Critics have proposed various explanations of Don Quixote's madness, such as an excess of melancholy or of choler

Critics have proposed various explanations of Don Quixote's madness, such as an excess of melancholy or of choler. I argue in this paper that demoniacal possession is another possibility. In Don Quixote the protagonist's behavior often suggests possession by the devil; in fact other characters often confuse Don Quixote with the devil. I interpret an episode in II, 62 in which Don Quixote exclaims: ¿Fugite, partes adversae!¿ as a sort of exorcism; and I also examine the similarities between Don Quixote's trampling by swine (II, 68) and the most famous exorcism in the Bible.

Hasbrouck, Michael D.

Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America, ISSN 0277-6995, Vol. 12, Nº. 2, 1992, pags. 117-126