FROM THE PARODIC KNIGHT TO THE INNOCENT MARTYR: FIGURES OF IDEALISM IN “DON QUIXOTE” AND “THE IDIOT”
FROM THE PARODIC KNIGHT TO THE INNOCENT MARTYR: FIGURES OF IDEALISM IN “DON QUIXOTE” AND “THE IDIOT”
Author(s): Alina Rusu (Enache)Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Foreign languages learning, Fiction, Studies of Literature, Novel, Russian Literature, Other Language Literature, Philology, Translation Studies, Drama, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Editura Arhipelag XXI
Keywords: Don Quixote; Prince Myshkin; chivalry; maladaptive idealism; moral exile; literary ethics; Dostoevsky; Cervantes
Summary/Abstract: This comparative study investigates two iconic literary characters—Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes and Prince Myshkin from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot—as symbolic configurations of maladaptive idealism. The research traces the evolution of the chivalric archetype from heroic parody to spiritual martyrdom. While Don Quixote embodies a nostalgic reconstruction of a defunct moral order, Prince Myshkin incarnates a failed Christ figure within a modern, ethically fractured world. The analysis argues that both characters, through their social inadaptation and moral absolutism, reveal the tragic impossibility of virtue in a desacralized society. They become not solutions but signs—moral exiles whose downfall condemns the ethical void of the surrounding world.
Journal: Journal of Romanian Literary Studies
- Issue Year: 2026
- Issue No: 44
- Page Range: 531-538
- Page Count: 8
- Language: English
