A Comparison of Don Quixote and Tartuffe

In the novel Don Quixote and the play Tartuffe neither Don Quixote nor Orgon feared women. Don Quixote thought himself a romantic and loved women, specifically his lady, Aldonza Lorenzo, whom he called "Dulcinea del Toboso" (1531). Orgon was anything but a romantic. He paid no attention to his wife, Elmire, and treated his daughter, Mariane, like a servant, telling her what to do all the time. These contrasting views of the characters' treatment of women show they do not fear women.

Don Quixote loved to read books about chivalry. "He became so immersed in his reading that he spent whole nights from sundown to sunup and his days from dawn to dusk in poring over his books until, finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind" (1529). As a result of his readings he came to believe that the tales he read of knightly encounters and of love and its torments were true (1529).

Eventually, he became so mad that he began to believe that "in order to win a greater amount of honor for himself and serve his country at the same time" he would have to become a knight-errant and roam the world on horseback and wear a suit of armor (1529).

Don Quixote roamed the countryside looking to defend anyone and anything that was in trouble. His friends became concerned for him and one of them, the bachelor Sanson Carrasco, planned to dress as a knight and fight Don Quixote on the basis that if he won, Don Quixote would have to return home.

Don Quixote won the first battle, which forced Sanson to create another knight character for himself. He became the Knight of the White Moon and claimed that his lady was beyond comparison more beautiful than Dulcinea. Don Quixote would not agree with the knight's statement and thus the two began to battle. (1618)