Madness and reason seem to exist at opposite poles of a binary; one is defined by the absence of the other. However, this binary, although present in Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, poses a problem. The protagonists – who are meant to represent the extreme madman – straddle the line that separates sanity from madness, and therefore refuse to be so easily categorized. While the authors demonstrate that such a binary cannot explain a complex human character, they take their argument a step further: madness is not an agent that results in irrational human behavior, but a description of a such behavior. We are not irrational because we are crazy; we are considered crazy by society because we behave irrationally. To understand the reason for a certain behavior, one must consider each thread in the web of causes that shape identity and determine action. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayCervantes encourages the reader to conclude that Don Quixote is undoubtedly mad. The reader is easily convinced because the third-party narrator is presented as objective and omniscient. The narrator describes Don Quixote as having “completely destroyed his reason” and having fallen “into the strangest imagination that a madman ever had in the world” (Cervantes 33). If Quixote represents the crazy extreme of the binary, the narrator corresponds to the opposite pole. Thus, the reader himself, who is aligned with the narrator, is located next to the narrator, at one extreme. Sancho Panza, who serves as the reader's voice, further convinces the reader that Don Quixote is completely delusional. It expresses the reader's disbelief and outrage that Don Quixote allows his fantasies to have such disastrous effects in the real world. For example, when Don Quixote states that he will avenge "the outrage they did to Rocinante," Sancho responds skeptically: "How the devil can we take revenge when there are more than twenty of them and we are only only two? (Cervantes 112). Sancho humbly expresses his disbelief again and again. In response to a typical adventure resulting in bodily harm, Sancho said: "I consider that the creatures who had fun at my expense were not ghosts or enchanted ones, as your Honor says, but men of flesh and blood like us” (Cervantes 133). The narrator also makes a clear distinction between what Don Quixote imagines and what is real. Even the clearest situations “do not prevent Don Quixote from imagining what is neither visible nor existing” (Cervantes 135). The simple binary that classifies both Quixote and Sancho at the beginning does not exist for long, however; Cervantes begins to explore how madness and reason can overlap. It becomes increasingly clear that Don Quixote's madness is not homogeneous; the reader catches Don Quixote in moments of perfect clarity, during which he seems entirely capable of rational thought. Quixote is able to discuss politics with the barber's priest "with such intelligence?" that both examiners had no doubt that he was completely recovered and in full possession of his mind” (Cervantes 472). He becomes increasingly able to recognize the limits of his imagination and increasingly willing to abandon the fantasy once he begins to push those limits. When Quixote takes a church for Dulcinea's palace, for example, he realizes “immediately that the building was not a royal castle, but the parish church of the place” (Cervantes 521). Likewise, Sancho Panza – and otherscharacters who represent reason – demonstrate madness in the midst of his rationality. The reader doubts exactly how reasonable Sancho can be if he continues as Quixote's squire despite the fact that he recognizes the folly of Quixote's actions. He does this because he believes that “an adventure could happen that would win him an island in the blink of an eye, of which he [would] become governor” (Cervantes 66). The canon later notes this contradiction as he marvels "at the madness of Sancho in so ardently desiring the court his master had promised him" (Cervantes 443). The strange contest of madness and reason among these The characters are remarkably similar. The priest and the barber, for example, compare the madness of these two characters, commenting that "the two seem to be cast in one mold, and the madness of the master would not be worth a penny without the madness of the squire. » (Cervantes 482). By demonstrating how madness and reason can coexist, Cervantes begins to break down the binary system he initially set up. additional reason to be wary of Don Quixote's madness. There seems to be a certain order and meaning to his madness, described by the narrator as a “well-reasoned absurdity” (Cervantes 443). First, his madness is limited to the theme of chivalry. - he can comment rationally on almost any other question. For example, when Quixote is sent home for rehabilitation, the canon notes that he showed "excellent sense in his conversation and in his responses" and "only [loses] his stirrups?" about chivalry” (Cervantes 435). However, once inside the fictional chivalric world he has created for himself, Quixote's behavior and reasoning are both consistent and rational. He carefully follows the guidelines traced by the canon of chivalric literature with which he is so familiar. For example, "Don Quixote sleeps [often] but [thinks] of his Lady Dulcinea, to conform to what he [has] read in his books about knights who spend many sleepless knights in the woods and desert to dwell on the memory of their ladies” (Cervantes 70). All of his actions are completely in line with what one would expect of a knight-errant. Quixote clearly has not lost the ability to reason, as such an inability would be universally present. Citing "madness" as the reason why Don Quixote suddenly reshaped himself into a knight-errant becomes an increasingly unsatisfactory explanation for his behavior. If it is not because he is crazy, the curious reader will wonder why Quixote behaves in a completely illusory manner. Cervantes urges the reader to make a critical shift in his reasoning; he urges the reader to view madness not as a cause of irrational behavior, but rather as a description of it. It is important to consider the function that Quixote's behavior serves. Why did Quixote, before becoming a knight-errant, lead a comfortable but boring life, with a "usual diet [on which] he spent three-quarters of his income" and essentially "nothing to do [except give ] until reading books on chivalry-errant" (Cervantes 31). It is no wonder that he took so much pleasure in reading chivalric novels, which allowed him to vicariously experience honor, victory, and true love If one enjoys something vicariously, it is reasonable to assume that he might enjoy experiencing it in real life. This would explain why Quixote "got it." eager to translate his desires into action, impelled to do so by the thought of the loss the world had suffered through his delay, seeing that there were grievances to be redressed, wrongsto right, wounds to repair” (Cervantes 33). -35). Becoming a knight-errant therefore fulfilled Quixote's thirst for adventure, honor, fame and purpose. We see that Sancho, too, allows himself to be deceived in order to fulfill a specific need: to provide for his family and raise his social status. If madness is not the cause of certain behaviors but a description of them, the reader must wonder. by what criteria behavior is judged and who determines these criteria. Quixote's behavior is considered crazy because it responds to a world inconsistent with what most people consider reality. It is unfortunate for Don Quixote that he cannot be a true knight. DonQuixote is not the author of Don Quixote in both identity and design: he has adopted the identity of a knight-errant, as defined by his chivalrous novels, and he transforms everyday situations into adventures and in conquests to have something to do, a goal. In the final pages of Don Quixote, Cervantes furthers his argument that behavior and therefore identity changes as our internal needs change. When Quixote was defeated as a knight-errant – and must remain in the village for a year – he decides to become a shepherd, to "give [his imagination] free rein and work out the plan of pastoral life [he is] destined to follow" who "could give free rein to his amorous thoughts, while attending to this pastoral and virtuous vocation" (Cervantes 930). The shepherd suits the most melancholic Don Quixote and would allow him to mourn his defeat as a lost love and between male friends However, this need abruptly changes again when Quixote "a fever seizes [him]" and sends him to his deathbed (Cervantes 935). to his knightly madness Although it may seem to the reader that he has finally surrendered to reality and returned to his true self, Cervantes warns us that something more could happen Just as Quixote renounces. “these detestable books of chivalry,” he laments that his imminent death “does not leave him time to redeem himself by reading other [religious] books that could enlighten [his] soul” (Cervantes 35). . This aligns his conversion to Christianity with his conversion to the knight-errant; Christianity is just another identity that can be put on like a cloak. Cervantes, however, seems to suggest that there is no absolute identity and that even socially accepted "healthy" identities (such as Christianity) are constructed rather than intrinsic. There are many parallels in the way Cervantes and Dostoyevsky treat madness. Like Cervantes, Dostoyevsky aims from the beginning to convince the reader that his protagonist, Raskolnikov, is mad. Through free and direct speech, Dostoyevsky opens a window onto Raskolnikov's mental processes. This entry into the protagonist's mind departs from Cervantes, whose narrative voice remains distinct from that of the protagonist. Dostoyevsky transports the reader into Raskolnikov's head by blending the narrative voice with Raskolnikov's internal monologue. One of Raskolnikov's thoughts, for example, slips into the story: "But to stop on the stairs so that you have to dodge all the time, make excuses, lie - oh, no, better to fly like a cat up the stairs 'one way or another and slip away without being seen. anyone” (Dostoyevsky 3). Conversely, a technique used by Dostoyevsky to capture Raskolnikov's disjointed thought process is also found in the narration. Ellipses - often used to illustrate how Raskolnikov's thoughts intersect - are usually contained in quotations from hisinner thoughts. Sometimes, however, they seem to slip away: “Now his particular ring seemed to suddenly remind [Raskolnikov] of something and present it clearly to him? He jumped, so weak had his nerves become this time” (Dostoyevsky 6). Even Raskolnikov's first transcribed thoughts - babbling about babbling - resonate with madness: "I learned to babble over the last month, lying in a corner day after day, thinking about the land of cuckoos" (Dostoyevsky 4) . The narrative description of Raskolnikov reinforces the idea that he is mad: “There was something strange about him; his eyes even seemed lit by rapture; there also seemed to be a glimmer of madness in them” (Dostoyevsky 12). As the novel unfolds, more and more evidence suggests that Raskolnikov is insane. This evidence primarily includes actions and thoughts that appear inconsistent, contradictory, asocial, without rational motive, or independent of causality. For example, after Raskolnikov reads his mother's letter, he exhibits what appear to be contradictory emotions: sadness and malicious joy. Was his face wet with tears? but when he had finished, he was pale, twisted convulsively, and a heavy, bilious, wicked smile wandered across his face” (Dostoyevsky 39). There are countless examples suggesting that Raskolnikov is crazy. While Dostoyevsky clearly wants Raskolnikov to appear mad, the distinction between madness and reason in Crime and Punishment is even less clear than in Don Quixote. The first binary system that becomes problematic is that the world in Raskolnikov's mind is crazy and the world outside is orderly and sane. This binary weakens as the reader glimpses complete lucidity and even calculation in Raskolnikov's reasoning and behavior, until it becomes clear that Raskolnikov, like Don Quixote, is both sane and healthy. wit and madman, an apparent paradox that is not entirely surprising for someone whose name is derived from raskol, the Russian word for divide. In one scene, Raskolnikov shouts at his mother and sister “with exaggerated irritation,” but “was partly pretending” (Dostoyevsky 246). Yet another binary – which places Razumikhin at the sane extreme and Raskolnikov at the mad extreme – parallels the binary that Cervantes establishes between Sancho Panza and Don Quixote. Its operation is similar. Razumikhin presents his own madness: he is always drunk, which clouds his reason and makes him socially authoritarian. Perhaps the most striking binary that Dostoyevsky destabilizes is that between the reader and Raskolnikov, which classifies the reader as sane and Raskolnikov as insane. However, Dostoyevsky, by granting the reader access to Raskolnikov's inner world, facilitates the connection between the reader and the protagonist. At the moment when Raskolnikov committed the murder, the reader finds himself as caught up in the emotion and excitement as Raskolnikov, experiencing a vicarious sense of anxiety about the possibility of being apprehended and released once the crime is finally committed. Dostoyevsky, like Cervantes, suggests that madness has no action per se, but is simply a behavioral classification. Raskolnikov's reasons for committing the murder are deliberately left ambiguous and perhaps remain unresolved – even at the end of the novel. Dostoyevsky presents several possible explanations as to why Raskolnikov committed the crime, including financial gain, humanitarian reasons, mental illness, and environmental influences, to name a few. Although each proposition has merit and seems plausible, none of them alone is sufficient to explain Raskolnikov's behavior. The environment, for example,is cited as a possible cause. Given the extreme poverty of his situation, it is no wonder that he was driven to despair. Svidrigailov remarks that “one rarely finds a place where there are so many dark, sharp, strange influences on a man's soul as in Petersburg (Dostoyevsky 467). Razumikhin describes him as "a poor student, crippled by poverty and hypochondria, on the verge of a cruel illness and delirium" (Dostoevsky, 268). Some believe that "if society itself is organized normally , all crimes will disappear at once, because there will be no reason to protest and everyone will instantly become righteous," while others strongly oppose this theory because "nature is not taken into account” (Dostoyevsky 256). When none of these theories seems sufficient, one concludes “that the crime itself could not have occurred in any other way than one way or another.” of temporary madness, including, so to speak, a morbid monomania of murder and theft, without any other aim or calculation of profit” (Dostoyevsky 536). This conclusion, however, seems woefully insufficient, leaving the reader with cold dissatisfaction. The political theory to which Raskolnikov most vehemently subscribes is that there are two classes of people: the ordinary and the extraordinary. As much as Raskolnikov wants to believe that his crime was some sort of trial to see whether or not he was Napoleon or louse, the truth seems to be that he already knows he is not Napoleon. He said to himself: “I should have known that before? Eh! but I knew that before!” (Dostoyevsky 274). Raskolnikov perhaps comes closest to understanding by concluding that he "just wanted to dare? That's the whole reason!" (Dostoyevsky 418). It is this unidentifiable, visceral, almost compulsive need that originates deep in the subconscious. Even if Dostoyevsky cannot help the reader completely demystify the human subconscious, he can provoke a twinge - however slight - of the same subconscious urge to kill that Raskolnikov himself experiences. . This is perhaps Dostoyevsky's true stroke of genius. This urge exists completely outside the realm of insanity, as defined by society. It is also important to remember that Dostoyevsky was writing in a post-Freudian era and that Dostoyevsky seems to encourage the reader to theorize about Raskolnikov's subconscious activity. Raskolnikov's dreams about the horse and the apocalyptic world demand such analysis. In this dream, it is a little boy walking with his father. They come across a crowd of drunk people trying to force an old mare to drag a load that is far too heavy for her. Raskolnikov, as a child, feels totally helpless as he cannot provoke a response from his helpless father and cannot stop the whip, even when he puts his own body between the horse and the whip (Dostoevsky 56) . This dream suggests another possible motive for the crime: Raskolnikov wants to do something to oppose his feelings of helplessness and helplessness in life. When Porfiry says, "Human nature is a mirror, sir, the clearest mirror," he may be referring to the fact that our behavior is a manifestation of activity occurring at a subconscious level that we cannot understand rationally (Dostoyevsky 342). The subconscious is like a black box that consolidates countless causes and results in a particular action or thought. However, how these causes interact inside this black box is a very complex question, which Dostoyevsky certainly does not completely resolve. It is likely that the activity and functioning of the subconscious goes beyond even the retrospective theorizing of the conscious mind. Because the subconscious mind is so difficult to understand, »..