Don Quixote in culture. The cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha House of Quixote construction company

Eager to remake the world. There is a contradiction in the pages of the book. What the world really is and how the main character sees it are two different things. Romanticization played a cruel joke on the old nobleman, and his aspirations turned out to be useless. Meanwhile, Cervantes's novel had a huge impact on the development of world culture.

History of character creation

The Spaniard Miguel de Cervantes decided to make fun of chivalric literature after reading the book “Interludes of Romances.” It is noteworthy that Cervantes' seminal work was written in prison. In 1597, the author was imprisoned on charges of embezzlement of public funds.

The work of Miguel de Cervantes consists of two volumes. The first, “The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha,” was seen by bookworms in 1605, and the next novel, entitled “The Second Part of the Brilliant Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha,” was published ten years later. The year of writing is 1615.

The writer Germán Arciniegas used to say that a possible prototype for Don Quixote was the Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada. This man traveled a lot and became the first seeker of the mysterious Eldorado.

Biography and image of Don Quixote

The biography of the popular literary hero is shrouded in an aura of mystery. The author himself wrote that one can only guess about the character’s real name, but presumably the rider’s name is Alonso Quejana. Although some believe that his last name is Quijada or Quesada.

Don Quixote is considered the most daring interpretation of the novel. The American classic started working back in 1957 and spent 15 years filming. But Jesus Franco and Patsy Yrigoyen finished what they started. They restored the filming in 1992. The film received mixed reviews from critics.

• Miguel Cervantes planned his book as a parody, and the hero Don Quixote himself was invented to be ridiculed. But the eminent philosopher noted that the meaning of the novel is the most bitter of all in the entire history of mankind.
• The theater and film actor received the Soviet Union Prize for his leading role in the musical “Man of La Mancha.”

• On June 25, 1994, the audience saw a ballet called “Don Quixote, or Fantasies of a Madman.” Wrote the libretto.
• Although the book by Miguel de Cervantes became a world bestseller, one could only sympathize with the author’s financial situation.

Quotes

Don't get angry if they say something unpleasant to you. Live in harmony with your conscience, and let people tell themselves what they want. It is as impossible to tie the tongue of a slanderer as it is to lock a field with a gate.

“Now you can see an inexperienced adventurer,” noted Don Quixote. - These are giants. And if you are afraid, then move aside and pray, and in the meantime I will enter into a cruel and unequal battle with them.

If ever the rod of justice bends in your hands, then let it happen not under the weight of gifts, but under the pressure of compassion.

When noble women or modest girls sacrifice their honor and allow their lips to cross all boundaries of decency and divulge the cherished secrets of their hearts, this means that they are driven to extremes.

Ingratitude is the daughter of pride and one of the greatest sins that exist in the world.

Be moderate in your drinking for the reason that a person who drinks too much does not keep secrets and does not keep promises.

Bibliography

• 1605 - “The cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha”
• 1615 - “The second part of the brilliant knight Don Quixote of La Mancha”

Filmography

• 1903 - Don Quixote (France)
• 1909 - Don Quixote (USA)
• 1915 - Don Quixote (USA)
• 1923 - Don Quixote (Great Britain)
• 1933 - Don Quixote (France, Germany, Great Britain)
• 1947 - Don Quixote of La Mancha (Spain)
• 1957 - Don Quixote (USSR)
• 1961 - Don Quixote (Yugoslavia) (cartoon)
• 1962 - Don Quixote (Finland)
• 1964 - Dulcinea Toboso (France, Spain, Germany)
• 1972 - Man of La Mancha (USA, Italy)
• 1973 - Don Quixote is on the road again (Spain, Mexico)
• 1997 - Don Quixote returns (Russia, Bulgaria)
• 1999 - Chained Knights (Russia, Georgia)
• 2000 - The Last Knight (USA)

Did you know that Cervantes originally conceived Don Quixote simply as a humorous parody of the contemporary “tabloid” chivalric novels? But the result was one of the greatest works of world literature, which remains almost the most widely read to this day? How did this happen? And why did the mad knight Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza turn out to be so dear to millions of readers?

About this especially for "Thomas" said Viktor Simakov, candidate of philological sciences, literature teacher.

Don Quixote: the story of an idealist or a madman?

When talking about Don Quixote, one should distinguish between the plan consciously formulated by the author, its final embodiment and the perception of the novel in subsequent centuries. Cervantes's original intention was to satirize chivalric romances by creating a parody of a mad knight.

However, in the process of creating the novel, the idea underwent changes. Already in the first volume, the author, consciously or not, rewarded the comic hero - Don Quixote - with touching idealism and a sharp mind. The character turned out to be somewhat ambiguous. He, for example, pronounced a famous monologue about the bygone golden age, which began with these words: “Blessed are the times and blessed is the age that the ancients called golden - and not because gold, which in our Iron Age represents such a huge value, in that happy times were given for nothing, but because the people who lived then did not know two words: yours and mine. In those blessed times everything was common.”

Monument to Don Quixote. Cuba

Having finished the first volume, Cervantes seemed to have finished the entire novel. The creation of the second volume was helped by an accident - the publication of a fake continuation of Don Quixote by a certain Avellaneda.

This Avellaneda was not such a mediocre author as Cervantes declared him to be, but he distorted the characters of the heroes and, logically, sent Don Quixote to a madhouse. Cervantes, who had previously felt the ambiguity of his hero, immediately set about the second volume, where he not only emphasized the idealism, sacrifice and wisdom of Don Quixote, but also gave wisdom to the second comic hero, Sancho Panza, who previously seemed very narrow-minded. That is, Cervantes ended the novel not at all the way he began it; as a writer he evolved along with his heroes - the second volume came out deeper, more sublime, more perfect in form than the first.

Four centuries have passed since the creation of Don Quixote. All this time, the perception of Don Quixote has been changing. Since the times of romanticism, for most readers, Don Quixote has been a tragic story about a great idealist who is not understood or accepted by the people around him. Dmitry Merezhkovsky wrote that Don Quixote turns everything he sees in front of him into a dream. He challenges the usual, the ordinary, trying to live, guided by ideals in everything, moreover, he wants to turn back time to the golden age.

Don Quixote. John Edward Gregory (1850-1909)

To the people around him, the hero seems strange, crazy, somehow “not like that”; For him, their words and actions evoke pity, sadness or sincere indignation, which is paradoxically combined with humility. The novel really provides the basis for such an interpretation, exposes and complicates this conflict. Don Quixote, despite any ridicule and mockery, continues to believe in people. He is ready to suffer for any person, ready to endure hardships - with the confidence that a person can become better, that he will straighten up, jump above his head.

In general, Cervantes's entire novel is built on paradoxes. Yes, Don Quixote is one of the first pathological images (that is, the image of a madman. – Note ed.) in the history of fiction. And after Cervantes, there will be more and more of them every century, until, finally, in the 20th century, almost the majority of the main characters in novels will be crazy. However, this is not what is important, but the fact that as we read Don Quixote, we get the feeling that the author is slowly, not at all immediately, showing the hero’s wisdom through his madness. So in the second volume the reader clearly faces the question: who is really mad here? Is it really Don Quixote? Aren't those who mock and laugh at the noble hidalgo crazy? And it is not Don Quixote who is blinded and maddened in his childhood dreams, but the people around him, unable to see the world as this knight sees it?

Who “blessed” Don Quixote for his feat?

It is important to understand, as Merezhkovsky writes, that Don Quixote is a man from that ancient era, when the values ​​of good and evil were formed not based on personal experience, but with an eye to what authoritative people of the past, for example, Augustine, Boethius or Aristotle, said . And any important life choice was made only with support and an eye on the great, authoritative people of the past.

Same for Don Quixote. For him, the authors of chivalric novels turned out to be authoritative. The ideals he read and absorbed from these books were accepted by him without hesitation. They, if you like, determined the “dogmatic content” of his faith. And the hero of the novel devoted himself entirely to bringing these principles of the past into the present, “to make it come true.”

And even when Don Quixote says that he wants to achieve the glory of a sad knightly feat, then this glory is important to him precisely as an opportunity to become a conductor of these eternal ideals. Personal glory is of no use to him. Therefore, one might say, the authors of chivalric novels themselves “authorized” him for this feat.

Did Cervantes mock his hero?

Cervantes is a man of the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, and the laughter of that time is quite rude. Let's remember Rabelais or the comic scenes in Shakespeare's tragedies. Don Quixote was intended to be a comic book, and indeed it seemed comic to Cervantes' contemporaries. Already during the writer’s lifetime, his heroes became, for example, characters in Spanish carnivals. The hero is beaten, and the reader laughs.

Alleged portrait of Cervantes

It is precisely this inevitable rudeness of the author and his readers that Nabokov does not accept, who in his “Lecture on Don Quixote” was indignant at the fact that Cervantes mocked his hero so mercilessly. The emphasis on the tragic sound and philosophical issues of the novel is entirely the merit of the authors of the 19th century, romantics and realists. Their interpretation of Cervantes's novel has now obscured the writer's original intent. Her comic side appears in the background for us. And here is the big question: what is more significant for the history of culture - the thought of the writer himself or what we see behind it? Dmitry Merezhkovsky, anticipating Nabokov, wrote that the writer himself did not really understand what kind of masterpiece he had created.

Why did a clownish parody become a great novel?

The secret of such popularity and significance of Don Quixote is due to the fact that the book constantly provokes more and more new questions. Trying to understand this text, we will never reach the end. The novel doesn't give us any definitive answers. On the contrary, he constantly eludes any complete interpretations, flirts with the reader, provokes him to dive deeper and deeper into the semantic composition. Moreover, the reading of this text will be “their own” for everyone, very personal and subjective.

This is a novel that miraculously evolves with the author before our eyes. Cervantes deepens his concept not only from the first volume to the second, but also from chapter to chapter. Jorge Luis Borges, it seems to me, rightly wrote that reading the first volume when there is a second is, in general, no longer necessary. That is, “Don Quixote” is a unique case when the “sequel” turned out to be much better than the “original”. And the reader, rushing further into the depths of the text, feels an amazing immersion and increasing sympathy for the hero.

Monument to Cervantes and his heroes in Madrid

The work was and still is opening up new facets and dimensions that were not noticeable to previous generations. The book took on a life of its own. Don Quixote came into the spotlight in the 17th century, then influenced many authors during the Enlightenment (including Henry Fielding, one of the creators of the modern type of novel), then aroused successive delight among romantics, realists, modernists, and postmodernists.

It is interesting that the image of Don Quixote turned out to be very close to the Russian worldview. Our writers often turned to him. For example, Prince Myshkin, the hero of Dostoevsky’s novel, is both “Prince Christ” and at the same time Don Quixote; Cervantes' book is specifically mentioned in the novel. Turgenev wrote a brilliant article in which he compared Don Quixote and Hamlet. The writer formulated the difference between two seemingly similar heroes who put on a mask of madness. For Turgenev, Don Quixote is a kind of extrovert who gives himself entirely to other people, who is completely open to the world, while Hamlet, on the contrary, is an introvert who is closed in on himself, fundamentally fenced off from the world.

What do Sancho Panza and King Solomon have in common?

Sancho Panza is a paradoxical hero. He is, of course, comical, but it is in his mouth that Cervantes sometimes puts amazing words that suddenly reveal the wisdom and wit of this squire. Moreover, this is especially noticeable towards the end of the novel.

At the beginning of the novel, Sancho Panza is the embodiment of the traditional image of a rogue in Spanish literature of that time. But Sancho Panza's rogue is a lousy one. All his trickery boils down to successful finds of someone's things, some kind of petty theft, and even then he is caught in the act. And then it turns out that this hero is talented in something completely different. Towards the end of the second volume, Sancho Panza becomes the governor of a fake island. And here he acts as a prudent and intelligent judge, so one cannot help but want to compare him with the wise Old Testament King Solomon.

So, at first, the stupid and ignorant Sancho Panza turns out to be completely different by the end of the novel. When Don Quixote ultimately refuses further knightly deeds, Sancho begs him not to despair, not to deviate from the chosen path and to move on - to new exploits and adventures. It turns out that he has no less adventurism than Don Quixote.

According to Heinrich Heine, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are inseparable from each other and form a single whole. When we imagine Don Quixote, we immediately imagine Sancho nearby. One hero in two faces. And if you count Rocinante and Sancho the donkey - in four.

What kind of chivalric romances did Cervantes ridicule?

Initially, the genre of chivalric novels originated in the 12th century. In the times of real knights, these books embodied current ideals and ideas - courtly (rules of good manners, good manners, which later formed the basis of knightly behavior. - Note ed.) literary, religious. However, it was not them that Cervantes parodied.

“New” romances of chivalry appeared after the introduction of printing technology. Then, in the 16th century, they began to create light, entertaining reading about the exploits of chivalry for a wide, already literate public. In fact, this was the first experience of creating book “blockbusters”, the purpose of which was very simple - to relieve people of boredom. During the time of Cervantes, chivalric romances no longer had any relation to either reality or current intellectual thought, but their popularity did not fade.

It must be said that Cervantes did not consider Don Quixote his best work at all. Having conceived Don Quixote as a humorous parody of the chivalric novels that were then written for the entertainment of the reading public, he then undertook to create a real, genuine chivalric novel - The Wanderings of Persiles and Sikhismunda. Cervantes naively believed that this was his best work. But time showed that he was wrong. This, by the way, often happened in the history of world culture, when a writer considered some works to be the most successful and important, and subsequent generations chose completely different ones for themselves.

Title page of the Spanish edition of Amadis, 1533

And something amazing happened with Don Quixote. It turned out that this novel is not only a parody that has outlived the original. It was thanks to Cervantes that these “tabloid” chivalric romances were immortalized. We would not know anything about who Amadis Galsky, Belyanis the Greek or Tyrant the White were, if not for Don Quixote. This happens when a text that is important and significant for many generations pulls along entire layers of culture.

Who is Don Quixote compared to?

The image of Don Quixote is somewhat reminiscent of an Orthodox holy fool. And here it must be said that Cervantes himself, towards the end of his life, gravitated more and more towards Franciscanism (Catholic mendicant monastic order founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. - Note ed.). And the image of Francis of Assisi, as well as his Franciscan followers, in some ways echoes the Orthodox holy fools. Both of them consciously chose a poor lifestyle, wore rags, walked barefoot, and constantly wandered. Quite a lot of work has been written about Franciscan motifs in Don Quixote.

In general, quite a lot of parallels arise between the plot of the novel and the gospel narrative, as well as life stories. The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset wrote that Don Quixote is “a Gothic Christ, withered by the latest melancholy, the funny Christ of our outskirts.” Miguel de Unamuno, another Spanish thinker, titled his commentary on Cervantes's book The Lives of Don Quixote and Sancho. Unamuno styled his book after the life of the saint. He writes about Don Quixote as a “new Christ” who, despised and reviled by everyone, walks through the Spanish countryside. This book reformulated the famous phrase that if Christ had appeared on this earth again, we would have crucified him again (it was first recorded by one of the German romantic writers, and later repeated by Andrei Tarkovsky in “The Passion of Andrew”) .

By the way, the title of Unamuno’s book will later become the title of a film by Georgian director Rezo Chkheidze. Even Vladimir Nabokov drew parallels between the plot of the novel and the gospel story in his “Lectures on Don Quixote,” although it is difficult to suspect anyone but Nabokov of any special interest in religious themes.

Indeed, Don Quixote, together with his squire Sancho Panza, especially in the second part of the novel, very much resemble Christ and his apostle. For example, this is noticeable in the scene when in one city local residents begin to throw stones at Don Quixote and laugh at him, and then even hang a sign on him for fun that says “Don Quixote of La Mancha,” which is very reminiscent of another famous inscription, “Jesus of Nazareth.” , King of the Jews."

How is the image of Christ reflected in world literature?

Even St. Augustine considered becoming like Christ as the goal of Christian life and a means of overcoming original sin. If we take the Western tradition, St. Thomas a à Kempis wrote about this, and St. Francis of Assisi proceeded from this idea. Naturally, this was reflected in literature, for example, in “The Little Flowers of Francis of Assisi,” the biography of the saint, so valued, including by Cervantes.

There is “The Little Prince” with a hero who came to earth to save, if not all people, but at least one person (that’s why he is small). There is an amazing play by Kai Munch “The Word”, recently published in the journal “Foreign Literature”, but long ago known to cinephiles from the brilliant film adaptation by Carl Theodor Dreyer. There is a novel by Nikas Kazantzakis “Christ is Crucified Again.” There are also texts with rather shocking images - from a traditional religious point of view. All this indicates that gospel history is one of the foundations of European culture. And judging by the new and new variations on the themes of the Gospel images (no matter what strange transformations they undergo), this foundation is quite strong.

Judging by Don Quixote, evangelical motifs can appear in literature implicitly, latently, even imperceptibly for the author himself, simply due to his natural religiosity. You need to understand that if the 17th century author had intentionally introduced religious motifs into the text, he would have emphasized them much more noticeably. The literature of that time most often openly demonstrates techniques, does not hide them; Cervantes thinks the same way. Accordingly, speaking about religious motives in the novel, we independently build a complete picture of the writer’s worldview, conjecture what he outlined with only a few timid strokes. The novel allows this. And this is also his true modern life.

Now, after 8 months, and 6 months were promised under the contract, our construction was completed. The builders left, leaving behind heaps of garbage, cigarette butts, nails, and screws. The snow melted and everything immediately became visible. And now, in order: they were built by the House Quixote company. We entered into an agreement on August 29, 2018 and within 3 days we paid 1m 200 thousand. (first payment), and construction actually began 1.5 months later. The money was paid, but the foreman Alexey fed him with promises... The money was in the bank, so no interest was received and there was no construction. After each part of the payment, we waited for the start of the next stage of work 1-1.5 (we lost our money on this). Architect Daniil Vasyukov, apparently due to his youth and inexperience, did not pay our close attention to many of the nuances in our project: the opening of the balcony door to the veranda turned out to be very narrow (we were told that all clients were happy); the garage was designed in height without our participation; the porch was designed without our consent and we saw all this during construction, when everything was built. When we drew attention to these points, we were told that we had signed everything and nothing could be changed. Be careful when signing projects, they can deceive you in order to surprise you with the project, and in fact take more money. This also happened with windows. Our windows should all be tilt-and-turn, but in fact two of our windows are simply tilt-and-turn. In response to all our requests regarding windows, the architect said that he would sort everything out and redo it, but nothing was remade and the money was not returned. After you have paid the first installment under the contract, the office communicates with you differently: they promise, but do nothing. Foreman Alexey Andreev is extremely incompetent in many matters; one gets the impression that he has no construction education. He imposed additional work and offered to pay for it not through the office, but directly to the construction team and took a percentage from this. The foreman tried to hide construction defects from us, when we discovered them and pointed them out to him, he said that it was no big deal and it would do! Constantly monitor the work of the team!!! Now about the construction teams. This company does not have its own builders on staff: the foreman is looking for builders on the side! Accordingly, they have no experience in building frame houses. They did everything for the first time with us! The crews are not paid for the work done and therefore they either flee the site or beg for money from the customer. We changed 5 teams... We didn’t even think that the construction would drag on for 8 months and so many nerves and hemorrhoids! ! If we had not controlled all the construction, then everything would have been much worse! After signing the act of acceptance and handover of the house, we saw still hidden deficiencies and contacted the company with a request to eliminate these deficiencies under the guarantee that we were promised for 15 years. The company told us that they would consider our complaint and asked us not to write bad reviews and not to sue, but there was no answer... After communicating with this company, I was left with a negative aftertaste and a lot of damaged nerves. The company personnel with whom we spoke are: Timur - manager, Daniil Vasyukov - architect, Alexey Andreeev - foreman, Ivan Khraputsky - manager, when they communicated with us, they promised that everything would be wonderful, but in fact there were continuous nerves and frustrations... We recommend You should not deal with this company. We did not write this review by order, our contract number is 1808-070, 08/29/2018. We have experienced all this ourselves, think again before entering into an agreement with this company. And we are collecting documents to file a claim in court.