STUDENT ESSAY armour , the horse , the squire . He makes his ideal his reality . But for Don Quixote , his reality becomes his madness because his ideal remains an idea in his head , even when he believes he is living it out . We see this in a scene at one of the first inns at which he stays on his adventures . In this particular scene , he grasps a girl who has come to visit another visitor at the inn , all the while “ imagining ” that he is being faithful to Dulcinea del Toboso ( his “ beloved ”); all the while conjuring up the ideal of his faithfulness to her in his mind . The ideal in his mind of being faithful is honourable . He should be faithful . Yet because his ideal remains in his head rather than becoming a true reality , it is meaningless , it is fruitless . His imagination , his vision is true , yet it is not reality . He is like the child who grows up to be an adult , but who continues to live under the table imagining it to be his house . Thus , Don Quixote ’ s ideal becomes his fantasy wherein he lives , instead of the reality of his existence . He lives in his imagination instead of living out his imagination . Don Quixote is not made faithful by his imagination that he is faithful , even though his ideal of faithfulness is conceived in his mind . His problem , then , is that he lives in the fantasy that he actually is a good knight . And it is in believing that he is a good knight that he misses the opportunity to be a good knight . Don Quixote is so wrapped up in his imagination that he is a knight , he is so wrapped up in his ideal , that it doesn ’ t become reality . He deceives himself . Some might say his ideal is fantastical , but in reality it is not . There is such a thing as chivalry , there is such a thing as faithfulness , and there is such a thing as being a good knight ; there is more than the world and there is more to the world than meets the eye . There is an ideal , and it is a virtue to believe there is , and to want that ideal . But Don Quixote not only falls short of the ideal that he believes in , he also doesn ’ t understand the ideal he wants . Nor indeed does he accomplish it because he is so busy fantasising that he IS in fact living up to his ideal . For this reason , Don Quixote is seen as mad throughout his adventures : he doesn ’ t realise the truth of his ideal , the reality of his vision . In some sense , his ideal becomes his reality . But it becomes his reality in a way that it cannot become anothers . Others can play along , but they cannot see the windmills as giants . For they aren ’ t giants . Indeed , being a knight
We are all knights of the highest king , the King of Kings , called to chivalry and nobility .
isn ’ t about fighting windmills , imagining them to be giants . Yet , that is not to say that there aren ’ t giants to be fought and conquered , nor is it to say that Don Quixote is wrong to want to fight them . He isn ’ t . We are called to be knights , we are called to have an ideal of knighthood and chivalry . The trouble comes in the fact when our ideal is only our reality , for it is
then that our imagination becomes a kind of self-deception .
Imagination is not day-dreaming , nor yet is it a dream . For it is not something that stays in our minds , but rather it is a way of looking at the world . It is a way of seeing , and a way in which our seeing informs and shapes and molds our perspective of the world , renewing wonder and inspiring visions and ideals meant to be lived out in reality ; a reality that is true and not deceived . Imagination is a vision of something further , something beyond our dreams . We are not called to live in our imaginations , just as we are not called to a world of fantasy . We are called to live them out in a true world — a world which is wonderful . Imagination gives us vision , it gives us ideal , it gives us wonder . We are supposed to become wiser because of imagination . Wiser and richer . For the world and that which is in it and beyond it and after it is better than we can ever imagine .
ZOE EDWARDS is an NSA student from Oxford , England .
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