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Don Quixote and Self-Knowledge 6/1/2017 7:44:04 PM
I once listened to an audiobook of "Don Quixote" that a narrator named Robert Whitfield read with skill and consistency. This was at least the fourth time I've been through the story. With each encounter I discover something new.
This time, I noticed how much Quixote's squire Sancho Panza steals the show in the second part. As I listened to some of Cervantes' account of Sancho's days as governor of Barataria, I believed that I had come in touch with one of the high points of imaginative literature in prose.
How fortunate we are to have this book. It pulsates with humanity and largeness of soul. Cervantes found a place in his heart for a cranky semi-madman who had no family or wealth or prestige in society and for an illiterate goat-herder who filled his brain with cliches that he called proverbs. The world has come to love Cervantes' creations. He gave his generous spirit to the future of storytelling. There are many very fine novels; "Don Quixote" will always enjoy a prominent place among them.
One evening, I heard a passage I hadn't noticed before, in chapter 110 or chapter 58 of the second part. Quixote and Sancho come across a group of laborers who are preparing to put on a a show in a nearby town. Among their props are sculptured reliefs of leaders of the church from days gone by, including St. Paul. Quixote says after inspecting the reliefs:
"I reckon it a good omen, brothers, that I have seen what I have seen, for these saints and knights professed, even as I do, the calling of arms. But the difference between us is that they were saints and fought in the heavenly fashion, and I am a sinner and fight in the human way. They conquered Heaven by force of arms, because Heaven suffers violence, but up till now I do not know what I am conquering by the force of my labors. But should my Dulcinea del Toboso be released from the pains she suffers...and my mind righted, it may be I shall direct my steps along a better path than I am now following." (Tr. J.M. Cohen, 1950. First publ by Penguin in 1950)
I found this confession a remarkable instance of a person coming to understand the world and himself and his own incapacity, a person who yearns for a better life and believes that he isn't hoping in vain. The insights this paragraph brings to mind could fill a volume.
