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‘Hamlet’ (1599/1601) And ‘Don Quixote’ (1605/1615)
Where existentialism and essence begin in western European literature?
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Himself no stranger to war and poverty, Miguel Cervantes comprehended the distempered mind. This he openly displays with his ‘Sierra Moreno’ episode in the Quixote, when the ‘mad’ knight-errant empathizes with the suicidal and traumatized Cardenio.
This is one of the most moving passages in literature. It is a stirring acknowledgment of mental illness’s devastating power that points to the importance of listening to those afflicted. It is truly astonishing and predates the Freudian talking cure by three centuries.
Don Quixote was published in two parts: the first in 1605 and the second in 1615. And it is right here in what many believe is the first novel in European literature that we recognize our modernity.
