18th century Europe, otherwise known as the “Enlightenment Period,” was another period of history that--after promptly succeeding the Renaissance--unleashed a new swathe of artistry onto the world. Writers of this time period focused on the ideas of “human existence” in abstract. They were often harsh critics, which really did well to set a precedent of writers to come. Many of these criticisms came in the form of poetry, thinly-veneered satire, and comic novellas that shone a light on these concepts with their interesting perspectives. Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” Alexander Pope’s “An Essay on Man,” and Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” are all great examples of pieces of writing introduced at the time.
Jonathan Swift was an Irish-born
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His novel, “Don Quixote,” follows the cloak of Don Quixote, an almost maudlin caricature of a man who tried to live out the ideals of chivalry he read in books. One particularly referenced scene in the novel is Don Quixote’s small entanglement with forty windmills, alongside his squire Sancho Panza. Don Quixote is a parody--a comic recreation of earlier literary works--that pokes fun at the old idealisms of chivalry that decorated Europe in times past. These include, but are not limited to: not attacking gentry under any circumstance, taking and idolizing a dame, and making desperate attempts to prove one’s worth by; for example, fighting windmills. Compared to the other two, this work is fairly innocuous, but it illustrates a very valid point. The power of imagination is alive and well in every man and woman currently alive, and though the parody painted by Don Quixote is obviously exaggerated, that should not stop people from filling the shoes of their aspirations. Conviction is a very prevalent and powerful universal truth, and Miguel de Cervantes does a great job of relaying that to the