Quixoticism and “Tilting at Windmills”

Since I have of recently made it far from being unclear that the revolution of words, as it has begun, now continues, there is then this to be said:

Quixoticism is a highly common place these days in this life of ours and tilting at windmills as well. In order to say this more elaborately, I must recall to memory that spanish protagonist whom you may know by the name of Don Quixote. As a matter of fact, this man by the name of Don Quixote abominated facts from the deep recesses of his heart. He rebuffed them even and was accordingly hit over the head with them. The question that seems to be in need of putting is, of course, why? Elements carefully heading down together to dignify the question with an answer must be grappled with one by one and arguments for them are to be put forward. The incipient element, surprisingly enough, is provided by the protagonist himself and in it, he has at his disposal these words to state:

"It is easy to see that you are not used to this business of adventures. Those are giants, and if you are afraid, away with you out of here and betake yourself to prayer, while i engage them in fierce and unequal combat."

Then, the second element obtains by Sancho. Sancho does not spare any effort in purporting to dissuade his friend (Don Quixote) about the futility governing his otherwise effective acts. All the same, Sancho does not also fail to implicitly marvel at them. This, being so, invites center stage the significance of that which Don Quixote is performing. The third, and last, element is that, we believe, everything Don Quixote is doing is not at all confirmed by what he is saying. It is, therefore, within possibility to infer that his statements are by no means flimsy excuses to his stumbles and failures but rather sound proofs of his chivalric nature. The incompatibility of words and deeds does not signal out hypocrisy but rather encapsulates a wonderful refusal to death.

There is no such thing as a moral lesson to be obtained from the adventures of Don Quixote. If i have said that Quixoticism is a highly common place these days, it is because what i am composing now is part of it. There is, indeed, ample enterprise in it so long as most, if not all of, those who think they are not quixotic are then exotic. It should not be forgotten that Hamlet is quixotic through and through. Don Quixote does have many a smack of Hamlet. But still, time is not out of joint for him as for Hamlet. He does not, by way of exemplification, procrastinate and then say : "The readiness is all." He is ready from the very start. Hamlet does have the chivalric code. His so-called madness is not exploited by any one. Don Quixote's supposed madness is, however, exploited by the Duke. Moreover, The overpowering love characterizing the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia is almost probably the same governing the relationship between Don Quixote and Dulcinea. But in the final analysis, it is important to point out that if Don Quixote is constantly tilting at windmills, Hamlet is also doing the same thing through procrastination. Hence the similarity between them.

Now, to rivert back to us, we should content ourselves with these words:

"Great hearts, dear friends, should be patient in misfortune as well as joyful in prosperity."

There is, as I noted above, ample enterprise in Quixoticism and tilting at windmills. There is Fortune in them. But again, let us recall that Fortune is a

"drunken and capricious woman, and worse still, blind; and so she does not see what she is doing, and does not know whom she is casting down or raising up."

Contributed by Chokri Omri