The Character Analysis Of Don Quixote By Sancho Panza

Whether you are someone who laughs at or with Don Quixote, there is no denying the absurdity of his ways. Don Quixote spends 940 pages (give or take the last few) living in a world significantly before his time, fueled by fictional stories. He fights windmills as if they were giants, and treats prostitutes as princesses, all the while riding along on his “noble steed” and demanding the respect that a knight-errant like himself deserves. There is never a question throughout the novel as to whether or not Don Quixote is in his right mind, it is general knowledge that he is far from it; however, I would like to challenge that he is more of a sane character than we are lead to believe. How many seemingly reasonable human beings do you know who …show more content…
Sancho is a poor man who left his wife and children to serve as Don Quixote’s faithful squire throughout his chivalric undertakings. He is aware of Don Quixote’s wealth and joins him with the promise that Don Quixote will appoint him governor of his very own island, once they seize one. Choosing the potential for power and wealth over his family made the morals of Sancho Panza questionable right from the start. His sanity was also debatable if he was actually under the impression that Don Quixote’s endeavors would result in the seizure of an island. Sancho’s presence adds a necessary dimension to the novel, as it gives Don Quixote someone to express his thoughts to, giving the reader more of a glance inside his mind. On one hand Sancho is Don Quixote’s voice of reason and source of wisdom. He serves as a type of incompetent babysitter who sits back and watches Don Quixote follow through with his crazy plans, never stopping them, and as a result, occasionally getting caught in the cross fire. Nonetheless, Sancho is always there to help when the schemes do not end as planned. In part 2 of the novel, when Sancho first takes charge of the “island” promised to him by Don Quixote, Cervantes even goes so far as to compare him to King Solomon, “It was, and in that very center ten gold escudos were discovered; everyone was stunned, and they considered their governor to be a second Solomon” (Grossman, pg. 750). As King …show more content…
Despite his misleading title, Lear’s fool is actually one of the smarter characters in King Lear. He is the only one who speaks candidly to Lear and better yet, gets away with it because it is his job. It is through this that the fool is able to reveal his wisdom, frequently making comments that foreshadow the continuous fall of Lear as the play goes on. As Lear’s elder daughter, Goneril begins taking the throne away from him, while Lear meanwhile is declining in his physical and mental health, he finds himself asking who he has become, to which the fool replies, “Lear’s shadow” (Shakespeare, pg. 57, line 237). This ambiguous line shows a lot of unexpected insight coming from a character we know by no other name than “the fool”. Lear had been the epitome of an accommodated man, and having taken the throne at such a young age, he knew nothing less than being King. This fall rendered him un-accommodated in every way possible and the fool is the first character to acknowledge that the Lear who is remaining is no more than a shadow of his former self. The progressions of the characters of the fool and King Lear are similar to that of Don Quixote and Sancho. Don Quixote and the fool both begin as the crazy, foolish ones. The fool’s title and his being surrounded by characters of much higher social classes place low expectations on him and his mental capabilities