Don Quixote
Don Quixote is a country gentleman, and his real name is Alonso Quijano. After reading the most popular novel of knights in the society at the time, he is so crazy for it, and he also wants to be the knights. So, he finds a worn armor and name himself as Hidalgo Don Quixote. After that, he rides a skinny horse and leaves home with his servant Sancho. During his travel, he makes a lot of funny things. Such as, he thinks of the windmill as a giant, takes the flock of sheep as an enemy and treats the hard labors as a victim of the knights and so on, that’ why he makes a lot of ridiculous things.
Here is a paragraph describes about one of the ridiculous things he did: “So saying, and commending himself with all his heart to his lady Dulcinea, imploring her to support him in such a peril, with lance in rest and covered by his buckler, he charged at Rocinante’s fullest gallop and fell upon the first mill that stood in front of him; but as he drove his lance-point into the sail the wind whirled it round with such force that it shivered the lance to pieces, sweeping with it horse and rider, who went rolling over on the plain, in a sorry condition. Sancho hastened to his assistance as fast as his ass could go, and when he came up found him unable to move, with such a shock had Rocinante fallen with him.”
This is the most interesting part of Don Quixote for me. Basically，when Don Quixote is the trip, he meets three or forty windmills in somewhere field, he thinks these windmills are giants and wants to fight with them. Sancho tells him these are not giants, but Don still thinks he is right. So, he charges toward the windmills and pierces the wings of the windmill with a lance. Unfortunately, he is hit by a windmill and goes rolling over on the plain. I like the verbs used here. like “charged, dorve, whirled, sweeping.” This is the way how the author describes and breaks down his movements step by step to show us how Don attacks the “giants”, and how the “giants” defenses from him. I think its lively.
As we can see here, he absolutely lost his mind. He fantasized that he is a knight and he is firmly believed about it so that he wouldn’t listen to what Sancho has told him. Finally, what he has done are not only unhelpful for people, but he also suffered from it.