Name
ENGL 1302
Professor Martin
28 April 2006
Don Quixote

Passage:  “Discourteous knight it ill becomes you to strike one who is powerless to defend himself. Mount your steed and take your lance in hand and I will show you what a coward you are”.

Question: How does Don Quixote’s first word to the farmer demonstrate his moral integrity? 

Issue: Issue of Evaluation: Through what the reader has observed so far in regards to Don Quixote’s actions he has for the most part kept a certain sense of moral prowess. Whether it is his respect for the bar maidens at the “castle” or not fighting back at the men who were stoning him, a picture is painted of a knight whose moral grounding is set on a strict code of valor.  Because of what the reader has observed through out the text it is only natural to evaluate Don Quixote’s next behavior as maintaining the already set bar of justice.

Critical Approach: New Criticism: Using new criticism the text becomes alive with the moral deeds of a man whose grip of morality is firm. When one takes the passage just illuminated and observes what deed and personal risk Don Quixote is presenting a knowledge of how much the man’s actions are motivated from morality and not some delusion. For within the text there is no delusion of morality that Don Quixote displays he rather shows a delusion for the physical world but not the standard of morality itself.

Answer. When one considers the actions that have already been displayed by the knight a man of strong moral fiber is portrayed. But it is this single instance that so far has established Don Quixote sympathy for the weak. This it can be argued is one of the greatest aspects of a man whose concern for moral integrity is the greatest because it places a great risk on the actor. Although it is not just Don Quixote’s actions, his words are of great use and incite an amount of fear in the man this showing Don Quixote’s power over words and to instill justice in people.