Tuesday, April 29, 2008
BA #12
The priest first appears in chapter forty five and he is a hero because he stands up for Don Quijote when the police want to arrest him. It takes a hero to stand up to authority and that is what the priest does. He convinces "argued so forcefully" (pg15) that the police did not want to arrest him. Then the priest goes on to tell them "that they'd have to be madder than he was not to see his madness" (pg15).
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5 comments:
(This is not a complete blog as per the directions on the syllabus.) I do not agree that he is a hero because anyone that wants to disallusion someone for their own selfish reason of being right is wrong. In today's American society, people are made to feel inadequate, so if Don Quijote were an American of today, we should embrace his quirky belief in enchantment and as he says, "preserve the magical silence!" (339) Since Don Quijote is not a present day American, things could have been handled differently. Beliveing with him to hurt was wrong but flat out telling him magic does not exist is wrong as well, and not heroic. Build Don Quijote up as a hero and you will be one as well. Tell him that magic does not exist but that his efforts sans magic are admirable and in honor of knighthood.
I disagree with the both of you, I do not agree that the priest is a hero, he does not meet the criteria that we set forth in class, and I also disagree with Kim, I do not sense that his arguments with Don Quijote are done out of his intent to prove Don Quijote wrong, I feel however, the priest is in his best intentions trying to help a man who is clearly mad, by feeding into his dilusions, the priest is simply "lubricating the wheels of progress" by doing so he ensures that Don Quijote will be in a subdued relaxed state while being transported back to his home where the hope to treat him. The priest could very well have let Don go on his way, but saw that this man is not right in his head and people could (and have been)hurt, so the priest is doing a noble comendable act here by trying to help Don Quijote out of his compasion and kindness in his heart, however on this alone i do not feel that he is of hero status, just a good man
Don Quijote believes that poor knights have to convince others that he is a knight by exhibiting certain qualities,such as "being virtuous, by being gracious,well-mannered, courteous, by being polite and attentive, and neither proud, nor arrogant, nor a rumor monger but above all else, charitable"(391). Maybe what our "errant" heroes need is to be more virtuous for us to consider them true heroes...
I also don't think that he is a hero, and he definitley does not fit our evolving class definition of a hero. However, I don't think that the priest is a bad person who tried to disallusion Don Quijote for selfish reasons. We see the priest in two different ways - first the priest (in volume 1)who is tricking Don Quijote so he can get him back home, showing a certain level of kindness here. There is also the priest in volume 2 who is in a way saving Don Quijote from himself. I agree that the priest has good intentions in trying to help Don Quijote, a man who comes across to him as insane. While these are good qualities to possess, they still do not make him a hero.
I believe he is a hero for trying to help, more so than Don Quijote could be for all that he did.
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