Don Quixote & Praise of Folly

1. Despite Don Quixote's insanity Cervantes still manages to incorporate what would be considered Renaissance-style humanism. It is the reasons that motivated Don Quixote to act like he did that reflect this humanism. He acted out of courage and wanted to show qualities of a knight. He wanted to help others and generally rid the world of evil. This obsession with displaying knightly qualities eventually led to destruction. Don Quixote began hurting others on his journey to try and save them. Despite this, he can still be admired for being so chivalrous and perhaps to them excused for harming others because he was crazy. During the Renaissance what was thought to be right or wrong was not what matters. What was important was the reasons behind the actions. Don Quixote just had a passion of becoming this knight and the story reflects the idea of "beauty" that the Renaissance literature often portrayed.

2. Don Quixote is written from a third person point of view which makes the narrator, or Cervantes, able to persuade how the audience feels toward Don Quixote. It seems that Cervantes wants to portray Don Quixote as insane or at least in a way that builds sympathy from the reader. Perhaps this was so the reader might not judge him as harshly for the negative things he does but instead remember him for his brave actions. Cervantes began writing Don Quixote while he was in jail. Maybe he felt sorry for the insane sort of people he saw there. Don Quixote displays such dedication through his adventure and maybe Cervantes was not depicting insanity as being as awful as it often seems. In his work he is reflecting the thought that of those in the Renaissance that the beauty behind motives is greater than what is morally right.

1. Erasmus focuses on the Catholic church in The Praise of Folly. Through Folly he tells how the rituals in which the Catholics persist in following are meaningless and make their religion controlling or uptight instead of personal. He also criticizes the way they hold Mary in higher regards than Jesus. Erasmus disagrees with the Catholic church's sale of indulgences as well. This is typical done to buy one's relatives out of purgatory and into Heaven. Erasmus refers to it as a way to wipe away sins. Erasmus is condemning and mocking this ritual as he says, "imagine here... some businessman or soldier or judge who thinks that if he throws into the collection basket one coin from all his plunder, the whole cespool of his sinful life will be immediately wiped out". He also finds that the superstitions they hold are ridiculous. A lot of what Erasmus says in The Praise of Folly follows the lines of Biblical theology. The practices of the church in which he condemns are in fact things that are not found in the Bible- such as the selling of indulgences. The Catholic church's way of praising Mary is also not what the Bible teaches and Erasmus is pointing out that the Catholic church has strayed away from what is truly in the Bible and has become a religion that is based on rituals that man has created. However, some of what Erasmus says seems a little off from what Christians today believe.. It seems that he believes that it is through folly in which true wisdom is gained- saying that foolishness is necessary. Although this seems logical I do not think that Bible suggests that we should be foolish it's just that we are often foolish.

2. In The Praise of Folly Erasmus uses satire for the purpose of making his serious message come off in a humorous way. Writing in this way often keeps the writer in a safe position. Particularly, in having his story told from an old woman dressed as a jester, Erasmus can hide behind her in a way. He can either say that those were simply the words of the old lady, or he can say that it was what he truly thought. Many writers take this method when writing on such serious and sensitive subjects. A comic approach is usually thought to be a good method in bringing up such controversial ideas. By having a woman named Folly dressed as a jester addressing a crowd makes Erasmus' whole story seem like foolishness. Although to him it really is serious by hiding behind such satire he can at least pretend, if necessary, that it was not his actually thoughts. This satire would keep him away from any negative reactions and is quite an impressive idea to address such issues.