Literature’s Most Misunderstood Novel

by Norman Berdichevsky (Oct. 2008)

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

To this glorious quest
That my heart will be peaceful and calm
And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
Hiller had no need of massive sets, choreography or rousing overtures. The score is more like chamber music and underscored, to focus attention on the characters. Most critics hated the film and obviously had been expecting something along the line of Fiddler on the Roof or Camelot. The film makes use of a double-plot in which the real Cervantes awaits trial by the Inquisition.

In the book, musical and film, Don Quixote sets forth to aid the weak and downtrodden and correct the injustices of a venal and corrupt society but becomes the constant target of their own misperceptions and failure to see reality as it is. He seeks to do great deeds without wavering from devotion to the ideals of chivalry, bravery, modesty, self-sacrifice, fair play and devotion to his lady, the noble and beautiful Dulcinea who is actually an ugly, stupid peasant shepherd-girl who takes care of swine and in the film she is portrayed as a whore. The film captures something of the majesty of the book but did not satisfy the expectations of an American audience with what was perceived as a tragic-comedy.

The book mocks the ideal of chivalry that put women on a pedestal to be worshipped and totally refutes the mistaken relationship that all effects or results must be due to a preordained cause that could have had no other outcome. This is the same logic that leads Don Quixote to believe that the giants he charged to do battle with were changed into windmills at the last moment by an evil sorcerer to frustrate his noble intent although Sancho had warned him beforehand that to attempt to joust against windmills would lead to disaster.

To comment on this article, please click here.

here.