Quickly, with many adventures, Don Quixote is launched on his career of faith as a knight-errant. Sancho is likewise launched, for if he can withstand the adventure of the windmills and still remain attached to his madman master, he can be loyal throughout even more extravagant adventures.
The combat with the windmill is rich in symbolism. It does not matter whether the ponderous machine stands for stultified human institutions that need attacking, or ancient traditions that must be newly questioned, or totalitarian government requiring renewal by revolution, or bureaucracy being attacked by individual demands. What matters is that only a positive act of will is capable of attacking anything, and the success or failure is unimportant. "Thy triumph, my Don Quixote," writes Unamuno, "Was ever a triumph of daring, not of succeeding." Not only is Don Quixote victorious because he dares; he is always spiritually triumphant as well. He has a stoical ability to disregard his physical failures and is willing to follow his adventures after a slight recovery.
