The dynamics of characterization in Don Quixote has been discussed in the previous section. After considering something of the generalized processes of development, it is useful to consider some of the characters themselves.
To characterize Don Quixote, one can call him the idealist, although, as shown in specific discussions, the prosaic nature of Alonso Quixano is often glimpsed under the veneer of the knight's posturings. Don Quixote is a madman, or rather, an "idealist," only in matters of knight-errantry. He discourses practically on matters of literature, as shown when he discusses poetry with Don Diego de Miranda. He is capable of sincere gratitude (standing at the road crossing to recommend the maidens of the New Arcadians), and he is the mirror of courtesy itself. Giving advice to the penurious Basil on how to keep his new wife, counseling Sancho on how to be a good governor, Don Quixote's common sense and ethical standards resemble those of Polonius advising Laertes in the famous scene in Hamlet. He persuades a couple of wily lodgers to pay their innkeeper; he is honest and chaste, and, in general, is loved by the people in his village who know him.
An interesting tension of his personality is between these virtuous sane qualities and those developed through his peculiar madness. Imperious, he is stung quickly to anger when he suspects that the institution of knight-errantry is questioned. His sense of duty results in a sometimes-disastrous meddlesomeness. Poetic and sensitive, according to the ideals of the age of chivalry, Don Quixote sings well, composes verse, and is helpful to the distressed. Beyond that, of course, loom the visions and ideals and the seeking for absolute truth and justice which a quixotic faith entails.
