Don Quixote as moral satire

Abstract

The change in interpretation of the Quixote that took place in England in the early eighteenth century will have a major repercussion not only in the unquestionable success in terms of public and criticism that achieves in the Enlightenment but also in shaping the modern novel (Fielding, Smollet, Stern, Marivaux, Diderot..). This change would lead to the variation in Quixote’s understanding from a parody or satire of an outdated literary genre to a moral satire of the chivalric values, characteristics of a time that the Enlightenment sought to leave behind. The dual role of Cervantes’ characters —the goodness and discretion of Don Quixote and Sancho despite their madness and simplicity, respectively— favored this alleged satire of the values of  an era to identify with the features of the illustrated satire: gentle character and abstract nature, against the aggressiveness and individualistic nature, as directed toward specific behaviors, of the baroque satire.