Cervantes’ Life and Literary Legacy
Cervantes’ Life: A Journey Through Epochs
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, born in 1547, lived through the Renaissance and Baroque periods, and died in 1616. His work reflects the crises of a transitional era.
Early Life and Education
Cervantes grew up and was educated in a cultural environment of Renaissance humanism. Later, the decline of the Baroque in the 17th century was related to politics and the Counter-Reformation.
Born in Alcalá de Henares in 1547, he was the fourth of six children of a surgeon. His youth was adventurous.
Military Service and Captivity
He participated in the Battle of Lepanto and Algiers. He fled to Italy and entered the service of Cardinal Acquaviva. He enlisted as a soldier and fought heroically at Lepanto. In 1575, he and his brother Rodrigo were captured and taken to Algiers. He was a prisoner for five years.
Literary Beginnings
After being released in 1580, he returned to Spain. He sought employment in the Indies but was unsuccessful. He was jailed twice and moved to Valladolid due to administrative problems.
Literary Career and Major Works
In 1605, he published the first part of Don Quixote, which was a great success. He also wrote exemplary novels, Journey to Parnassus, the second part of Don Quixote, comedies, and farces. He always lived with financial difficulties.
His work includes narratives, poetry, novels, and theater. His entremeses stand out. He also wrote tragedies and comedies, often following a Renaissance model.
Poetry
Cervantes’ poetry is of notable quality and is part of the Renaissance aesthetics of Garcilaso and Fray Luis de León.
Novels
La Galatea (1585) is a pastoral novel. Novelas Ejemplares (1613) are short narratives, the first of their kind.
Don Quixote: A Literary Masterpiece
Don Quixote satirizes books of chivalry. In 1605, he published The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha. In 1615, he published the second part.
The story narrates the adventures of a gentleman from La Mancha who goes mad from reading many books of chivalry and decides to leave his village in search of adventures, confusing reality and literature.
Structure of Don Quixote
The novel has two parts.
First Part
The first part has two journeys.
First Journey
The first journey is very brief (chapters 1-6). Alonso Quijano creates a knight, Don Quixote de la Mancha. He chooses a lady, Dulcinea, and names his horse Rocinante. He repairs old weapons. After being beaten, a neighbor recognizes and takes him home.
Second Journey
The second journey (chapters 7-52) involves finding a squire, Sancho Panza. This immortal pair travels through the mountains and reaches La Mancha. Narratives are interspersed, constituting small novels within Don Quixote.
Second Part
The second trip occupies 74 chapters. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza travel towards Barcelona. They reach a neighbor dressed as the Knight of the White Moon, who challenges Don Quixote. Don Quixote loses the duel and returns home, where he dies. Sancho regains sanity and invites him to follow a pastoral life.