What do you get when an old man suddenly thinks that he's a knight and starts riding around the countryside trying to slay giants? That's right: you get a lot of practical jokers who want to mess with the guy for their own amusement. Apart from reactions of total confusion, the most common response that characters in Don Quixote have toward the title character is: "Hey, let's mess with this guy!" As you can imagine, this makes for some interesting plot twists, as well as some interesting commentary on how human beings should treat one another.
Questions About Manipulation
- Of all the characters who take advantage of Don Quixote's confused mental state, who do you think is the worst? Why?
- Which characters treat Don Quixote the best in this book? Why?
- If you were a character in this book and you ran into Don Quixote, what approach would you take to dealing with him? Do you think it would be effective in helping him? Why?
- Do you think that Sancho Panza has a manipulative relationship with Don Quixote? How so? How not so?
Chew on This
In Don Quixote, Cervantes shows us that there is no limit to what human beings will do to one another for their own amusement.
In Don Quixote, you can gauge how moral or immoral a character is based on how much they try to manipulate Don Quixote.