Don Quixote

‘The essence of the humour of Don Quixote is precisely the contradictions generated by the transition from feudalism to capitalism, from a society based upon the concept of feudal service, honour and loyalty, to an entirely different society based exclusively on money relations. Don Quixote’s knight errantry conflicts with the existing social and economic reality, in the same way that dreams conflict with everyday life. It is a literary expression of the bankrupt Spanish aristocracy, which cloaked its poverty in an aura of gentile noblesse. It is the irony of a social class that does not understand that it is doomed and that the old ways no longer have any part to play.’ 

– Alan Woods: Don Quixote and Spain in the age of Cervantes – read the full review in In Defence of Marxism issue 40