The Oriental Idea and the Existential Affliction of Don Quijote

돈키호테의 실존적 고뇌와 동양사상

In this article, I have analyzed the signification of the death of Don Quijote from the oriental religious and philosophical point of view, comparing with the novels of Kim, DongRi. We are able to read Cervantes' hope for his absolute ideal to be lasting forever via the death of Don Quijote, in the base of a strong will named of Gukyeong's life. In the same time, we can also discovery death as lasting of life in the basis of buddhist idea and death as the unification with nature via the meeting between the living and the dead in the Montesinos Cave. Montesinos Cave symbolizes a unclassified and chaotic space, which the Shamanist can meet the dead with a extatic ceremony and both supernatural life and daily life coexist. Therefore, the symbolic death of Don Quijote in Montesinos Cave is abe to be explained by approaching to absolute freedom named of Hatal, in other words, voluntary and conscious death to escape from the yugo of being. Considering the fact that Kim, Dongri emphasized on the unification of sky, earth and human being, keeping a racial identification in the face of the stream of occidental materialism in the time of Japanese conquest, we can look for the similarity with Cervantes' ideal. Contrary to the religious dogmatic ideal, Cervantes treated to recover the human nature and vitality, transcending the occidental rationalism and religious ideology in the time of Counter-reformation.