The classic Knight’s Tale is a tale is the grandest and best tale ever to be told. We know this because everything described in a knight’s tale is always the most extreme it could be. If the man is larger than a normal sized man he is a giant. If there is a woman who needs help they are a princess in need of a knight’s help to rectify their kingdom and honor. If a lady is virtuous–I think you get the point.
In Don Quixote, which isn’t quite a knight’s tale, is exactly along these lines in the complete opposite direction. Up until now Don Quixote has been alone with his squire making up adventures to be had, spinning reality to fit his own belief of purpose. Sancho could dispute and argue, but Don Quixote’s view of the world prevails whatever the consequences are. In this reading we have a real adventure line itself up for Don Quixote. With the help of the Priest, a barber, Sancho, Cardenio, and the beautiful Dorotea.
But before then we must discuss what makes Don Quixote different from the average knight tale. The most important and obvious reason is that in the knight’s tale the reader is supposed to love he knight. We are supposed to root for the knight in all his affairs and believe in him even if he acts in his own interest. In Don Quixote, I’d say we are emotionally separate from him. We don’t care if he succeeds or fails. I’m not even sure what we want. In essence, Don Quixote in reality’s terms is a vigilante. He frees prisoners and kills sheep. From an outside perspective, The D.Q. does what he likes.
With this said, it can be derived the books biggest trick: things flip and change. People are constantly oscillating between poles.Early on in our reading after Sancho, the Priest, and the barber have gone to retrieve Don Quixote from his madness, we find Cardenio singing about his lost love Luscinda.
As a quick reminder: Cardenio is the man who was interupted by Don Quixote; he stopped his narrative and beat Don Quixote and Sancho.
Cardenio catches the attention of the Priest and the barber with these words: “And therefore, it’s no act of reason/to attempt to cure his passion/ when the remedies, in truth/are madness, perfidy, and death” (215). Cardenio is singing in a state of sanity, not in an insane fit. After the sonnet, the priest went up to Cardenio, “and in brief though very perceptive words implored and exhorted him to leave the wretched life he was pursuing there or else he might lose his life… At that moment Cardenio was completely rational, free of the fits of madness that so often drove him to fury” (216-217). Cardenio’s relationship to madness in the first quote is used as a tool to end an eternal suffering. Then, the priest lifts from him this spell his madness. Cardenio is suddenly free from his mental torture from a few words. Katie pointed this out and it’s important to notice the flip that occurs for the narrative to move forward.
After Cardenio’s return to sanity another person enters the narrative. This person is the beautiful Dorothea, the only rival to Luscinda.
If you can remember in the reading about the woman Don Fernando married first before stealing Luscinda, then when Dorothea speaks of her misfortune, we hear her side of the story. The very same story Cardenio just finished for the priest and the barber. The next thing we know, Cardenio has sworn to serve Dorothea in restoring what is rightlyfull hers and gaining what is his. Basically, to restore the lovers to the right lovers.
With this, Dorothea offers to obtain Quixote from his madness asking for a boon. She does so and he says he’ll do it. However Dorothea and the priest trick Don Quixote and Sancho by making them believe Dorothea is the Princess of Micomican. There is an elaborate lie happening, and Don Quixote is none the wiser. They tell him they are going to the city where Dorothea lives to defeat the giant who stole her kingdom.
All in all, this section of reading is more set up than anything. The lies keep piling up and we all keep asking how long Don Quixote can go before he figures everything that is happening to him is all a fiction. Or do they already know that? and we’re the ones three steps behind. Nevertheless, we are excited to see what happens to our knight now that he has a group of people both playing along and not playing along with him. We want to know what happens next, but in the next few chapters we will be reading about the very relevant Man who was Recklessly Curious.