Quixote & Panza Vs. Holmes And Watson: A Comparison

Quixote & Panza vs Holmes and Watson: A Comparison

The Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes was known during his time as a great writer of fiction. He wrote a good number of books, but the story he is most known for is, without a doubt, The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-Errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha, now usually shortened to Don Quixote. Cervantes’ stick-thin, basin-wearing, certifiably mad “knight-errant” Quixote and his donkey-riding deluded sidekick of a Sancho Panza are well-known and well-loved throughout the world. As the story goes, Alonso Quixana, an old Spanish gentleman read so many books on knight-errantry and chivalry that he “lost the use of his reason2,” which is to say, he went mad. Believing himself to be

When we are first introduced to Alonso Quixana, he seems to be a regular 50 (ish) year-old Spanish gentlemen who enjoys reading. In this, he and supposed counterpart Sherlock Holmes are in alignment. However, the consequences of the reading are different for each man. Quixana’s obsessive reading of books on knight-errantry drives him insane and causes him to believe that he is a real knight-errant. Throughout his many travels, Quixote constantly quotes the heroes from his beloved books, discussing principles of heroism, chivalry and honor with those he encounters. He even changes his name to the more knightly Don Quixote (by which title we will be referring to him throughout the remainder of this essay). Holmes’s reading merely sharpens his already near genius-caliber intellect. Highlighted here is another crucial difference between these two men: their intellects. Despite his lifelong madness (it leaves him on his deathbed), Quixote never shows his mind itself to have deteriorated, and it is obvious that, though he was undoubtedly mad, his mind was no less sharp during his madness then it was before and after. His mental powers are no more than any normal person, though. Holmes’s mind, by comparison, is that of either a genius or a near genius. He has a mind perfectly suited to his life’s work as a detective. Though Holmes and Quixote may seem utterly different in terms of their minds, there are one or

Even Holmes himself acknowledges this fact when he tells Dr. Watson, “I was never a very sociable fellow, Watson, always rather fond of moping in my rooms and working out my own little methods of thought, so that I never mixed much with the men of my year.3” In addition, Holmes is shown be somewhat egotistical at times throughout the stories, displaying an almost arrogance at times regarding his skills of deduction. In one memorable example from the Adventure of the Retired Colourman, Holmes sends Watson out to gather evidence. When Watson returns and presents what he has discovered, Holmes rather brusquely tells him that “It is true that though in your mission you have missed everything of importance, yet even those things which have obtruded themselves upon your notice give rise to serious thought4.” Don Quixote’s personality, in comparison to Holmes’s, is much less brusque and unthinking. However, Quixote does show a fragile ego at times (though not to the extent that Holmes does). One example of Quixote’s ego occurs after he discovers that the sounds in the night he had thought were giants were actually fulling-mills. Sancho finds this to be hilarious, though his master does not. Quixote then launches into a dialogue where he proclaims that, “I am the man for whom Heaven has reserved the most dangerous and glorious adventures5.” Not exactly the most humble thing someone could say. Despite their egos,