Cervante's Sancho Panza As The Fool Of Don Quixote

As Erasmus praises in his Praise of Folly, there is something wondrous about a “fool.” The fool lives outside of the bounds of “polite society” and can therefore be honest, sometimes brutally so, when the rest of society cannot. Yet, he is a fool; in some way, he has diminished capacities that cause him to be in a position of disrespect. Cervante’s Sancho Panza is a complex and fascinating figure of a fool; a simpleton who is ridiculed by society, yet is constantly trying (and is perhaps crucial) to reveal the truth to Don Quixote of Don Quixote’s actions. Earlier in the chapter, it is Sancho that tells Don Quixote that the so-called “giants” are “nothing but windmills” (59). Unlike many of the other characters that go along with Don Quixote’s

Sancho is shown to be delightful to be around, causing Don Quixote to “laugh.” He is constantly seeking bodily pleasure through food, drink and avoidance from pain. Though it may not be true in the rest of the book, in this passage we see how Sancho does not view his master’s “promises” of an ínsula and glory as being his raison d’être. Even without material reward, Sancho regards adventure seeking as “sheer pleasure.” In rejecting a need for honor and fame, Sancho acts as a foil to Don Quixote, who believes that he constantly needs this honor and fame to be happy. Sancho Panza, the other main character who is developed throughout the book, thus shows an alternative lifestyle to the ultimately tragic lifestyle that Don Quixote

From Don Quixote’s reaction to Sancho, we can see how Sancho fulfills Don Quixote’s need for laughter. Don Quixote laughs because of Sancho’s “simplemindedness.” Laughing is an instinctive human quality; Aristotle, who Cervantes mentions occasionally in the text, believed that the property of laughter separates man from animals in general. In Don Quixote’s case, he cannot “help laughing”; it is a physical quality of being human that he cannot repress. Precisely because it makes him laugh, he allows Sancho to complain at all times. He justifies his decision through his books; since there is “nothing contrary in the order of chivalry,” he is allowed to grant this privilege to his squire. Thus, Don Quixote lives his life bound to the “order of chivalry” only partially; since the knights’ code does not cover every instance of life, Don Quixote is free to make up his own principles when they do not come into conflict with the knights’ code. In this instance, he is motivated by his love of laughter to create a rule that provides for his amusement. Thus, while Don Quixote’s main source of pleasure is the artificial notion that he is a knight, he still chases some natural, instinctive pleasures where it is appropriate under the chivalrous