Though the lands of La Mancha and Camelot were far apart, the stories of both Don Quixote of La Mancha and King Arthur of Camelot have similar literary concepts. The stories are comparable in that they both involve a type of “courtly love” and romance as well as foils to help give characters defining characteristics.
The Arthurian legends and the parody of Don Quixote still remain popular stories, because they can still inspire and entertain all ages. In the stories of Don Quixote and Arthur, romance plays a key part. Arthur was born to King Uther and Igraine, parents who were not married at the time that his mother first became pregnant. Although that isn’t exactly considered, “romantic”, the romantic notion of courtly love continued later in Arthur’s life when his best friend “Sir Lancelot” fell in love with his wife, Queen Guinevere. In the novel Don Quixote, Cervante’s concepts of romance are the same, even though they are skewed to make the story more comedic. The “knight errant,” Don Quixote, dedicated himself to a bar-maid whom he barely knew; she wasn’t even a noblewoman as was tradition! Don Quixote’s “courtly love” with Dulcinea was an insanely conceived way for him to try to follow the normal knight “code.”
Despite the fact that his love interest wasn’t exactly ideal, he did worship her from afar, just like Tristan and Iseult, and Lancelot and Guinevere.A must in all medieval knight legends was the “side kicks” to the main hero, often a squire or a fellow knight. Generally foils were the complete opposite of the hero and lots of times they were everything the hero wasn’t, even though they were best friends or very helpful to their hero counterparts. In the tales of Arthur, Lancelot was the king’s counterpart. Lancelot was not as shining as his idol at first. He was a lonely young nobleman who wanted to prove that his outward appearance would one day be out matched by his skills and talents. He became who he wanted to be (while still an outsider) because of his idol, King Arthur. In Don Quixote, his sidekick (a married peasant and famer,) serves as a perfect squire to his crazy master and counterpart, Don Quixote. The short and plump farmer, who rides on a measly donkey, is completely uneducated, yet he tries to help his master see reality. Sancho provides many opportunities for Don Quixote to have humorous and witty lines that contradict him. It is significant to the comparison of the two tales that Arthur’s best friend became his foil, betraying him and in part, causing his downfall, while Quixotic’s newfound friend and foil, ironically, stays loyal to him until the end.
Even in our twenty-first century society, there are still important parts of literature that almost every story has. There are problems that the heroes have to face, such as Arthur having to punish his wife over his best friend, and Don Quuixote being in love with a “lady” who is a common barmaid. Each individual Arthurian legend, and the novel of Don Quixote contains metaphors, descriptions, details, trials or problems, and at the end, everything is resolved (whether happily or sadly.) Because of Cervante’s, and the many authors of Arthurian tales, wonderful adventures, heroism, love stories, and humor, both stories remain popular to this day.
Overall the stories of King Arthur and Don Quixote were fairly similar. Both stories included lots of romantic and chivalrous drama, as well as character foils to support both the plot and the heroes, and finally, because of the literary techniques and devices, both the heroes and their stories remain well known, highly acclaimed classics of literature.
2 comments:
I probably could have finished, but I got a headache trying to read the words. The colors aren't a good combo for reading.
>_< Wow, sorry Moe Joe. I'll try and fix that...
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