Don Quixote 

Gustave Doré rendered this illustration of Don Quixote in the 19th century, capturing a scene of confinement. The cage, a potent symbol, speaks to thwarted freedom, echoing the prison of the mind where fantasy clashes with reality. Consider how cages and enclosures recur throughout art history, from medieval depictions of saints in devotional settings to Renaissance allegories of virtue trapped by vice. The bars become a visual metaphor for the human condition, oscillating between protection and constraint. The image also carries the deeply human theme of madness versus sanity. We see this conflict in the contrast between Don Quixote's despair and the unsettling glee of his captors. Reflect on how Don Quixote, like many tragic figures, elicits a complex emotional response. We may pity his delusion, yet we also recognize a universal longing for a world beyond the mundane, a sentiment that continually resurfaces in our art and collective psyche.