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A nice conceit. Although Don Quixote, when viewed as a person or a character, is delusional, perhaps insane, and within the narrative achieves none of his purported goals, he, also within the narrative, achieves a tacit goal, the goal of becoming a legendary knight errant. While Don Quixote fails to conquer kingdoms and fails to slay giants, he does, by becoming a romantic figure in a story, become like unto his heroes, his fellow knights in his beloved romances. He both fails and succeeds. He fails to become a knight errant in objective reality but does become a knight errant in literary reality. But, because literary knights errant are the only heroes with which he has first-hand knowledge, Don Quixote, while failing to achieve real knighthood does achieve that knighthood of which he has knowledge, literary knighthood. A central irony of the story is that although Don Quixote as a person is likely insane and incapable of achieving his purported goals, he does achieve parity with his heroes, his romantic fictional or legendary knights. Another central irony is that to some large extent Don Quixote cannot enjoy the rewards of his quest. Because his quest is illusory, any reward must be a phantasm. It is only others, perhaps some future Don Quixote, perhaps the reader of the tale of Don Quixote, who achieves that reward, that reward that Don Quixote himself had achieved before leaving on his quest, the reward of the tale itself.