Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 19:20:54 -0700
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Molinos
To: [log in to unmask]

Dear Colleagues,

There is a metaphor at play in the adventure of the windmills that can be immediately verified in the culture of Cervantes’s time.  Don Quixote perceives the windmills to be giants.   Sebastián de Covarrubias tells us that “gigante”, among other things, means  “hombre que tiene largas manos y estendidas, que a mi parecer, es lo mesmo que hombre poderoso…”.  The concept of power is subsequently given a metaphorical rendering: “podemos llamar gigantes metafóricamente a los soverbios desalmados, blasfemos, tiranos y hombres sin Dios y sin conciencia…”.  Pandafilando de la Fosca Vista immediately comes to mind, although, ironically, don Quixote never gets to confront this giant directly.  Of course, Pandafilando is Dorotea´s metaphorical rendering of don Fernando, a powerful nobleman who, blinded by his lust, promises to marry Dorotea, consummates their relationship and, indifferent to both the social code and the laws of God, promptly abandons her.  In brief, the windmill episode constitutes the opening salvo in a long series of confrontations with “gigantes” by means of which don Quixote will attempt to “address power”, to right the wrongs (personal, social, political) of 17^th-century Spain.


Dr. G. L. Gingras
Associate Professor and Coordinator of Spanish
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
(574) 284-5378