Don Quixote Chapters 1-9

In Chapter 2, on page 8, the author writes, “Now as everything that our adventurer saw and conceived was, by his imagination, moulded to what he had read, so in his eyes the inn appeared to be a castle, with its four turrets, and pinnacles of shining silver, together with its drawbridge, deep moat, and all the appurtenances with which such castles are usually described.” This immediately tells me that the character of Don Quixote doesn’t live in the “real world.” He has a big imagination, of things that he wants to see, he imagines it in his head, and they appear. Like in this example, he has been on the road, and imagined a castle, so all these images that represented the castle showed up, like the silver, drawbridge, moat, and even the princesses. I can see using his imagination as an ongoing theme in the story, because later on he imagines Giants, even though they are really Windmills. I think the text states about Don Quixote as a character, is he is not like most people. He could be seen as being courageous, brave, and heroic, but he does some things that don’t make sense. It was a pretty creative to have an Inn and turn it into a castle in Don Quixote’s head.

In Chapter 7, page 29, the author writes again about the imagination of Don Quixote. This is when we first hear about the windmills. “He recommended himself devoutly to his lady Dulcinea, beseeching her to succour him in the present danger, covering himself with his buckler, and setting his lance in the rest, he rushed on as fast as Rozinante could gallop, and attacked the first mill before him. having run his lance into the sail, the wind whirled the latter about with so much violence that it broke the lance to shivers, dragging horse and rider after it, and tumbling them over and over on the plain, in very evil plight. Sancho Panza hastened to his assistance, as fast as he could carry him; and when he came up to his master, he found him unable to stir, so violent was the blow which he and Rozinante had received in their fall.” This was funny, why would anyone attack a windmill? Giants are not even close to looking like windmills! But, I’m going to continue with the theme that I said before, with the imagination. Don Quixote has an interesting imagination, seeing things that aren’t really there. He thought he saw Giants, so wanted to attack them, when in reality they weren’t Giants at all. I think that his imagination will get him into trouble in the future. He sees things differently, so he will get penalized for it. It makes me wonder what else Don Quixote is going to see, that is mistaken for something else. I know there will be more times that Don Quixote uses his imagination in seeing something that’s not really there.