onstruction of Aldonza as Dulcinea. But in due course he comes to really see Dulcinea as he wants her to be -- or at least to accept his inability to so see her as proof positive that he has been placed under a spell of enchantment (Cervantes 452-62).
That his delusions are beyond his control is more strongly suggested by his combats, such as the famous one with the windmills. The notion of an "enchantment" that caused him not to see Aldonza as Dulcinea was passed off on him by Sancho Panza; but Sancho cannot convince him that windmills are, in fact, windmills (Cervantes 110). After the battle at the Inn, Sancho again tries to force reality on him, and encourage him to give up the quest (Cervantes 184).
And so, Senior, your not being able to leap over the stable- yard wall or even get down off your horse was due to something other than enchantments. What I make of all this is that these adventures we go looking for will end up bringing us so many misadventures that we shan't know which is our right foot.
To which Don Quixote has a simple reply: "How little you know, Sancho, about the matter of chivalry!" Don Quixote is endlessly open to Sancho Panza's suggestions when they further his self-created myth, but not at all open when Sancho tries to
Yet Don Quixote shows, at times, an almost modern sort of cynical realism. Informed that a convict on his way to the galleys was condemned for being a pimp, Don quixote says that (Cervantes 243):
... he would not deserve ... to have to row in the galleys, but rather should be general and give orders there. For the office of pimp is not an indifferent one: it is a function to be performed by persons of discretion and is most necessary in a well ordered state; it is a profession that should be followed only by the well-born...
Here, Don Quixote seems all too clear-sighted, and far ahead of his time. We will return to the significance of this passage when w...