Don Quixote

Fictional Spanish knight in Cervantes's 1605 novel who goes mad reading chivalric romances, adopts the persona of a knight-errant, and proceeds to impose his heroic mythology on a mundane world that sees only a deluded old man.

Creates the defining Western archetype of the noble idealist who sees the world as it could be rather than as it is — a figure simultaneously ridiculous and heroic — making Quixote the reference for any person who pursues a magnificent vision against the mockery of a pragmatic world.