Sancho Panza is an interesting and complex character whose attitude towards Don Quixote shifts and changes as this episodic novel progresses. A rustic peasant, Sancho at first considers Don Quixote, as most people who meet him do, to be a crazy and ridiculous old man. Sancho agrees to be his "squire" because he is poor, job opportunities are scarce in Spain, and working for Quixote promises to be easier and more of an adventure than his other alternatives. He is also promised an island, and is on the lookout for ways he can profit from the seeming insanity of his new employer.
He functions then, at first, as a hardheaded foil to Quixote—if Quixote has his head in the clouds and wants to live in a knightly romance and do idealistic deeds, Sancho is, in contrast, entirely practical, cynical, and down to earth. He feels he has found his sucker and will make the most of it. On the positive side, however, he often anxiously and earnestly gives Quixote good advice about avoiding trouble that Quixote ignores.
But—and this is what is interesting—as time goes on Sancho's character changes. He develops love and sympathy for his employer—and just as Quixote is becoming disillusioned and waking up from his dream of chivalry, it is the formerly cynical Sancho who urges him onward to pursue his dreams. In other words, over time, Sancho comes to need the dream of a better world that Don Quixote represents—as perhaps we all do.
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Describe Sancho's attitude towards Don Quixote in the story.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
"Mistaken Identity" is an amusing anecdote recounted by the famous author Mark Twain about an experience he once had while traveli...
-
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
De Gouges's Declaration of the Rights of Woman was enormously influential. We can see its influences on early English feminist Mary Woll...
-
As if Hamlet were not obsessed enough with death, his uncovering of the skull of Yorick, the court jester from his youth, really sets him of...
-
In both "Volar" and "A Wall of Fire Rising," the characters are impacted by their environments, and this is indeed refle...
No comments:
Post a Comment