Renaissance literature who seeks by action to bring the 
     world into harmony with his own plans and ideals. 
     Cervantes’ irony lies in the fact that while overtly his hero 
     battles against the new (the early manifestations of 
     middle-class life) in the name of the old (the feudal 
     system), actually he attempts to sanction a new 
     principle. This principle consists, basically, in the 
     autonomy of individual thinking and feeling. The dynamics 
     of society have come to demand a continuous and active 
     transformation of reality; the world must be perpetually 
     constructed anew. Don Quixote recreates his world even 
     though he does so in a fantastic and solipsistic fashion. 
     The honor for which he enters the lists is the product of 
     his thinking, not of socially established and accepted 
     values. He defends those whom he considers worthy of 
     his protection and assails those he believes to be wicked.