ON DON QUIXOTE by Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra
             Idealism and realism are the two major conflicting themes of this classic novel by Cervantes. In Don Quixote, both concepts are represented by its main characters, Don Quixote de La Mancha and his squire, Sancho Panza.
             Don Quixote is a delusional romantic who has read too many chivalric romances. His character embodies unrealistic extremism, which is an exposition of the tragedy of idealism in a corrupt world. He assumes being a knight errand in the story and, with the transforming power of illusion, makes monsters out of windmills and court-subjects out of ordinary people. This implies that the character of Don Quixote adds significant value on ordinary "insignificant" objects and people to suit to his "perfect" world-this tragedy behind idealism makes him blind to the harsh "imperfection" of the real world.
             Sancho Panza is a peasant farmer who has longed to become a governor of an island to earn enough money to feed his family. Because of this ambition, he agreed to become squire to the self-proclaimed knight errand Don Quixote. His amusing character-cowardly and loquacious but extremely loyal to a mad old man, makes him appear comical to the readers as well as to the other characters in the story. Unabashed to reveal to the nobilities any "real" incident in La Mancha exposes the imperfections that Don Quixote has failed to observe.
             Idealism rose to become a popular movement in arts, philosophy and literature in most European countries at the start of the 16th century. It helped pave the way for the birth of modernism. In Spain, authors similar to Cervantes' literary style, i.e., Tirso de Molina and Lope de Vega addressed conflicting views of life often described as idealism and realism.
             Don Quixote de La Mancha may be considered as a transition novel from medieval to modern literature because it contains elements from both periods. For example, from medieval literature, Cer...