Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes

THE NOVEL

THE PLOT

Don Quixote is a very long novel, but its basic plot is fairly simple. A certain middle-aged gentleman named Alonso Quixano has read so many romantic stories about the knights of the Middle Ages that he goes out of his mind and imagines that he really is a knight. He also imagines that he is in love with a princess named Dulcinea- in reality a local girl who has never paid any attention to him. Changing his name to Don Quixote de la Mancha, he puts on a rusty old suit of armor and sets forth in search of adventure. At a certain inn, which he mistakes for a castle, Don Quixote asks the innkeeper to officially dub him a knight. The innkeeper agrees- just to humor his crazy guest. Later, after mistaking a group of merchants for knights, the Don challenges them to fight and ends up much the worse for wear. A passing neighbor takes him home, where his niece, his housekeeper, and two friends- the local priest and a barber named Nicholas- burn his books in an attempt to shock him back into sanity.

Don Quixote is still determined to seek adventure. He convinces a local workingman, Sancho Panza, to accompany him as his "squire." Don Quixote's mad delusions get him and Sancho into many scrapes. He mistakes a group of windmills for giants. He takes a funeral procession for ghosts. He even "captures" a brass bowl, which he believes is a valuable helmet. Finally, he meets a young man, Cardenio, who has been driven out of his wits by an unhappy love affair. The Don decides that he will become a hermit, like his new friend.

In the meantime, Don Quixote's friends- the priest and the barber- have devised a plan to lure him back home. They get a girl named Dorothea to pretend to be the Princess Micomicona. In this disguise, Dorothea begs Don Quixote to follow her back to her kingdom and kill an ogre who has usurped her late father's throne. The Don, his friends, Cardenio, and Dorothea all travel together until they reach the same inn where the Don was "knighted." Here Cardenio and Dorothea are reunited with their lost loves, Lucinda and Don Ferdinand.

The priest now decides that the only way to get Don Quixote back home is to take him there in a cage. He even manages to convince Don Quixote that the cage is a test of his courage, and that once he passes the test he will be able to marry his imaginary love, the divine Dulcinea. But when Sancho lets Don Quixote out of the cage at a rest stop, the Don gets into more trouble. Finally, he attacks a religious procession because he believes the marchers are kidnappers. After this, the Don at last allows himself to be taken back to his native village.

In Part II of the novel, you discover that six weeks of bed rest have not cured Don Quixote's madness. He and Sancho Panza take to the road again. First, Don Quixote wants to visit his true love, the lady Dulcinea. Sancho knows that Dulcinea is not a lady at all, just a rough farm girl. He also doesn't want Don Quixote to find out that a letter the Don wrote to Dulcinea, mentioned in Part I, was never delivered. So Sancho points out a farm girl who just happens to be riding by and convinces Don Quixote that this is his Dulcinea. Sancho tells his master that a wicked enchanter has cast a magic spell that makes Dulcinea look like a mere peasant girl. The Don believes this.

By now, the adventures that Quixote and Sancho had in Part I have been published. A university student named Sampson Carrasco who has read this book has decided to follow Quixote and Sancho. Sampson supposedly wants only to cure the poor madman, Quixote, of his delusions. In reality he is jealous of the Don's literary fame. Disguising himself as the Knight of the Mirrors, he challenges Don Quixote to single combat. If the Don loses, he will have to give up acting like a knight errant and go home. Through sheer luck, Don Quixote wins the fight.

After several more adventures, the Don and Sancho meet a Duke and Duchess who invite the travelers to be guests at their castle. The Duke and Duchess have also heard of Quixote's adventures in Part I. They think up some elaborate practical jokes to play on this make-believe knight. In one of their jokes, the Duke and Duchess manage to convince Sancho that Dulcinea really is enchanted after all. To release Dulcinea from her spell, Sancho will have to whip himself 3300 times on his bare buttocks! Sancho does his best to postpone this punishment.

Meanwhile, the Don and Sancho travel on to Barcelona. Here Sampson Carrasco catches up with them once again. This time, disguised as the Knight of the Full Moon, he manages to defeat Don Quixote. The Don has to keep his promise and give up knight errantry for an entire year.

During the journey home, Sancho pretends that he has given himself the 3300 blows. The Don cannot understand why Dulcinea does not appear in her true form! Finally, he becomes thoroughly disillusioned and is convinced that he will never see Dulcinea this side of the grave. Arriving home, he announces that he is cured of his madness. He is plain old Alonso Quixano once again. Soon after this, he dies.

[Don Quixote Contents]

THE CHARACTERS

MAJOR CHARACTERS

• DON QUIXOTE (key-HOE-tay or key-HOE-tee)
  

  During the course of the story, the main character is transformed several times. First of all, he is Alonso Quixano, a middle-aged gentleman who is foolish but basically kind-hearted. Although you meet Alonso Quixano only briefly, he is very vividly portrayed.

  When Alonso Quixano goes crazy, he is deluded into thinking that he is really Don Quixote de La Mancha, a brave and noble knight errant who will set right all the wrongs of the world. Thus, the character of Don Quixote is really just a figment of Alonso Quixano's imagination. At times the characteristics of the real Alonso shine through his alter ego, as when the Don's conscience is stricken by the realization of the trouble he has caused. For the most part, however, the Don Quixote of Part I is a ridiculous character, constantly mistaking windmills for giants and blundering into fights that leave him bruised and battered, but no wiser.

  The Don's character in Part I may be summed up by the nickname Sancho Panza gives him: The Knight of the Sad Countenance. (Some translations say the Knight of the Rueful Figure or the Knight of the Woeful Countenance.) However it is translated, this name tends to sound more serious in English than it does in Spanish. The name "Sir Sad Sack" might give you a better mental picture of the Don's character at this stage of the story. Like the Little Tramp character of Charles Chaplin, Don Quixote has some qualities that inspire pathos, but his actions are basically funny.

  The comic adventures of Part I spring mostly from Don Quixote's own delusions. In Part II of the story, other characters, for reasons of their own, play tricks on Don Quixote that blur the distinctions between illusion and reality. The change in Don Quixote at this point is summed up by his new nickname, The Knight of the Lions. The nickname comes from the scene where the Don meets a lion, which is being brought as a gift to the King, and decides to fight it. This time the Don is not having another delusion. The lion is real, but it refuses to fight. Don Quixote still comes out of the episode looking ridiculous, but the source of his humiliation is not his own confusion. He is the victim of fickle reality.

• SANCHO PANZA
  

  Some readers feel that Sancho Panza is an even more complex and interesting figure than Don Quixote. In the beginning of the story, Sancho is the typical country bumpkin. He has some good qualities. For example, he loves animals, especially his dear jackass, Dapple. But Sancho's humor is crude and he seems hopelessly stupid.

  Sancho consents to become Don Quixote's squire out of greed. He believes the Don's promises that he will be richly rewarded and will even receive an island of his own to rule over. Perhaps no other character in literature gives you a better example of the triumph of greediness over common sense. You may know people who have let wishful thinking lead them into wild escapades in the hope of getting something for nothing. This is Sancho Panza in a nutshell.

  Sancho pays dearly for his foolishness. He is frequently beaten up for things Don Quixote has led him into doing. But even as he catches on to the fact of his master's madness, Sancho becomes truly fond of the Don. (One critic has commented that the bickering between Quixote and Sancho reminded him of the quarrels between a husband and wife.)

  During the course of Part II, Sancho Panza even takes on Don Quixote's mad quest as his own. He becomes quixotized. You will have to decide for yourself how seriously you take the change in Sancho's character. Some readers take it quite seriously, indeed. They point out that Sancho's troubles in this section of the story may remind you of the struggle that a non-believer goes through in the course of a search for faith.

• DULCINEA
  

  The "real" Dulcinea is Aldonza Lorenzo, a big strapping peasant girl who does not even know that Don Quixote exists. The Dulcinea of the Don's imagination bears no resemblance at all to her real-life model. In the Don's mind, Dulcinea is a princess, a paragon of beauty and virtue.

  In Part II, Sancho Panza points out another peasant girl and tries to convince Don Quixote that this is his Dulcinea, changed into a farm girl by an evil wizard's magic spell. Of course, this "enchanted Dulcinea" is very much like the girl who inspired the Don's fantasy in the first place.

  Perhaps you know some people who, like Don Quixote, have fallen in love with an imaginary ideal. No real boyfriend or girlfriend could possibly live up to their expectations. We find it easy to recognize this fault in others. We find it harder to see, in our own minds, the dividing line between having high standards and pursuing our own imaginary "Dulcineas."

  It is interesting to compare Dulcinea with Altisidora, the fourteen-year-old girl at the Duke's court who develops a crush on Don Quixote. We are told that Altisidora is "not misshapen." However, she is said to have teeth like topazes a backhanded compliment since topazes are usually yellow. When Don Quixote rejects Altisidora's advances, she becomes mean and spiteful. Later, she says she is not the kind of girl to sacrifice so much as the "dirt under one fingernail" for love. Considering what Altisidora is really like, Don Quixote is probably better off remaining true to his nonexistent Dulcinea.

MINOR CHARACTERS

• THE DUKE AND THE DUCHESS
  

  The Duke and the Duchess, though important to the action in Part II, are shallow, thinly drawn characters. Some readers find them basically kind, harmless types, who play jokes on the Don and Sancho but mean them no real harm. Others are struck by the underlying cruelty of the Duke and Duchess' little games. Some readers consider these characters to be Cervantes' comment on the folly and stupidity of wealthy nobles who pretended to act as artists' patrons- while, in fact, patronizing the artists in the negative sense of the word.

• SAMPSON CARRASCO
  

  Sampson (whose name is spelled Samson or Sanson in some translations) is the arrogant student who sets out to "cure" Don Quixote of his madness by dressing as the Knight of the Mirrors and the Knight of the Full Moon. Some readers feel that Sampson personifies the emptiness of intellectual pursuits in the absence of faith. Sampson knows how to imitate a knight, but unlike Don Quixote he will never be more than a poor copy of one.

• MARITORNES
  

  Maritornes, the deformed servant girl at the inn, plays only a minor role in the story, yet her characterization is memorable. Some readers feel that Cervantes' description of Maritornes' physical ugliness is cruel. Others are impressed by the fact that the author does not seem to condemn the servant girl for sleeping with so many of the male guests at the inn. Maritornes may be physically ugly, but as you see during the discussion of chivalry that she has with Dorothea, the innkeeper, and others, her head is full of beautiful romantic fantasies. Whether Cervantes sees this as pathetic, or as a triumph of imagination over physical limitations, is something you will have to decide for yourself.

• THE PRIEST (Curate) and NICHOLAS THE BARBER
  

  Considering their importance to the plot, Don Quixote's friends the priest and Nicholas the barber are not very completely described. Both follow professions considered respectable for men of the hidalgo class. (Barbers in Cervantes' day performed minor surgery and had a higher status than haircutters do today.) Because the priest and Nicholas, unlike the Don, are realistic enough to work at useful professions, we are not surprised that they want to burn the Don's books and "rescue" him from his mad quest- by force if necessary. Nicholas is primarily a humorous character. However, the character of the priest is open to more than one interpretation. Readers disagree over whether Cervantes meant some of the priest's actions as a criticism of the church of his time. Notice, for example, in the section dealing with the adventures in the Sierra Moreno that some of the priest's views, including his comments on the escaped galley slaves, are not very charitable.

• GINES DE PASAMONTE
  

  You meet Gines de Pasamonte twice: First, he is the meanest and cleverest of the galley slaves freed by the Don. Far from being ashamed of his crimes, Gines brags that he will write a book about his adventures and sell it for a high price. Once he is liberated, he immediately shows his ingratitude by stealing Sancho's donkey. In Part II, Gines comes back to haunt Don Quixote, disguised as the puppet master. The condemned slave has been transformed into a successful entertainer! Rogues such as Gines were well known to readers of Cervantes' time, who followed the adventures of such characters in a popular type of work known as the picaresque tale. Cervantes, however, uses Gines in a more interesting role- to point out that both thieves and artists practice forms of deception.

• DOROTHEA
  

  Of all the young people involved in the various romantic subplots of the novel, Dorothea has the most personality. Although she has been betrayed and deserted by her lover, Dorothea shows courage and determination to seek justice and restore her ruined reputation. She also enjoys playing the role of the Princess Micomicona. Notice, in considering Dorothea's part in the action, that while the men in this story all make themselves ridiculous to some extent when they turn to role-playing, Dorothea- the woman- takes role-playing for granted.

• DON DIEGO DE MIRANDA
  

  Don Diego, also called The Man in Green, is the very sensible traveler who meets Don Quixote in Part II of the novel and cannot quite decide whether the poor knight is mad or sane. Don Diego introduces himself to Quixote and Sancho by giving them a lengthy list of his many virtues- he says he is sober, sensible, and pious. One thing he cannot claim to be is modest. Perhaps Don Diego represents nothing but the ordinary, conventional gentleman- his role that of a straight man to the Don's clever speeches. Or maybe Don Diego is meant to satirize the ideal of the humanist philosophers who upheld the importance of rationality and moderation. Don Diego is so moderate, in fact, that he cannot even decide whether Don Quixote is mad or sane. Readers today may find themselves agreeing with Don Diego's conclusion that Don Quixote is half sane, half crazy; however, it is possible that Cervantes expected his readers to see this as an example of muddle-headed thinking.

[Don Quixote Contents]

SETTING

While Don Quixote is not, on the surface at least, much concerned with historical events or social commentary, it does paint a lively picture of the Spain its author knew. By the time Cervantes wrote his masterpiece, the price of Spain's dreams of world domination was already becoming apparent. The Golden Age, as Don Quixote says in the novel, was being overtaken by an Age of Iron.

Although the son of Charles I, Philip II, who ascended the Spanish throne in 1556 and reigned until 1598, was in some ways a strong ruler, he was not the inspiring figure his father had been. People called Philip II the "paperwork king" because he preferred to rule his empire from behind a desk, leaving the leg-work to an army of bureaucrats. Cervantes himself was part of this army, and his experiences as a tax collector and commissary officer gave him little reason to view the bureaucracy with admiration. Philip's military ventures were not always successful either. The so-called Invincible Armada, a large naval fleet assembled in 1588 for an invasion of England (a project for which Cervantes requisitioned food supplies) was defeated by the English before it even reached an English shore.

In addition, much of the country's enormous wealth had been squandered on expensive foreign wars, with disastrous results for the economy at home. The national treasury was bankrupt. Inflation was out of control.

Culturally, too, Spain was beginning to withdraw from its position as a leader in Europe. The spread of the Protestant Reformation in northern Europe had put the Spanish Roman Catholic Church on the defensive. After 1559, Spanish students were forbidden to study at foreign universities, and the office of the Spanish Inquisition- church officials appointed by the pope- had the power to censor books and search through the general population for heretics.

Today, some historians believe that one of Spain's greatest weaknesses was the existence of such a large class of hidalgos, or noblemen. At least one quarter of all Spaniards considered themselves part of this class. Unlike the high aristocracy, however, hidalgos were not necessarily independently wealthy. Most were poor but proud. Some hidalgo youths, like their fathers before them, sought fame and fortune in military careers.

Miguel de Cervantes, an hidalgo, realized all too well that the social class he belonged to was becoming obsolete. Its values were those of a bygone age. Economically, it had no place in the modern world. In the meantime, the richest nobles were becoming richer, and the poor farmers of Spain were staggering under the twin burdens of heavy taxes and high inflation. Don Quixote, the most famous hidalgo in all of literature, reflects Cervantes' understanding that the hidalgos were already living in the past.

It is often said that Don Quixote "killed" chivalry with mockery. The English poet Lord Byron expressed this opinion when he wrote that Cervantes "smiled Spain's chivalry away." In fact, as Cervantes knew very well, the society that had spawned the code of chivalry was already dead. Spain had become a modern nation with a global empire. The country was run by bureaucrats, not by a heroic band of warrior knights. Modern nations could not afford to treat war as basically a sport for gentlemen. They could not afford to support a large percentage of the population who lived in idleness, playing at being lords and ladies. Even the high ideals of chivalry had become obsolete. Unquestioning religious faith, a rarefied vision of romantic love, and a code of behavior based on knightly honor still had nostalgic appeal for many Spaniards. But these wonderful virtues were part of a social system based on a rigid class structure, a sexist view of woman's role, and the persecution of religious minorities.

Cervantes might be compared to the boy in the story "The Emperor's New Clothes" who pointed out that the emperor was really naked. Cervantes did not "kill" chivalry. He merely issued a belated death notice.

THEMES

1. QUIXOTISM
   

   Although Don Quixote was written in Spanish, its main character inspired the coining of the English word quixotism. Normally, we say an individual is being quixotic when he is in the grip of misguided idealism. The novel's view of quixotism, however, is more complex. Don Quixote's overactive imagination turns windmills into giants and poor farm girls into delicate princesses. Sometimes Don Quixote's delusions make him appear ridiculous. Sometimes they do more harm than good. For example, his inept attempt to save the shepherd boy Andrew from a beating (Part I, Chapter Four) only gets the boy into worse trouble. Yet in many scenes in the story Don Quixote is a sympathetic, even tragic, figure. Does his consistent fidelity to his ideals, however unrealistic, inspire your admiration?

   Although everyone agrees that quixotism is the principal theme of Don Quixote, there are almost as many different interpretations of this concept as there are readers of the novel.

   [Knighthood, Chivalry and Tournaments]

2. A PARODY OF CHIVALRY
   

   For centuries, the majority of readers considered Don Quixote a comic novel, plain and simple. They took literally Cervantes' claim that his purpose in writing Don Quixote was to poke fun at the popular chivalric romances. Some readers today agree with this point of view. They maintain that the novel was written to be amusing, and that anyone who tries to find tragic overtones in the story is missing the point.

3. THE NATURE OF FAITH
   

   In the nineteenth century, many readers began to take Don Quixote more seriously. These readers noted that in popular belief and in literature, mad persons are often thought to be especially close to God. Insanity can be an expression of divine inspiration. (This belief is even discussed in the novel, in the chapters devoted to the Captive's Tale.) Some readers even wondered whether Don Quixote was not merely pretending to be mad. Such questions have given rise to many different theories about the character of Don Quixote.

   One theory is that Don Quixote is a Christian hero, a man who holds fast to his faith in a world that can neither share nor live up to his high standards. Readers who take this view usually emphasize the conservative values of the novel. Although Cervantes may make jokes at the expense of the church hierarchy or the upper classes, these readers say, he never ridicules such basic values as courage, fidelity, and chastity.

   Another group of readers has pointed out that the character of Don Quixote is a very accurate psychological portrayal of a revolutionary. Don Quixote, they say, is an example of a man who sets out to transform the world in accordance with his vision. Like the fanaticism of real-life crusaders, religious and political, his can be laughable, even dangerous. Yet his persistence does succeed- for example, in its influence on Sancho Panza. Readers who take this viewpoint are likely to emphasize the elements of the novel which show that the author had been exposed to the thinking of humanist philosophers. They feel that many of his criticisms of the established order, while humorous, have a hidden sting. Cervantes could hardly have been more direct in his satire, they point out, since he was writing under the restraints of censorship.

4. IDEALISM VS. REALISM
   

   Some readers feel that quixotism is a comment on the unresolvable conflict between idealism and realism. Don Quixote's ideals may be admirable, but they are doomed to futility because he is out of touch with the world he lives in. Time has passed him by. Our noble intentions can come to a disastrous end if we do not pay attention to the practical consequences of our actions.

   Curiously, there have even been a few readers who accuse Cervantes of writing a dangerous, hateful book. Admirers of chivalry and the society of the Middle Ages sometimes take this point of view. G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), the British journalist and author of the Father Brown mystery stories, even wrote that by ridiculing the values of chivalry, Cervantes had made it impossible for modern men and women to take them seriously. Cervantes, then, must bear part of the responsibility for the confusion about morals that plagues today's world. Although this is certainly an extreme point of view, it illustrates how a book which many see as pure comedy can rouse other well-educated readers to fury.

5. ILLUSION VS. REALITY
   

   There are many layers of illusion and reality in Don Quixote. First, there are the Don's own mad delusions. Later, his friends begin to play tricks on him and disguise themselves in order to get him to give up his quest and return home. In the beginning of the novel, you always know exactly what is real and what is fantasy. By the middle of Part II, however, the distinctions sometimes are blurred. For example, when Don Quixote has a bad dream in the cave of Montesinos, you are no longer certain whether the dream is just another delusion- or whether it is a product of the mind of his sane alter ego, Alonso Quixano. Besides all of these complications in the plot itself, you are constantly reminded that what you are reading is "only a book." The narrator- and his imaginary creation, the historian Cide Hamete- both interrupt the story frequently to comment on the action. And in Part II, even the Don and Sancho are aware that they are only characters in a book- in fact, in two books: Part I of Don Quixote and the bogus sequel produced by an anonymous contemporary of Cervantes.

   Cervantes was certainly familiar with Aristotle's statement that art was a "mirror of reality." He understood that by using a trick mirror it was possible to purposely distort reality, creating illusions that took on a life of their own. While Don Quixote's unrealistic view of the world is a product of his insanity, the author finds ways to remind you during the course of the book that he can alter the reality of his novel just for fun. During the course of the story, the Don and Sancho- who on some levels seem real, despite their many improbable adventures- constantly interact with characters who have obviously just stepped out of the pages of other genres of literature. Although some literal-minded readers consider the appearance of these rather shallow characters to be a flaw in the novel, you should keep in mind that Cervantes introduces them purposely, as just another playful twist on the theme of reality vs. illusion.

STYLE

The language of Don Quixote is so rich and exuberant that no summary of the story can possibly do justice to it. You have to read the novel for yourself to see just how much fun the author has with language. For the most part, the prose style of the novel is earthy and direct. At times, however, it rises to heights of eloquence. At other times, the author uses high-flown language to parody other types of literature. Don Quixote's speech at the very beginning of Chapter 20, in Part II, is one example of the way Cervantes uses overly elegant language for the sake of humor. Sancho Panza sleeps right through the Don's flowery speech, only to be awakened by the down-to-earth aroma of frying bacon.

There are also a great many puns and other types of word play in the story. Some of the puns will be lost on readers who do not know Spanish. Fortunately, much of the humor survives the translation of the novel into English. The illiterate Sancho Panza constantly confuses one word with another, mistaking "revoking" for "revolting" and "critics" for "crickets." Another of Sancho's quirks is his tendency to quote folk sayings and proverbs at length. Sometimes the proverbs are appropriate to the occasion. At times, though, Sancho's garbled proverbs are laughable, a form of double talk.

As in the plays of William Shakespeare, there are episodes in Don Quixote where the humor descends to what we would consider a dirty joke. One example of this occurs in Part I, when the barber Nicholas borrows an oxtail that the innkeeper uses to hang his comb in to use as a false beard. This sets the stage for some bawdy wisecracks when the landlady later demands that Nicholas give her her "tail" back because her husband needs it. This type of humor, as well as Sancho's occasional jokes about bodily functions and disgusting odors, was taken more or less for granted in the seventeenth century.

Of course, you should keep in mind that in reading Don Quixote in an English translation you are not reading the actual language Cervantes wrote. However, the translations most commonly used today- especially those by J. M. Cohen and Walter Starkie- will give you a fairly accurate idea of the tone of Cervantes' prose.

FORM AND STRUCTURE

Don Quixote is a very loosely structured novel. Many readers complain that the story is too repetitive and filled with unnecessary, and sometimes confusing, digressions. Others find it jarring that the two halves of the novel are so different in tone. These complaints are not new. The original readers of the novel raised the same objections- and, indeed, you will find Cervantes' reply to these criticisms incorporated in Part II of the book.

There is a simple explanation for the unusual structure of the novel. Cervantes himself had no idea, when he began writing, of how the Don's adventures would end. Most likely, he originally intended to write a novella, or long short story, ending the Don's quest after his first return home and the burning of his library (now Chapter 8, Part I). When he decided to expand his story, he created the series of seemingly endless, and sometimes repetitive, adventures that make up what we know as Part I of the novel. While it is true that the Don's adventures sometimes seem to go on and on, this is just part of the joke. Lack of structure and repetition were among the characteristics of the chivalric romances that Cervantes had set out to lampoon.

When he began to write Part II of the novel, Cervantes had developed a more subtle conception of his characters, and he changed his approach to structure as well. Most modern readers find Part II more satisfying because the episodes seem less randomly strung together. It is easier to see how each new adventure affects the changing relationship between Quixote and Sancho and leads to the Don's eventual return home. But it is possible to disagree with this judgment. Some readers continue to find Part I funnier and more lively, and it is true that the best-remembered incidents from the story- the Don's attack on the windmills and his battle with the wineskins, for example- occur in the first part of the book.

If you enjoy tightly plotted suspense novels- or the kind of economical writing that makes every word count toward a single resolution or a unified theme- then you may find yourself growing impatient with Don Quixote. To put it another way, this is not a novel for people who care a great deal about neatness. Don Quixote was written in a spirit of experimentation- in the attempt to break out of established literary molds and to put more of life between the covers of a book than anyone had done before. The readers who enjoy this novel most are usually those who relax and get into the free-wheeling spirit of the individual episodes.

POINT OF VIEW

The shifting points of view in Don Quixote underline and emphasize the theme of illusion vs. reality. The story is told by an author, presumably Cervantes himself, who sometimes interrupts his tale to speak directly to you. In the Prologue to Part I, for example, this author even complains about how much trouble he has had finishing his work. The author claims that he is only retelling a true story related by an Arab historian, Cide Hamete Benengeli. Of course, there is no such person as Benengeli. The author made him up. Benengeli's comments on the story represent another level of unreality that lies between you- the reader- and the adventures of Don Quixote. Sometimes Benengeli's observations point out certain aspects of the novel to you. Sometimes Cervantes even uses Benengeli to make fun of Cervantes the author, as when he has Benengeli complain that the Don's story as written has become too long and tedious.

THE STORY

THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES

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