In view of Plato's theory of poetry, explain how reading epic poetry has proven detrimental for Don Quixote in Cervantes'' DON QIUXOTE.

Cervantes' imitation of Heliodorus' “prose epic” the Ethiopian History in The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda was obvious to seventeenth-century critics, who easily spotted the Spanish book's borrowing of the Greek work's quickly-paced adventures, shipwrecks, fantastic elements and surprise recognitions.[1] Forcione's greatest contribution to the discussion of this work as a prose epic has been to demonstrate that it, as much as Don Quixote, contains highly conscious references to neo-Aristotelian literary theory, especially the notions of unity and verisimilitude, the two most essential characteristics of the epic for the Renaissance. The purpose of this study has been to enlarge our understanding of The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda as prose epic beyond the perspective of Neo-Aristotelian definitions of such a genre. By applying the observations of the twentieth-century thinkers, Lukács, Bakhtin and Calin to Cervantes' last book, we find that it resembles the great epic poems of the Western world in its action that takes place on earth and in a supernatural realm and its celebration of human heroism. Contemporary history is elevated to mythic significance, while the dominant values of the Counter Reformation are held up for the reader's admiration. Although the main concern of the work is love, not war, Cervantes treats this subject in an elevated manner appropriate to the epic. Because of his willingness to incorporate so many areas of human experience —artistic, theological, political, psychological— into his narrative, he succeeds in creating a work reminiscent especially of Dante's Divine Comedy, a great epic poem, but one much too expansive for the constraints imposed by Aristotle and his followers.[2]

Recognizing the affinities between The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda and epic literature in no way means that we cannot also consider the work a romance. The Persiles seems, in fact, to draw upon elements of both the epic and the romance in a way not unlike that recommended by Tasso, who, according to Forcione, had the insight to understand that “the classical epic could be revitalized only if it were to incorporate such features of the romances of chivalry as had made them so appealing to the modern audience —variety, marvelous subject matter, and the relative contemporaneity in the events and customs which they depict. In effect, the new epic must be a purification of romance (Cervantes' Christian Romance, 7). From this perspective, Cervantes' last book appears as great a success, as original a contribution to the development of European fiction as Don Quixote.[3]

In 2005, Don Quixote will be 400 years old. Most epic heroes are young, from Achilles to El Cid. It was part of the genius of Cervantes to put an old man in the saddle and send him off to relive the heroic tales of the past. But Don Quixote is not alone in his mad quest for chivalry. He is accompanied by his opposite in figure, speech and temperament: the round, earthy, ...