Previous
Fallacy
Part 1, Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Sancho and Don Quixote:
Throughout the novel, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza serve as foils for each other despite their close companionship. The stark contrast in their character is evident in a famous episode in the novel in which Don Quixote mistakes windmills for giants:
‘What giants?’ said Sancho Panza.
‘Those giants that you can see over there,’ replied his master, ‘with long arms: there are giants with arms almost six miles long.’
‘Look you here,’ Sancho retorted, ‘those over there aren’t giants, they’re windmills, and what look to you like arms are sails [...]'
‘It is perfectly clear,’ replied Don Quixote, ‘that you are but a raw novice in this matter of adventures. They are giants; and if you are frightened, you can take yourself away and say your prayers while I engage them in fierce and arduous combat.’
At many points in the novel, Sancho Panza’s reasonable and practical qualities complement Quixote’s more eccentric and imaginative personality. Here, when Quixote sees windmills and imagines that they are fierce giants, Sancho attempts to help him see reason, noting that they “aren’t giants” and that what appear, to Quixote, to be arms are in fact sails. Quixote, however, will not be easily dissuaded, and he insists that he is more experienced than his companion in “adventure.” While Sancho generally stands for the voice of reason in the novel, in the second part of Don Quixote there is a slow reversal of their roles, as Quixote becomes disillusioned while Sancho begins to see the value of fantasy and imagination.
Related Themes:
