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Knight Errantry

Decent Essays

The Canon, the Don, and Sancho Panza all have different views on the subject of chivalric romances and knight errantry. While the Don and the Canon represent the extreme ends of opinions, Sancho bridges the gap between the two. The Canon believes that books are completely unrealistic. He poses the question, how can the reader find joy in such absurdities? The Canon sees these novels in a strict black-and-white view. He acknowledges that fiction does have a place in literature, however the Canons says that, “These books provide subject matter with which a good intelligence could express itself…” (441). The Canon prides himself in being highly intelligent and feels that only unintelligent would be able to find pleasure in such blatant lies. …show more content…

He is not able to dissociate fiction from reality. In the eyes of Don, the novels of knight errantry serve as a guide for how to live. The Don believes that the knights are role models that all able people should strive to live by. It is the utmost honor to live the life of a knight errant. He defends all accounts of knight errantry, and if he happens upon someone who disagrees with his opinions, he disregards them because he assumes they are not a knight errant and, therefore, would not understand. When the Canon defamed his precious books the Don replied, “I consider that it is you who are out of your senses and under some spell, for you have taken it upon yourself to utter such blasphemies again what has been so well received in the world and so widely accepted as the truth that anyone who denies it, as you do, deserves the same punishment that you say you inflict on books that annoy you when you read them” (453). The Don then continues to combine historic facts with those of his chivalric fantasy in his explanation to the Canon of reliability of the novels. Don Quixote truly cannot separate fact from fiction. In the truest sense of insanity, he believes that the novels of night errantry with their absurd claims are not only plausible, but also

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