world laughs at him, he remains committed to his vision, unshaken by rejection, ridicule, or disbelief.

Cervantes wrote Don Quixote de la Mancha in two volumes, the first published in 1605 and the second in 1615, during Spain’s Siglo de Oro (Golden Age), a period of immense artistic and literary achievement. Yet beneath the novel’s humor and irony, Cervantes was deeply engaged in a philosophical meditation on illusion and reality, individual will, and the ever-present conflict between personal conviction and societal expectations.

Italo Calvino saw Don Quixote as more than a dreamer—he saw him as a force that bends reality itself. Quixote’s world may be imaginary, but the sheer strength of his vision makes it almost real. Calvino called Don Quixote ‘polyphonic,’ a novel that does not just tell a story but questions the very nature of storytelling. Isn’t that exactly what happens when someone dares to live outside the prescribed narrative of society? Their reality becomes disruptive, forcing others to reckon with its existence.

At its core, Don Quixote is not just the story of a man who reads too many chivalric romances and decides to become a knight. It is the story of all individuals who dare to live according to their own truth, despite being called mad for doing so. Cervantes challenges the reader to ask: What is more foolish—to chase an impossible dream or to live a life dictated by the limitations imposed by others?

Spain at the time was an empire at its height but also one that was beginning to fracture. The rigid structures of feudalism, the deep influence of the Catholic Church, and the monarchy’s grip on power made it difficult for individuals to carve out their own destiny. Cervantes himself was no stranger to hardship—he had been a soldier, was captured and enslaved for five years in Algiers, and later struggled with financial difficulties and imprisonment. His personal experiences shaped his writing, infusing it with a deep awareness of human suffering and resilience.

Through Don Quixote, Cervantes presents a character who—despite his apparent foolishness—embodies the ultimate freedom: the courage to live by his own principles. He is rejected, attacked, and humiliated, yet he never abandons his quest. His very existence forces those around him to confront their own illusions and fears.

And isn’t that precisely what it means to stand for something in today’s world?

"Whenever humanity seems condemned to heaviness, I think I should fly like Perseus into a different space. I don't mean escaping into dreams or into the irrational. I mean that I have to change my approach, look at the world from a different perspective, with a different logic and with fresh methods of cognition and verification."—Italo Calvino, Six Memos for the Next Millennium (Lightness)

The Role of Sancho Panza: The Anchor to Reality

If Don Quixote represents idealism, vision, and the unwavering pursuit of a dream, then Sancho Panza is the grounding force, the pragmatist, the everyman who walks beside the visionary yet never fully leaves behind the weight of reality. Sancho follows Don Quixote out of loyalty, curiosity, and the hope of material reward, but he never fully embraces the knight’s delusions—at least, not at first.

He is both a companion a