Don Quixote And Le Morte D Art
In Malory’s literature, men were knights, ladies were damsels, and magic was preponderant. By the time that Cervantes wrote Don Quixote, men got real jobs, the innocent damsel had become a myth, and magic was reduced to superstition.
These works both examine the chivalric ideal: “physical prowess, courtesy, truth in love and friendship, tenderness, humility, gentleness” (The Legend of Arthur in British & American Literature, p. 65) and remark much on it. While they both find this ideal to be too much for a man to maintain, they express it in different ways. Malory’s knights are generally chivalrous, but sometimes deviate from the righteous path. His opinion is that ...
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Don Quixote is one story written around one character, Don Quixote. Malory’s work is filled murder, death, and violence, while in Cervantes’ piece, no one is killed, all injuries are recoverable, and all the violence is mitigated by a touch of absurdity.
But these two pieces are very similar in that they both are about multi-faceted characters who succumb to temptation, act rashly, and make bad decisions. These types of realistic characters aren’t very often seen in genuine tales of chivalry. The stories Malory used as a basis and those that Cervantes spoofed were about knights who were larger than life, and therefore never felt tempted, or acted rashly. They were above human emotions like jealousy. They were chaste, and pure in heart and motive. But nearly all of Malory’s knights swam in immorality – Launcelot was a cuckolder, Sir Gawain has been depicted as “cowardly, depraved, cruel and treacherous”(The Knightly Tales of Sir ...
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"Don Quixote And Le Morte D Art." Essayworld.com. August 13, 2007. Accessed November 30, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Don-Quixote-Le-Morte-D-Art/69510.
"Don Quixote And Le Morte D Art." Essayworld.com. August 13, 2007. Accessed November 30, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Don-Quixote-Le-Morte-D-Art/69510.
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