Don Quixote, a critical (and apologetic) adventure

Abstract

In this text, I intend to interpret Cervantes’s Don Quixote from a moral point of view. I use two categories that I borrow from Adorno’s conception of philosophy: criticism and apology. In my view, in Don Quixote’s perception of reality there is an idea of justice that implies an ideology that includes some transgressing elements in relation with the morals and politics of his historical context. I connect these transgressing elements with two outstanding contributions of modern Iberian thought: ius gentium and casuistry. In my view, Don Quixote fights for peace and understanding in politics and for freedom of consciousness in morals. He wrestles with a political and moral construction of reality. Apparently, he always fails. But, in his failures, sometimes he wins and sometimes he loses. On the one hand, Don Quixote wins whenever he struggles with a fact: he misunderstands it and he reacts according with his view, but, in doing that, he shows that a change is possible in a moral and political state of facts. Don Quixote’s defeat conveys a way of criticism: he launched an attack on the social construction of reality held and kept by the establishment of his time. On the other hand, Don Quixote loses when he struggles with an idol of theatre: he misunderstands it too, and he doesn’t realize that it is a creation of established powers. In those cases, his defeats imply a double victory of the establishment: in the order of facts and in the order of beliefs. In these cases, Don Quixote’s defeat means an apology of the establishment of his time. But, even in that case, it is possible to deconstruct this apology. By way of Cervantes’ humour, readers can deconstruct this apology and see criticism in Don Quixote’s adventure.