Throughout the novel, the reader is told that Don Quixote is mad, driven by his irrational belief that he is living out the romances of chivalry that he has read. However, the contemporary Spain he encounters seems to be highly immoral and unethical. Are we meant to see Don Quixote as simply a satire of medieval literature, or is there some value in his antiquated morality? Make sure to support your answer with specific examples from the text.
Machiavelli’s concept of a strong ruler, who was driven by pragmatism instead of morality, was a direct challenge to the political thought of his time, which insisted on the importance of Christian ethics. How do Machiavelli’s ideas fit with our contemporary understanding of politics? Was he correct in his belief that ethics should be subordinate to other considerations?
