Don Quixote’s Performance of Eremitism and Holy Foolishness in Sierra Morena

Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. 2023. Vol. 100. No. 5. P. 487–500.

Serebrennikov A.

The article explores the religious undertones of Don Quixote’s ‘penance’ in Sierra Morena. It emphasizes that, while Don Quixote’s unusual behaviour is explicitly inspired by chivalric and pastoral models, the religious character of his actions is clearly communicated and reveals additional layers of his behaviour. One such religious ‘model’ is the holy hermit, an ascetic devotee. Cervantes invokes imagery and tropes typical of eremitism such as Don Quixote’s loneliness and isolation. This subtext reinforces the earnestness of the character’s undertaking and its inner bathos and absurdity. The tradition of Eastern Orthodox yurodstvo (holy foolishness) can explain the deliberate and premeditated nature of the knight errant’s behaviour, as holy fools were said to ‘don the guise of madness’, pretending to engage in inde­cent and outwardly sacrilegious acts for spiritual ends. Don Quixote’s gambolling and nudity from the waist down are acts of a holy fool. The lives of Saint Francis of Assisi similarly contain acts such as public nudity and the feigning of madness.

Keywords: Don Quixote, Cervantes