Sam Quillen & Cianci Melo-Carrillo

Don Quixote Study Guide

Historical Context:
Don Quixote (1605/1616) was written at a time when the once-glorious Spanish Empire was in
terminal decline. Cervantes himself served in the Battle of Lepanto, a high water mark for Spain
in which his country defended Christendom from the infidel Turk. The persecution of Muslim
moriscos was still very much in living memory, and Spain continued to be obsessed with
Christian purity and the Inquisition. Much literature from the time period laments the decline of
Spain and criticizes the zealotry and inefficiency of the government. The character of Don
Quixote is an extreme example of the the zealotry of the Church and general nostalgia for the
nobility and glory of the past.
Plot Summary:
Don Quixote is a frame narrative. The original narrator claims to have found the story of the
great knight in an Arabic transcript at a market in Toledo, and with the aid of a morisco
translated it into Castilian. The story is the tale of a middle-aged gentleman from La Mancha
named Alonso Quijana, who becomes obsessed with stories of chivalry and eventually snaps. He
dresses up in improvised armor, recruits a “squire” named Sancho Panza, and sallies forth as a
knight errant.
Most of the book is a series of (mis)adventures. Our hero goes to an inn which he sees as a
castle, and while standing vigil attacks a man trying to water his livestock. He is chased out of
the inn and hits the road again. In his most famous adventure he unsuccessfully attacks some
windmills that he thinks are giants. Other adventures include freeing galley slaves, saving a boy
from being beaten by a shepherd (which actually earns him worse beatings), and trying to force
some merchants to acknowledge that his lady Dulcinea is the most beautiful in the world.
At one point his loyal squire Sancho finally gets his promised “insula,” where he is actually quite
a wise and effective ruler. When they return to their home village, Don Quixote’s family and
some friends burn his books in an attempt to cure him of his madness. However, they blame the
destruction on the evil wizard Freston, which just gives him a new enemy to fight. When they
return again a different time, Sancho finds that a local man who has been studying at the
University of Salamanca has heard of Don Quixote’s adventures. Don Quixote is quite
disappointed that people do not think as highly of his chivalry as he does.
After many more adventures, our great hero finally gives up. He acknowledges reality and
apologizes to friends and acquaintances. However, the book continues to refer to him as Don
Quixote, and his various epitaphs commemorate his heroic adventures.
 Vocab:
Sally: When a knight goes out.
Picaresque=episodic==series of
adventures.

Passages:
Prologue-To the “Idle Reader”
The address of the “Idle Reader” could be an indication of the overall slowness of
Spanish life at the time. Peasantry are especially portrayed as idle.
Cervantes’ “step-son” comment removes his agency in creating the novel we are about to
read. Cervantes invites the readers to think whatever they wish about the novel since it is not his
original creation. It is later revealed that the story (Part I.IX) of Don Quixote originated in from
an Arabic manuscript written by Cide Hamete Benengeli. Since it is not his own son, but that of
Benengeli, Cervantes allows the reader to not take it seriously if they desire. This allowance
appears to be different than Montaigne’s, who dismisses those that will negatively review his
Essais entirely: they should not read it at all.
The Book only turns into itself with the introduction of a friend: both Cervantes and Don
Quixote require a friend to get them going.
Cervantes is originally concerned about not having an appropriate introduction for his
novel. His un-named friend quickly proposes all kinds of satirizing advice, misquoting and
mixing secular and religious reference (6). The ultimate conclusion that Cervantes’ friend arrives
at is this:
And since this work of yours intends only to undermine the authority and wide
acceptance that books of chivalry have in the world and among the public, there is no
reason for you to go begging for maxims from philosophers, counsel from Holy
Scripture, fictions from poets, orations from rhetoricians, or miracles from saints; instead,
you should strive, in plain speech, with words that are straightforward, honest, and well-
placed, to make you sentences and phrases sonorous and entertaining, as much as you can
and as far as it is possible…Another thing to strive for: reading your history should move
the melancholy to laughter, increase the joy of the cheerful, not irritate the simple, fill the
clever with admiration for its invention…In short, keep your eye on the goal of
demolishing the ill-founded apparatus of these chivalric books (8).
Cervantes follows this advice, or rather order. Don Quixote’s friend Sancho Panza, has a similar
effect: although described as simple-minded, Sancho is able to motivate Don Quixote to be Don
Quixote the Knight. Here is what Don Quixote did before meeting Sancho:
Battle: With the mule driver who had touched his armor.
Help the Innocent: With a poor child, Andrés, who then gets beaten twice-fold.
Declare his lady love: Forcing strangers to accept that his Lady Dulcinea was the most
beautiful woman in the world without evidence.
The last action may include social commentary. The other ones are simple funny. More on the
social commentary:
As described in the first section, the Inquisition was the cleansing of non-Catholic Spain. In
order to remain unprosecuted, citizens had to believe in the Catholic traditions. Don Quixote
forcing merchant to accept something they have not seen could be satirizing blind faith. Not even
Don Quixote has seen Dulcinea in real life, yet his argument is: “If I were to show her to
you…where would the virtue be in your confession so obvious a truth?” (39)
Although things continue to be ridiculous for Don Quixote, after following the Inn-keepers
advice and preparing for his next sally with money and a companion, he at least is comforted
with the presence of a disciple.

Household:

Niece: Interested in inheritance Barber: Representative of science

Housekeeper: Ignorant, illiterate Priest: Cultured

“The Enchanter”—Used by Don Quixote, and those around him to make him accept reality. His
family has to qualms about manipulating him.
Book Burning:
First Part, Chapter VI
Books are enchanted and have supernatural power. Does a book lose its value if it is burned?
There are two pairs in the book burning scene: the housekeeper/niece and the barber/priest.
These two groups examine Don Quixote’s library with criteria that access the power of the
books. There are books that have power simply by existing and must be burned, other books
have power in being conserved. The housekeeper and niece are ignorant of any usage for the
books other than as a “bother.” The books that the barber and priest collect are in these general
categories: classics, foreign, poetry, and books written by “close friends.”
They discard the books that won’t survive time anyways. (Cervantes novels aren’t discarded)
Windmills and Fulling Hammers:
Pgs. 58,144
Both are machines.
Don Quixote fights against modernity. Both machines do work that humans used to do.
The Don Quixote/Sancho duo is different in both experiences because by the time of the falling
hammers, they have already become comfortable with each other.
The Windmills scene is the adventure that Don Quixote and Sancho have together. It is
quite short but serves as an introduction into their personalities. Don Quixote does not accept
defeat even after realizing that the windmills were in fact not monsters; he blames it on “Frestón
the Wise,” his antagonistic enchanter. Sancho is originally incredulous of Don Quixote’s
confusion, but eventually accepts whatever Don Quixote proposes in order to maintain his
peaceful manner (61).
Sancho’s complacent mannerisms change in the Fulling Hammers scene. There are scary,
indefinable sounds that Don Quixote and Sancho hear. Don Quixote volunteers to go fight the
monster. Sancho does everything possible to stop him. He shows himself as an active character
by lying to Don Quixote about Rocinante’s immobility in order to achieve his own desires: he
fears being away from Don Quixote (whether for personal or altruistic purposes). When Don
Quixote and Sancho discover that the intimidating sounds were only part of a clothing apparatus
they both laugh hysterically. Sancho mimics Don Quixote’s voice and declares that he is here to
revive the “Golden Age.”
This is where we talked about Lear: Sancho acts like the Fool, mimicking Don Quixote’s
style of speech in order to highlight a fault in his actions. Sancho gets beaten for joking in this
manner, but what he says is true. Don Quixote is struggling against modernization in trying to
revive a past “Golden Age.” His mannerisms and view of quotidian life is antiquated and over-
romanticized. They are trying to revive a time that only exists in the fiction of chivalric novels: a
time without machines.

Comparing Maritornes to Dulcinea:

Pgs. 109, 199
Meritones: Dulcinea: Maritornes: Physically touches
broad face brawny characters. She confuses Don Quixote
flat back of Strong for the goat herder. Don Quixote her
head for the innkeeper’s daughter.
snubbed nose sturdy as a
horse Dulcinea: Animal-like: useful. Based
blind eye fine girl
on Sancho’s report. Don Quixote has
bad eye strong an idealized view because he has
voice
been isolated from women.
seven spans not prude
heavy back Trollop

Both Maritornes and Dulcinea belong to the peasantry. Neither have physically attractive
qualities, although Don Quixote is still able to find interest in one and not the other. His
encounter with Maritornes is reminiscent of his first sally. He imagines that a normal woman is
something that she is not, or at least is not visibly.
Galleys:
Pgs. 163,250
—Similar cop-out to the hammers.
—Categories that he can’t look past. It isn’t his job to differentiate within the categories.
“Imbecile,” said Don Quixote, “it is not the responsibility or concern of a knight
errant to determine if the afflicted, the fettered, and the oppressed who he meets
along the road are in that condition and suffering that anguish because of
misdeeds or kinds acts. His only obligation is to help them because they are in
need, turning his eyes to their suffering and not their wickedness.”
Sancho is once again put in his place (he does not stay there for long). Don Quixote also clearly
defines his own place.
442—Don Quixote is believed to be dead. Sancho is talking like Don Quixote (Sancho has
mastery of high style). Only this Quixote-like language is able to revived Don Quixote whose
first words are: ‘“He who liveth absent from the, O dulcet Dulcinea, is subject to greater miseries
than these.”

End of Part I: information fades out.

More Vocab:
Histories in Spanish have a double
meaning. They can either mean
stories or historical recollections.

Prologue (part II): Stakes are higher. Dedication to Count of Lemos not the “Idle Reader.”
More political>Less personal:

Prologue to the reader:

Insulting by not insulting
Defending his bigotry: Lepanto
Everyone is idle; Spain is in
descent.
Is this more honest? Less honest? Or
Different?

471: Don Quixote reawakens. He already believes that he’s become a legend. Sancho asserts that
Don Quixote is a madman, and he is a simpleton.
Time is pretty confused. The second part to Don Quixote was written by Cervantes in response
to fan fiction written in attempts to upstage Cervantes.
Real time: 10 years. Fictional narrative time: 3 weeks.
Yet, Quixote still acts as if a lot of time has gone by.
 More Vocab:

Old Christian: Not mixed with anyone.

Errant Knight: foolish/travelling.

515: Meeting Dulcinea!

Sancho continues to believe that he can manipulate Don Quixote’s sense of reality to simplify
manners for himself. He tries to claim that a random peasant woman is Dulcinea. It ends
horribly:
“Actable,” Dramatic, sequential, narrator
Three characters, three levels of tragedy.
Three peasant girls become elevated.
In a positive view of Sancho’s actions, he manipulates Don Quixote in order to give him what he
wants, which simply is not realistic.
937: Sancho, and narrator do not allow Don Quixote to stop being Don Quixote. They continue
to reference the character as Don Quixote even though Alonso Quixano has already given up his
suit of armor.

Ending:
Very strong ownership. “Cide Hamete” hangs up his pen. Cervantes declares that “for me alone
was Don Quixote born.” The reader finally gets an ending, something that the First Part missed.