The Way we Were(n't): Ideology in Don Quixote

Further thoughts on chivalry and feudalism in Miguel de Cervantes's "Don Quixote": moving through Book/Volume 1, we come to the first of the interpolated novellas, the story of the man who was "too curious" - a newly married Florentine who concocts one of those crazy schemes that always seem to turn up in stories set in Italy (and written by authors living elsewhere) in which he asks his best friend to try to seduce his new wife in order to prove to himself that she is virtuous - with obvious tragic results. The story itself is extremely weird and could be and probably has been subject to a lot of analysis, including examination of its homoerotic subtext. Also interesting is the way in which the characters discuss the story, and discuss the role of literature, before one begins reading the story aloud: they agree that stories about the codes of errant knights are a fitting diversion - though the priest has reservations about some of the narratives - and they do enjoy this totally preposterous story about the test of virtue, though one notes at the end how improbable the story was/is. The subtext here is that all of these stories of knight errantry and courtly love are in fact diversions, fictions, fantasies: this era never truly existed, certainly not in the way it is portrayed in literature, but it is a way for people living in a changing society, as Cervantes (and Shakespeare his contemporary) were - to imagine that in "days of yore" everything was done by an honorable code, that things were better - back then - when everyone knew his or her place and knew how to behave. This false belief is a fake nostalgia and is also in fact an ideology: a shroud that the ruling class, fearful about the power it is losing, places over the eyes of all others. It's in some ways no different from what we see today: people talking about how back when they were kids everyone did fine in school with classes of 50 kids (they didn't), the country was better off when everyone has to rely on his or her own resources and there was no government help (it wasn't), that the wealthy have earned their status in society through hard work and intelligence (rarely). In fact is this same ideology and faux nostalgia what made the DQ knockoff, Man from La Mancha, which I've never seen, such a middle-brow success?