Perceptions of Dress in the Female Quixote

Charlotte Lennox’s eighteenth-century British rendition of Cervantes’ Don Quixote mirrors the original in many ways. Like Don Quixote, Arabella, his female literary descendant, screams forth and marches headfirst into the absurdity we call may call society. Our protagonist, Arabella, is anti-tradition and avant-garde, but ironically, these traits result from her inability to differentiate reality from romance fiction. Arabella’s quixotism is a direct literary device used by an author, who purposefully and determinedly, sets off to communicate a social commentary through the usage of humor, absurdity, and satire. Thus, Arabella is a worthy companion to Cervantes’ Don Quixote because both protagonists use innocence, wonder, and even a bit of delusion, to truly see the world; a world that can be all-too-easily misconstrued, lied-bout and made superficial.