Robert Jablonsky
Although a one of the greatest, if not the greatest comic novel ever written, Don Quixote, by Miguel Cervantes is also a masterpiece of serious ideas. One of them, in fact, concerns the place of an individual in society.
Indeed, Cervantes argues implicitly through Don Quixote that an individual is shaped by forces in a complex process. Cervantes believes this for three reasons. Firstly, he presents human nature as a very powerful factor in creating one’s personality. Characters in Don Quixote reflect basic aspects of human nature, like selfishness or a need to be a part of a group, which have a tremendous influence on
their deeds.
Secondly, Cervantes also believes in the strong ascendancy of society over people. Society creates norms and values, and expects one to live accordingly, where every deviance is fought. The power of society can create, and then integrate or alienate an individual as is clearly presented in Don Quixote. Thirdly, Cervantes puts a strong emphasis on the strength of a person’s individualism. The more individualistic, the less one is shaped by society. The less individualistic, the more society molds the person.
These points may be amply demonstrated through an analysis of Don Quixote itself and also through the views of important critics. To best appreciate this novel, however, some background concerning
its origins and its relationship to the author’s preoccupations should be mentioned.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra lived from 1547-1615. He was an author, known and celebrated throughout Europe, and a soldier whose deeds contributed much to his country’s greatness. Even a brief summary of his life gives an idea of where some of the inspirations for a character of Don Quixote came from. Cervantes spent much of his youth as a soldier, fighting against the Turks. During the fight at Lepanto he got wounded badly, but he treated it as a reason for pride and glory. He was kidnapped and sold as a slave by the Moors to Algiers. When he was finally ransomed, he returned to Spain to begin career as a writer, but experienced little success before the publication of Don Quixote in 1604 (“Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de” 1). This novel earned him renown but it did not bring him wealth, or even comfort.
The story of Don Quixote has been the subject of at least sixteen operas, ballets, and even Broadway musical, and any number of paintings and sculptures of the imaginary Don (2). The list of novelists who have admired and been influenced by Cervantes’ masterpiece is practically endless. This is mainly related to novel’s contributions to literature. Cervantes, as a first, created fully developed characters with lively dialogue, and mixed characters from all classes of society and many ways of life in a single work. He was also one of the first to treat in depth the theme of a hero who sets out to reinvent his own identity by pure force of will. And the theme of the search for identity has continued to fascinate novelists and their readers ever since (Canavaggio 214).
In Don Quixote Cervantes explores one’s personality being strongly influenced by human nature. He makes this point in several places. One for example, occurs just at the beginning. After all, the main purpose of all Don Quixote’s brave deeds was to earn the love of an idealized woman and become famous. This shows that people’s deeds are often influenced by human selfishness. What is more, Don Quixote uses the weakness of human nature as a tool to get himself a squire. He “told [Sancho Panza], …, that he ought to feel well disposed to come with him, for some time or another an adventure might occur that would win him in the twinkling of an eye some isle, of which he would leave him governor”(Cervantes 66). These examples prove that when Don Quixote and Sancho Panza undertake to fight evil, they have their own profits in mind. And I believe that many of us have too. We may not be fighting the dragons and giants, but we struggle at work, in traffic, at school or in courts. Often, we accomplish virtuous deeds, keeping our own interest in mind. For instance, when we contribute to charity, we may want to help the poor, but we are also interested in tax deductions. And when we stay at work after hours, besides helping the company meet its goals, we might expect to be promoted for our extra efforts. Thus, the legend of Don Quixote lives on and so do many of his successors who often unconsciously “save the shepherd boy” to gain pride and fame for themselves.
Self-interest is in fact the key point of rational choice theory. This is a frame theory of microsociology, which seeks to understand how and why people make their choices. The social philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, says “that when a man deliberates whether he shall do a thing or not to do it, he does nothing else but consider whether it be better for himself to do it or not to do it” (qtd. in Stark 65). That means that choices are guided by one’s preferences and tastes within the limits of information available. In effect, the individual chooses what he sees as most beneficial or as maximized profit. In other words, people choose what they expect to be most rewarding, whether the reward is love, fame, a better life, money, or an island.
On the other hand, sociologists stress that most of what we want can only be obtained through others. Here the exchange theory comes into play, which states that through social interactions, the parties trade tangible or intangible benefits with the expectation that all parties will benefit (66). Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are perfect examples of those theories. Don Quixote needs a squire to fulfill his picture of a noble knight, and Sancho sees a great opportunity to profit from Don’s deeds, and get an island. They both interact with each other in order to benefit, and to satisfy their human self-interest.
As mentioned, most of what people want can only be obtained through others. This is especially true, when we explore another aspect of human nature — the need to be a part of a group. We can only fulfill this need through others. Let’s take a look at Don Quixote and how he satisfies the need of belonging.
Quixote, in order to be a part of society, creates himself a role, where he is a noble knight spreading good deeds and freeing people from evil. It does not matter that the reality is different, and he gets
mocked for his acts. What matters is that he feels needed, which gives him a sense of belonging to society. The need to belong to a group is so strong, that sometimes it can even trigger tragic behavior. Based on this notion, French sociologist, Emile Durkheim, developed a thesis on the causes of man’s suicide. He says that suicide reflects weakness, or lack of a social bond between individual and society, not
a weakness of an individual’s character or personality. He believes that there are two types of suicide caused by human’s need to be a part of a group: anomic, which is caused by rapidly changing society where people cannot keep up; and egoistic, which is caused by not having a group to relate to (Stark 6). Durkheim proves that human nature plays very a important role in complex process of creating the individual.
Cervantes also explores society’s influence on people. He sees society as a powerful factor in shaping one’s personality. He points it out in several ways. One, for example, is that Don Quixote is created by society. First, Quixote buries “himself in his books [and spends] the nights reading from twilight till daybreak and the days from dawn till dark; and so from little sleep and much reading, his brain [dries] up and he [loses] his wits” (Cervantes 32).
Then, imperfect society gives Quixote a reason to act. Books – the cultural product of society – make his mind vulnerable to believe, that he can really save the world from evil. So he starts bringing justice
to society. For example, when Don Quixote attempts to help the shepherd boy, he makes the countryman swear to leave the boy alone and to pay his past wages. Certain of the wealthy man’s trustworthiness, Quixote rides off, after which the countryman beats the shepherd boy nearly to death (47). Don Quixote’s grasp of reality is so abstract, that it ends nearly tragically for the poor boy. Although the knight has noble intentions, he is not respected by society. As a result, he gets mocked and treated as deviant.
Society expects people to live according to its norms and values, and everyone who does not conform is frowned upon. Thus, the poor knight often finds “himself so vilely treated by the very men for whom he had done so much” (181). Quixote does not choose to be deviant; society defines him as one for the term deviance is relative. Sociologists call this approach a labeling theory. The process through which a person becomes labeled as deviant depends on the reactions of others toward nonconforming behavior.
For example, the first time a child acts up in class, it may be owing to high spirits or bad mood. What happens next depends on how others interpret the act. If teachers and other children label the child a troublemaker, and if he accepts this definition as part of his self-concept, then he may take on the role of a troublemaker and become a deviant (Stark 192).
Society’s ascendancy over people is not revealed only through creation. Society also makes a use of it. For instance, Durkheim says that deviance contributes to society. It affirms our cultural values and
norms, and clarifies moral boundaries. After all, in order to understand and value good, we have to see what is bad. Responding to deviance promotes social unity. People typically respond to serious crimes with collective outrage. And besides this, deviance encourages social change pointing out alternatives to status quo (198).
Perhaps that is exactly what Cervantes has in mind: Don Quixote as a tool to social change. Unfortunately, it takes more than a lifetime of someone like Quixote to change society, but the hope is that there will be others like him, willing to change themselves first. And when they change, ” anything which depends on [them] will also be modified. Through [their] deeds and [their] example … that better world [they wish] to revive will necessarily come into existence” (Maravall 84). But it is not easy to win with society. Many individuals are crushed before any change comes.
We are all influenced by society, but the results are not the same. According to Cervantes, it depends on the strength of a person’s individualism. The more individualistic, the less one is shaped by society. The less individualistic, the more society molds a person. Cervantes exhibits his points through character of Don Quixote and his wrestling with society. As critic Americo Castro says, “Don Quixote … [stands] resolutely upon [his] firm consciousness of the desire to live as individual: ‘I know who I am,’ replies Don Quixote, ‘each of us is the maker of his own fortune’; which is not didacticism superimposed upon the work, but rather an aspect of its very structure”(147).
Cervantes displays Quixote as a strong individual. Although the character is mocked and beaten many times, he always accepts it with pride and dignity. He even survives the sophisticated salon of the Duchess and her lecherous ladies, where they play cruel jokes on him, and where he appears more pathetic, more ridiculous, and more disarmed than never before (Cervantes 729). The knight’s individualism is so strong, that in spite of pressure from society, he does not give up his values.
The strength of an individual determines person’s character and self. In sociological terms, self consists of two parts: the I and the me. The I is the spontaneous, creative part of the self; the me is the self as social object, the part of the self that responds to others’ expectations. The self is enormously complex, and we are often not fully aware of our own motives, capabilities, and characteristics. The self that we are aware of is our self-concept. It consists of thoughts and feelings about our personality and social roles. The self and self-concept are social products; they are developed through social relationships (Stark 70). Charles Cooley provides a description of how we develop our self-concept. He says that we learn to view ourselves as we think others view us. He calls this the looking-glass self. According to Cooley, we imagine how we appear to others and how others judge our appearance, and then we develop feelings about and responses to these judgments (69). In other words, whether we have a good or bad opinion about ourselves heavily depends on what others communicate back to us.
Don Quixote represents a very individualistic self. The I, spontaneous and creative part of his self, is stronger than me part. Thus, ” he is seen as an example of modern rather than medieval man, creating his individual personality with the strength of his own will and imagination rather than carrying out the role that society had defined for him” (Johnson 27).
In conclusion, the process shaping an individual is indeed very so complex that social scientists often debate this topic and find it is ultimately impossible to decide which factor has the greatest influence on an individual.
I believe, that the closest interpretation is Sigmund Freud’s theory of ego, id, and superego. Those three parts, constantly interacting with each other, compound into a human being. Ego represents part of the mind that connects a person to the outside world. Because it can think and act, it is a conscious self. Id is a part of the mind that is completely unconscious, but has needs and desires. Superego is the moral self or conscience, the part of the mind, that is partly conscious, and that rewards and punishes us by our feelings of guilt or rightness, according to our respect for the rules of society (“Freud, Sigmund” 1). Thus, ego, id, and superego are equivalent to individual, human nature, and society.
Works Cited
Canavaggio, Jean. Cervantes. Trans. J. R. Jones. New York: W. W.Norton & Company, 1990.
Castro, Americo. “Incarnation in ‘Don Quixote’.” Cervantes Across The Centuries. Ed. Angel Flores and M. J. Benardete. New York: The Dryden, 1947. 136-178.
“Cervantes.” Great Books of The Western World. 1992.
“Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de.” Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2000. 20 Nov. 2000 <https://encarta.mns.com>
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. The Adventures of Don Quixote.
Trans. J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin Books, 1950.
“Freud, Sigmund.” Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2000. 20Nov. 2000 <https://encarta.mns.com>
Johnson, Carroll B. Don Quixote The Quest for Modern Fiction. Boston: Twayne, 1990.
Maravall, Jose Antonio. Utopia and Counterutopia in The “Quixote.” Trans. Robert W. Felkel. Detroit: Wayne State University, 1991. Stark, Rodney. Sociology. California: Wadsworth, 1987.