“The Spanish Golden Age” (Siglo de Oro in Spanish) was a period of high artistic activity and achievement that lasted from about 1580 to 1680. During this time period, El Greco and Velázquez painted their masterpieces, and Miguel Cervantes wrote his famous satirical novel Don Quixote. The theatre also enjoyed a golden age in acting and playwriting, producing plays to rival those of the Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists who were writing at the same time.” Cervantes is one of the most influential writers of all time, with Don Quixote being the best-selling novel. He wrote Don Quixote while he was serving time in jail; Miguel also spent time as a slave that helped him write apart of Don Quixote. This book references other books like The Golden Ass. Miguel knew what it was like to be a slave and disagreed with the institution of slavery.
This novel is regarded as the first modern novel. The novel was published in two parts in 1605 and 1615. In the novel we follow two antagonists: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza; they spend most of their time in the inn and the Spanish countryside. Their journey consistently consisted of the two hitting their heads on reality of the early modern life in Spain.
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Cervantes wrote Don Quixote to criticize children’s books about knights slaying dragons. Miguel was fed up with the concept of empty chivalry and how these books never had real world consequences. In Don Quixote, our main antagonist Alonso Quejano is a member of the lesser Spanish nobility. Also, Alonso is fifty years old. The same age as our author during the time he wrote this book. With the average life span of thirty-five in Spain, they were both in their later parts of life. Alonso was living in La Mancha; La Mancha is currently a historical region located in the Spanish provinces of Albacete.
Quejano passes time reading fictional books about chivalry and knights code, as many kids would do at the time because of lack of entertainment options. Chivalry is the informal code of conduct developed between 1170 and 1220. However, it was never summarized or put in a document. With Quejano’s obsession, he dries out his brain from reading all day and all night. This causes him to go insane and believe it is his duty to become a knight. Therefore, he blurred the line between reality and fiction
Our main character, Don, spends all his time reading pointless books about fake historical and mythical myths about knights and it ends up turning his brain to mush. Kids in the 1600s did not have much to do compared to the twenty first century kids so if they were fortunate, they would be able to read and they probably weren’t reading anything intellectual. A lot of the books kids read do not have meaning and do not talk about facts but try to persuade the youth that they are facts. Plato went on about the same thing. In Platos book, The Republic, it states “If we want the guardians of our city to think that it’s shameful to be easily provoked into hating one another, we mustn't allow any stories about gods warring, fighting, or plotting against one another, for they aren't true.” -Republic II.378 c,d,e
In the book a lot of animals where depicted, this is because animals at the time were the means of transportation. Don rides a noble steed named Runcinate and his “servant” Sancho who was a homeless as riding a donkey. This is showing that Don is a higher class then Sancho. During this time period if you were a peasants you could easily move up to the working class. This is because of the increase of population. This population expansion contributed to the improvement of the employment opportunities for artisans and workers in cities. However, people that still lived in the rural areas continued to stay In the same social class. “In the central Spain, peasants comprised 80% of the active population” (Lynch, p. 236), and most of the poor classes were dying from malnourishment.
Spain had a widespread influence and culture around the globe. Spain helped destroy the Aztecs giving them control of parts of North America. With such a widespread influence,
Spain was separated into four social classes. In modern times, we basically have the same social classes that they had in 1600s in Spain. At the top were the peninsulares, they were all born in Spain. The peninsulares held the highest in government and the church. Below the peninsulares were the creoles. Creoles were people born in the Americas to Spanish parents. A majority of them were wealthy and well educated. Most owned farms and ranches. Some would also practice law, but they could not hold jobs reserved for peninsulares. Below the creoles are Mestizos. Mestizoes are people who are mixed with Spanish and Native American descent. They were the working class, working on farms owned by the peninsulares and creoles. If they lived In cities they would work as carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, and bakers. The lowest in the social hierarchy were Native Americans. The Spanish treated them as conquered people and kept them in poverty for hundreds of years due to the strict social system.
Also, during one of Don and Sancho adventures Don was battling sheep. Sheep in 1600s Spain was a huge part of their farming because they were used for meat, milk and skin. Therefore, it was upsetting to see a fifty year old man attack their sheep because of how valuable they were.
Don also references Catholicism, because it is the biggest group in Spain. One of Don’s closest friends is a priest. Spain was probably one of the most religious places before the 1600s and the Renaissance era and the New Sciences. Don also talks about other religious groups, like a group of monks. Don and Sancho have Bronze statues at the Plaza de España in Madrid and behind them is a holy trinity cross which was led by St. John DeMatha. This was the first group that was recognized and was allowed to move outside of the Catholic Church. The priest also finds Don in Sierra Morena. Sierra Morena is one of the key mountain ranges in Spain. The widespread mountain spreads from the east to west across the south of the Iberian Peninsula. This forms the southern border for Spain.
“It is not the responsibility of knights errant to discover whether the afflicted, the enchained and the oppressed whom they encounter on the road are reduced to these circumstances and suffer this distress for their vices, or for their virtues: the knight’s sole responsibility is to succor them as people in need, having eyes only for their sufferings, not for their misdeeds.”( Don Quixote) We still need people like Don Quixote because he was trying to stand up honorably and strive to overcome the government. Don stood for the innocents of kids. If we all had the pure innocents of kids, there would be no war because kids only want to be loved. The hidden message in this book is timeless because it is a message of hope and chivalry to one day live in a utopia. Don Quixote moved around to various other places in and out of Spain just trying to spread good with pure intentions.
You can also compare Don Quixote moving around so much to all the Spanish conquest such as Anglo Spanish War, the 80 years war and other expansions such as modern day Mexico and Florida. The Anglo-Spanish War was between 1584 to 1604. It was a conflict between Spain and England. However they never declared war against each other. The war started because of the stoppage of English merchant ships in Spanish harbors. After the sixteen years of fighting they both signed the Treaty of London.
New wars broke out in the Spanish territories of Portugal and Catalonia. This allowed the Dutch to revolt against the Spanish regime starting the 80 years war in 1648. The Dutch achieved victories and ended the Spanish immersion. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire is also known as the Spanish–Mexican War. This is one of the primary events on how the Spanish colonizaed the Americas. “The Aztec Empire came up to become one of the most powerful Mesoamerican kingdoms of all time. At the peak of the civilization, the Aztecs had fifteen million people, living in thirty-eight provinces and residing in 489 communities.” (Cameron Bailey) This gave Spain a big advantage in the Americas once the empire fell.
Don wanted to spread chivalry same way Spain wanted to spread the Catholic church to the New World and keep it strong in Europe causing a lot of fighting. Also a lot of their conquest were back by their three G system. The threes stand God, Gold, and Glory. God is for spreading the faith, Gold is the money they will receive for spreading the faith and conquest like Christoph Colobus, and Glory is the glory of congering other nations. Obviously, Don did not want these wars to happen and he thought it was his duty to protect people. This is because of his child like state and this is how he sees himself. He obviously doesn’t do anything good for anybody. This is like Spain when they conquer other places, nothing truly good comes from it.
Don Quixote is also an anti-slavery novel. Slavery was a basic part of Spanish life and made it a world power. Don Quixote references Apuleius “The Golden Ass” which was written in the late second century. Apuleius’s book is about a man that turns into an ass then turns back into a man again. However, he only turns into a man again once he realizes the immorality of the institution of slavery and empathizes with slaves. In Don Quixote, Sancho Panza wants to get rich quick. He wants to sell thirty or ten thousands people into slavery saying “Before God, I will make them fly, little and big, I will turn them into white and yellow boys.”
Spain had a long history with slavery. The Spanish colonies in the Caribbean were among the last to abolish slavery. Spain abolished slavery in Puerto Rico in 1873, in Cuba in 1886 and didn’t end it in Central and South America until the eighteenth century. The Caribbean was also the worst place to be a slave because you were working long hours on sugar plantations with the average life span of twenty seven. Spain also lost in the Haitian revolution when Haitian slaves stood up and killed all the slave owners on the island. Spain started trading slaves in the beginning of the fiftieth century.
Don is also a contradiction because Don can be seen as Spain’s old romantic traditions. Even in the story he is made out to be a weak old fool like how many younger generations look at older ones. However, he brings people together and brings joys to crowds because Spain was started to tear apart with all the consistent wars and conquest.
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