Re: SP's sarcastic and sweeeet wife -- Great Books II

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6], 7 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 23:42:36 02/10/08 Sun
Author: CLeJeune
Subject: Re: SP's sarcastic and sweeeet wife
In reply to: mnaatjes 's message, "Re: SP's sarcastic and sweeeet wife" on 22:17:16 02/03/08 Sun

I agree that Sancho's wife is a foil to the 'new' Sancho, representing who Sancho was at the beginning of the book. Her concern for the ass first and Sancho second illustrates the very practical orientation of the common 17th century Spanish peasant. She then asks if he brought her a skirt, a question that reflects the very pragmatic nature of Old World commoners. Sancho, on the other hand, represents the lofty and high-minded concepts of the chivalric worldview -- the meanings of virtue scrupulously defined by the Scholastics, the manly instinct for valorous feats of arms, conquest for noble causes, submission of the finite self to values of infinite meaning insofar as they are divine in order to achieve the sanctification of man to perfection. What need does the peasant have for these things when he is occupied with cultivating the land and fulfilling basic physiological necessities?

Sure, there is the Church, one's Sunday obligation to attend Mass, Lenten fasting and abstinence prescriptions, and so forth. In that regard, the common man was not entirely foreign to metaphysical abstractions dealing with substances and accidents, distinction between mortal and venial sins, the cult of the Saints, and wariness against demonic attacks and the deceits of enchanters or the threat of obstinate heretics roaming about. However, these things, while being part of everyday life, were able to be believed with a simple assent of the will and followed by means of good conduct and daily prayer. To remove oneself from his field in search of adventures in order to pursue virtue is something of an entirely different order; such was reserved for priests and religious brothers and sisters -- yet not through wanderings and duels. One finds those things in books and ballads: nowhere else.

If one wanted to pursue virtue in piety, he would first need to be provided with a religious vocation. He would proceed to enter University, perhaps at Salamanca or Barcelona, and receive Holy Orders. If he wanted to honour his name and his King through battle, he would enlist under a noble to fight the Mohammedans, most likely not being recorded in history. If one wanted riches, he would have to earn a title of nobility over time through merit. Perhaps, his great grandson would be honoured as an hidalgo. Everything had its proper place and structure. Farmers farmed; artisans crafted goods; every man knew his place. To go outside the known structures was completely unrealistic, would probably result in failure or exile, and was therefore deemed madness.

Sancho, in following Don Quixote, does the latter. But why -- does it help his family? Does it make him money? Is it practical? Does he gain anything that society will even recognize exists? I dare say: in the negative on all counts.

I think Cervantes was trying to demonstrate the benefits of the romantic ideal and that his novel was a lament. He laments the rising influence of the merchant class, how they shift the focus of society to money matters. He laments the increasing complexity of life that devalues spiritual goods. He laments the augmented difficulty by which one can gain honour and generally complains about the general direction of society. I believe he displays a romantic longing for the sacral monarchies of the Middle Ages. While accepting that chivalry is gone, I submit that Cervantes wrote Don Quixote as the ultimate homage to chivalric romances and the morals contained therein. He fought at Lepanto under Don John of Austria; he won his freedom from Algerian slave traders. Cervantes must have believed in the romantic ideal, for he had lived it. This all seems very evident to me in the short discussion between Sra. Panza and Sancho, which shows how Sancho has become a better man. Sadly, however, Sancho and Don Quixote cannot fit in.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]