Don Quixote

Summary

The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha was published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615. An impoverished hidalgo of about fifty, Alonso Quixano, reads chivalric romances until, from too little sleep and too much reading, his brain dries up and he loses his wits. Believing himself a knight-errant, he renames himself Don Quixote, polishes old armour, calls his bony horse Rocinante, and chooses as his lady a peasant girl from a nearby village whom he names Dulcinea del Toboso. On his first sally he is 'knighted' by a mocking innkeeper and soundly beaten. His friends, the priest and the barber, burn most of his library, but he sets out again with a credulous, earthy, illiterate neighbour, Sancho Panza, as his squire, promising him the governorship of an island. Their adventures follow: Don Quixote attacks windmills he takes for giants, charges flocks of sheep he thinks are armies, frees a chain of galley slaves who then stone him, and drinks his own miraculous 'balsam of Fierabras', which makes both men violently sick. Part One weaves in interpolated tales of love and betrayal, including the stories of Cardenio and Dorotea and the novella 'The Curious Impertinent', and ends with the priest and barber bringing the knight home in a cage on an ox cart. In Part Two, written partly in response to a spurious continuation by 'Avellaneda', Don Quixote and Sancho find that Part One has been published and that people know of them. Sancho deceives his master into believing that a coarse peasant girl is Dulcinea under enchantment. A Duke and Duchess who have read the book entertain the pair and stage elaborate hoaxes for their amusement, including making Sancho governor of the 'island' of Barataria, where he judges cases with surprising wisdom but is starved by a court physician before resigning. Don Quixote descends into the Cave of Montesinos and reports marvellous visions. Finally, at Barcelona, he is defeated by the Knight of the White Moon, actually his neighbour Sansón Carrasco, and must give up knight-errantry for a year. He returns home, falls ill with fever, recovers his reason, renounces the books of chivalry as Alonso Quixano the Good, makes his will and dies, mourned by Sancho, who begs him to rise and take up a new life as a shepherd.

Plot or Argument

• Part I: The first sally (Ch. 1–6)

  Alonso Quixano's madness, his knighting at the inn, beatings on the road, and the burning of his library.

• Part I: With Sancho (Ch. 7–22)

  The windmills, the Biscayan, the balsam of Fierabras, the flocks of sheep, Mambrino's helmet and the galley slaves.

• Part I: The Sierra Morena and the inn (Ch. 23–52)

  Penance in the mountains; the intertwined tales of Cardenio, Dorotea, Luscinda and the Captive; return home in a cage.

• Part II: Fame and Dulcinea (Ch. 1–29)

  The heroes learn of their published fame; the 'enchanted' Dulcinea; the Knight of the Mirrors; the lions; Montesinos's cave; Master Peter's puppets.

• Part II: The Duke and Duchess (Ch. 30–57)

  Elaborate hoaxes at the ducal court, the flying horse Clavileño, and Sancho's governorship of Barataria.

• Part II: Barcelona, defeat and death (Ch. 58–74)

  Encounters with bandits and Barcelona society; defeat by the Knight of the White Moon; homecoming, return to sanity and death.

Characters

• Don Quixote (Alonso Quixano), protagonist

  Elderly hidalgo who, maddened by romances, sets out to revive knight-errantry.

• Sancho Panza, squire

  Practical, proverb-spouting peasant whose loyalty and shrewdness grow through the book.

• Dulcinea del Toboso, imagined lady

  Idealised version of the peasant Aldonza Lorenzo, never seen in person.

• Rocinante, horse

  Don Quixote's emaciated nag.

• The Priest (Pero Pérez) and Master Nicolás the barber, friends

  Village friends who burn the library and scheme to bring the knight home.

• Sansón Carrasco, bachelor of Salamanca

  Neighbour who disguises himself as a knight to defeat Don Quixote and cure him.

• The Duke and Duchess, aristocratic hosts

  Readers of Part One who stage cruel hoaxes for amusement.

• Cardenio and Dorotea, lovers in interpolated tales

  Wronged lovers whose stories resolve at the inn in Part One.

Lessons

• Reading shapes reality

  Don Quixote's madness begins in books, and the novel is constantly about how stories govern perception. Cervantes asks what happens when we live by the narratives we consume.

  • What modern media might produce a Don Quixote today?
  • Is Don Quixote's madness entirely a misfortune?
  • Why does Part Two make the characters aware of being in a book?

• Idealism and realism need each other

  Quixote and Sancho influence each other: Sancho grows more imaginative and Quixote more aware. The novel suggests that a full life needs both vision and practicality.

  • How does Sancho change by Part Two?
  • What does Sancho's governorship show about wisdom?

• Mockery can be cruel

  The Duke and Duchess's elaborate jokes at Quixote's expense reveal more about their cruelty than about his folly. Cervantes invites sympathy for the deluded.

  • Are readers implicated in the Duke and Duchess's laughter?
  • Is the cure that ends Quixote's madness a kindness?

Context

Don Quixote appeared in Spain's Golden Age, when chivalric romances such as Amadís de Gaula had been bestsellers for a century. Cervantes satirises them while reflecting a society of declining hidalgos, the Inquisition, the expulsion of the Moriscos (1609–1614, touched on through the character Ricote in Part Two) and Mediterranean conflict with the Ottomans.

Composition

Part One was published in Madrid in 1605. A spurious Part Two by the pseudonymous Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda appeared in 1614, and Cervantes mocks it in his own Part Two, published in 1615, months before his death in April 1616.

Reception

An immediate success, translated into English by Thomas Shelton (Part One, 1612) and into French soon after. It is often called the first modern novel and has influenced writers from Fielding and Sterne to Flaubert, Dostoyevsky and Borges; 'quixotic' entered many languages.

Comparisons

• northanger-abbey

  Catherine Morland, like Don Quixote, reads her world through the conventions of a beloved genre, here the Gothic novel, and must learn to see clearly.

• candide

  Both follow an idealist through a series of beatings and disillusionments, satirising a system of belief; Candide's optimism parallels Quixote's chivalry.

• gullivers-travels

  Both are satirical journeys whose narrator's perceptions are unreliable, and both end with the hero's mental state in question.

• the-misanthrope-and-other-plays

  Molière's comic monomaniacs, like Quixote, are ruled by a single idea that clashes with social reality.

• lord-jim

  Jim's romantic self-image, nourished by 'light holiday literature', is a modern quixotism with tragic consequences.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The scrutiny of the library in Part I, Chapter 6, where the priest and the barber judge Don Quixote's books one by one, saving some and burning most. It is a work of literary criticism hidden inside a comedy.
• Part I, Chapter 9, where the story breaks off mid-battle and the narrator finds the rest in an Arabic manuscript by Cide Hamete Benengeli in the market at Toledo. From here on, ask who is telling the story.
• The opening chapters of Part II, where Sansón Carrasco tells Don Quixote and Sancho that a book about them has been published and that people know their adventures. The characters become readers of themselves.
• Sancho's trick in Part II, Chapter 10, when he presents a coarse peasant girl as Dulcinea under enchantment. Watch how Sancho's own deceptions change his relation to his master's madness.
• Sancho's governorship of Barataria at the ducal court, and Don Quixote's counsels to him before he goes. The hoax meant to mock the squire reveals his practical justice.

Key terms and names

Hidalgo

A member of Spain's lowest rank of nobility, gentle by birth but often poor. Alonso Quixano, with his lance-rack, old buckler, and lean horse, is a hidalgo with more lineage than income.

Knight-errant

The wandering knight of the chivalric romances who rides out to right wrongs, defend the weak, and win glory for his lady. Don Quixote tries to revive this calling in a Spain of inns, muleteers, and Holy Brotherhood officers.

Dulcinea del Toboso

The lady Don Quixote invents from Aldonza Lorenzo, a farm girl of a nearby village whom he has hardly seen. She never appears in person, which makes her a perfect test of how imagination shapes love.

Cide Hamete Benengeli

The fictional Arab historian whose manuscript the narrator claims to have found and had translated in Part I, Chapter 9. His layer of authorship lets Cervantes play with truth, translation, and the reliability of stories.

Mambrino's helmet

The enchanted helmet of the romances, which Don Quixote believes he has won in Part I when he seizes a barber's brass basin. The later quarrel at the inn over whether it is basin or helmet becomes a comic dispute about perception.

Barataria

The island the Duke grants Sancho as a jest in Part II. Its name suggests cheapness or trickery, but Sancho's judgments there are shrewd and fair.

Avellaneda

The pseudonym of the author of a spurious continuation published in 1614. Cervantes answers him within Part II, where Don Quixote changes his route to Barcelona and meets a character from the false sequel.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension According to Part I, Chapter 1, how does Alonso Quixano lose his wits, and what does he do to prepare himself for knight-errantry?
2. Comprehension What does Don Quixote promise Sancho Panza to persuade him to become his squire, and how is that promise fulfilled in Part II?
3. Comprehension Who is the Knight of the White Moon, why does he challenge Don Quixote in Barcelona, and what happens after Don Quixote returns home?
4. Interpretation When Don Quixote frees the galley slaves in Part I, Chapter 22, they repay him with stones. Is the episode a mockery of his ideals, a judgment on the slaves, or something more complicated?
5. Interpretation In Part II the Duke and Duchess, who are sane, stage elaborate hoaxes to laugh at Don Quixote and Sancho. Who appears more foolish or more cruel in these chapters, the mad knight or his sane hosts?
6. Interpretation Over the course of the book Sancho becomes more like his master and Don Quixote more like his squire. Trace one change in each and explain what Cervantes suggests about friendship.
7. Interpretation On his deathbed Don Quixote recovers his reason, renounces the romances, and dies as Alonso Quixano the Good, while Sancho begs him to ride out again as a shepherd. Is the ending a cure, a defeat, or a conversion?
8. Big Question Is it better to live by a noble illusion or a disenchanted truth? Can an ideal be worth pursuing even if the one who pursues it is mistaken about the world?

Faith Connections

• 1 Corinthians 4:10 (Scripture)

  Paul says the apostles are fools for Christ's sake while the Corinthians are wise in Christ. Don Quixote's folly is not Paul's, but his willingness to be mocked for an ideal of mercy and honor has led many readers to see him as a comic figure of holy foolishness.

• Psalm 90:12 (Scripture)

  The psalmist asks God to teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Don Quixote's recovery of reason in the final chapter comes exactly as he faces death, when he makes his will and confesses as Alonso Quixano the Good.

• Augustine, Confessions I.13 (Church Fathers)

  Augustine recalls weeping as a boy over Dido's death in the Aeneid while not weeping over his own soul's death away from God. Don Quixote is the comic extreme of the reader Augustine describes, so absorbed in romances that he lives inside them.

• Erasmus, The Praise of Folly (Great Conversation)

  Erasmus's Folly mocks many kinds of human foolishness before praising the folly of the cross and the Christian who seems mad to the world. Don Quixote holds the same double view of folly, at once ridiculous and, at moments, nobler than the sanity around it.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A man who reads romances until he takes them for history will act on a false picture of the world, and the world will answer with beatings, mockery, and failure. Yet the ideals in those romances, justice, courage, mercy, and fidelity, are not themselves false, and those who mock the madman often show less of them than he does. Therefore the book both cures the reader of chivalric illusion and asks what becomes of nobility once illusion is gone, an answer it gives only in Don Quixote's death as Alonso Quixano the Good.

Rhetorical device: mock-heroic parody. In Part I, Chapter 8, Don Quixote announces in the high style of romance that fortune is arranging matters better than they could have wished, for there stand thirty or more monstrous giants. The elevated diction applied to windmills on the plain of La Mancha is the book's central joke in miniature: heroic language meeting ordinary things.

Debate: Resolved: Don Quixote's return to sanity at the end of the book is a defeat rather than a victory.

Memory Work

In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing

Fortune is arranging matters for us better than we could have shaped our desires ourselves, for look there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or more monstrous giants present themselves

Writing Prompts

Essay: Don Quixote is a madman, yet the sane characters of Part II, especially the Duke and Duchess, often behave worse than he does. Using the windmills, the galley slaves, the ducal hoaxes, and the deathbed, argue what Cervantes suggests about the relation between sanity and goodness.

Comparison with Northanger Abbey: Catherine Morland, like Don Quixote, reads her life through the books she loves, Gothic novels in her case, and must be corrected by reality. Compare how Austen and Cervantes treat the reader who mistakes fiction for life, and argue which author is kinder to the dreamer and why.

Medical Lens

Probably the most influential portrait of madness in Western fiction and a staple of medical humanities. Cervantes's explanation of Quixote's insanity (reading and sleeplessness drying the brain) draws on humoral theory as developed in Juan Huarte de San Juan's Examen de ingenios (1575), which linked a hot, dry brain to imaginative and choleric temperaments. Quixote's delusions are circumscribed, coexisting with lucid, eloquent reasoning on other subjects, and the book's characters debate whether he is mad, a type later described as monomania. The balsam of Fierabras (Part I, Ch. 17) parodies miraculous cures and causes violent vomiting. In Part II, Dr Pedro Recio de Agüero forbids Governor Sancho nearly every dish on dietetic grounds, a sharp satire of court physicians and regimen. Quixote's final illness, a fever brought on, the narrator suggests, by melancholy at his defeat, ends with a recovery of reason before death. Retrospective diagnoses (from bipolar disorder to delusional disorder or dementia) are a popular exercise but should be treated as readings.

• Part I, Ch. 1

  Little sleep and much reading dry Alonso Quixano's brain until he loses his wits.

  Humoral MedicineSleep InsomniaMadness Psychosis
• Part I, Ch. 8

  The windmills taken for giants, the most famous image of delusion in literature.

  Madness Psychosis
• Part I, Ch. 17

  Don Quixote brews and drinks the balsam of Fierabras; he and Sancho are violently sick.

  Quackery CharlatansPharmacology Poisons
• Part II, Ch. 22–23

  Descent into the Cave of Montesinos and Quixote's report of dream-like visions.

  Altered StatesMadness Psychosis
• Part II, Ch. 47

  As governor of Barataria, Sancho is denied his meals by the physician Pedro Recio de Agüero.

  Physicians DoctorsStarvation NutritionQuackery Charlatans
• Part II, Ch. 74

  Don Quixote falls into a fever, sleeps, wakes sane, renounces chivalry and dies.

  Fever InfectionMelancholia DepressionDeath Dying

Creative Prompts

• Essay

  Is Don Quixote's 'cure' in Part II, Ch. 74 a recovery or a loss? Use the debate among his friends about whether to cure him.

• Fiction

  Write a modern Quixote whose delusion comes from a different medium: video games, social media or conspiracy forums.

• Dialogue

  Stage a consultation between Dr Pedro Recio and a modern dietitian about Governor Sancho's diet.

• Classroom

  Compare the Duke and Duchess's treatment of Quixote with the priest and barber's. Who is kinder?

Further Reading

• Exemplary Novels, Miguel de Cervantes

  Includes 'The Glass Graduate', about a man who believes he is made of glass.

• Examen de ingenios para las ciencias, Juan Huarte de San Juan

  Humoral psychology behind Quixote's dry brain.

• Cervantes: A Biography, William Byron

• The Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton

  Contemporary English compendium on melancholy and madness.