Similarities Between Don Quixote And Sancho Panza

The protagonist, Don Quixote's obsessive reading of books of chivalry plays a major role in defining his character; his inspiration for his travels as a knight errant comes from the literature about chivalry that he reads, the literature that causes him to lose his mind and go mad. Everything that he usually experiences in his journey, first happened in the books that inspired his travels. The character, Dulcinea’s role as Quixote’s lady-love becomes equivalent with the position a king might hold in a true and honorable knight’s life.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a Mesopotamian myth and the oldest known narrative there is, originally created on clay tablets written in cuneiform. The story focuses on two individuals. Gilgamesh, who is the tyrannical ruler of the kingdom of Uruk. Then his counterweight, Enkidu who resides in the forest and was raised by animals. It may seem that neither would have much in common, considering one is royalty and one is a wild man. However, these two characters balance each other despite their differences, which results in a beautiful friendship, but both will lose as well as gain in the end.

The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey have been a part of human literature for many, many years now, they are both more referred to as epic poems. Both epics are found in different points of time in human cultures stretching roughly 1000 years apart. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a poem from early Mesopotamian culture and The Odyssey is said to be written from the early onset of the Greek civilization. The main characters for these epics are Gilgamesh, a demigod and ruler of Uruk, and Odysseus a great warrior returning home to his wife from war. The two main characters of these epic poems, Gilgamesh and Odysseus share many traits together and apart from each other. Among the qualities that these characters display in each of their respective poems,

Both The Epic of Gilgamesh and In the Beginning share a number of similarities such as their archetypes and steps in their story’s hero’s journey. Each of the two stories have their protagonist, antagonist, and mentor archetypes. In either story, you will find that the character starts in a home setting and then defies their God(s) before then becoming a new person. In both stories, the reader will find the hero/protagonist, mentor, and villain/antagonist archetypes.

The Epic of Gilgamesh has its place as one of the first examples of epic poetry in recorded history. The epic describes the adventures of the demigod-king Gilgamesh who, after the death of his close friend Enkidu, seeks immortality but is ultimately unsuccessful. This story arc is not dissimilar to those found in the epics of the ancient Greeks centuries later. This excerpt from The Epic of Gilgamesh clearly demonstrates Gilgamesh’s reckless lust for pride and fame at all costs.

These two stories are very similar in their context because they occur close together in history. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written around 600 B.C.E. but the historical events that the Epic of Gilgamesh talks about would have taken place around 2,700 B.C.E. which is when Gilgamesh lived. Similarly, the Book of Job was written around 1,000 B.C.E. but would have taken place around 2,000 B.C.E. Both of these stories happened within 700 years of each other but didn’t get written until many years later, 2,000 years later for the Epic of Gilgamesh and 1,000 years later for the Book of Job. While a 700 year difference may seem big when put into perspective of history the 700 years is an extremely small gap. By being so close to each other in time, this means that the context and advancement between the two aren’t significantly different.

Back in the days of ancient Greece and before this time, epic heros have had their lives chronicled and the stories of them passed on from generation to generation, all the way to our present day in our lives. Two of the greatest heros that have been expressed in past epic stories were Gilgamesh from the epic named after him, and Achilles from Homer’s Iliad. The two of their stories however, transpired in two different eras, their lives both had a surprising number of common points. Of course with things in common, there always comes differences, in the way they lived and the ideals they believed in.

The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey both are held in high respect by literature analysts and historians alike for the characterization of the hero and his companion, the imagery brought to mind when one of them is read, and the impressive length in relation to the time period it was written in. The similarities that these two epics share do not end with only those three; in fact, the comparability of these works extend to even the information on the author and the archetypes used. However, The Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh contrast from one another in their writing styles, character details, and main ideas. Both epics weave together a story of a lost man who must find his way, but the path of their stories contrast from one another.

While Gilgamesh and Achilles were fearsome warriors pitted against the most fearsome and ferocious beasts in their land, poor Don Quixote is only a poor gentleman who badly wants to be a hero. He is, and should be, an “anti-hero” because he is delusional toward the world around him. His infatuation with books of chivalry leads him to attack a windmill, which then “defeats” him and badly injures him. He attacks a flock of sheep, the most harmless and defenseless of all animals, because he thinks that they are a broad army full of warriors of old. He is often stupid, leading himself to charge “”into the middle of [a] flock of sheep” like the life of a thousand people depended on him (Cervantes 450). This man perfectly defines an anti-hero, and

The dynamic of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza is one of the ways Cervantes entices his readers. He creates a stark contrast between these two characters right off the bat and creates a rapport that leaves readers laughing. He establishes the contrast in stature and mental state and creates two characters that, in time, learn to love and complement each other greatly.

“At the heart of Don Quixote is the discrepancy between external appearance and internal perception.” says Wirfs-Brock (2). In that respect, Don Quixote is depicted as a character who is guided merely by his internal perceptions, disregarding external appearances. Most of the time, he is deluded, depended on his faculty of imagination, stuck in his make-believe world through the guidance of chivalric books he is obsessed with and “everything he read in his books took possession of his imagination” (1/1 p.27). He takes everything he reads in those books for real as if they were parts of history and decides to join this glorious history by making a knight errant of him. In order to put all he has read into practice, he puts on a rusty armor, devises a heroic name for himself which is ‘Don Quixote de la Mancha’ and for his horse which is ‘Rocinante’. Additionally, since “a knight errant without a lady-love is a tree without leaves or fruit, a body without a soul” (1/1 p.29) he finds “a good-looking peasant girl” called Aldonza Lorenzo and decides to call her ‘Dulcinea del Toboso’. So this peasant girl becomes a princess, the most beautiful lady in the world for him to whom he may serve “as if he really were in love” (1/1 p.31).

The first important characteristic of The Epic of Gilgamesh that helps to classify it as an epic is that it includes a hero. Gilgamesh is the story’s epic hero.

While reading Don Quixote, I am sure that many people wonder whether or not Sancho Panza will get his island to govern. The main reason that Sancho agrees to be the squire of Don Quixote is because he is promised riches and an isle to govern. As the book progresses it appears that Sancho's dream will not come true and he will not become a governor. Many times in the book, Sancho asks his master if he was really going to get his isle and Don Quixote always promises him that he will. Eventually Sancho does become governor, although it is all because of a trick played on him by the Duke and Duchess. He shocks everyone by his wisdom and skill that he shows while he is governor.

Growth is inevitable and the most anticipated quest of man. It is a never-ending quest to evolve, fuelled by the constant hope for survival. Once natural growth halts, man’s focus shifts to the growth within. The coming of age, associates itself with this transformation from child to man, the step of letting go of childish ways and moving on to more mature things. The need for such a dramatic transformation is questioned by Miguel de Cervantes and Lewis Carroll in their texts, Don Quixote and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. While the texts follow two contrasting characters, they are brought together by the theme of fantasy. Cervantes’ Don Quixote is an old gentleman of noble lineage who becomes tired of the monotony and the lack of

When it comes to the realm of epic poetry, and hero-like characters in literature, the two works The Odyssey and the Epic of Gilgamesh can be compared and contrasted in different ways. The Odyssey and the Epic of Gilgamesh can be compared as expressions of searches for the meaning of life through knowledge. The two stories are somewhat mirrors in this manner. Throughout each story, the characters Odysseus and Gilgamesh show growth and change.