Don Quixote: Summary and Analysis
Don Quixote: Publication History
The first edition of Don Quixote appeared in 1605, although there is evidence of a previous version from 1604. After seeing an unauthorized continuation of his work, Cervantes decided to continue the adventures of Don Quixote, publishing a second part in 1615.
Composition and Structure
The work is structured in two parts, and its action is organized around Don Quixote’s three departures. The first two are narrated in Part 1, and the last in Part 2.
Part 1
The knight Don Alonso Quijano loses his mind from reading books of chivalry and decides to go in search of adventure under the name of Don Quixote. He seeks to undo wrongs and earn the love of the lady Dulcinea del Toboso, who is actually a peasant girl from a nearby village named Aldonza Lorenzo.
In his first outing, he is knighted in an inn that he mistakes for a castle and frees a young man from his abusive employer. Finally, he returns home to find his village. The priest and the barber burn the library books that are considered responsible for his condition.
In his second departure, Don Quixote is accompanied by Sancho Panza, a neighboring farmer who will serve as his squire. This character enriches the work through the dialogue between the protagonists. Don Quixote’s senses deceive him, despite his squire trying to make him see reason on many occasions. They experience many adventures until the priest and the barber, who have come after him, trick him into returning home locked in a cage.
Part 2
In Part II, Don Quixote not only confuses reality with fiction due to his own folly, but there are also characters who take the opportunity to mock the knight. The setting is wider, as the characters travel to Aragon and Barcelona. In this last city, the protagonist is defeated by the Knight of the White Moon (who is actually his friend Sansón Carrasco), who forces him to return to his village. He returns home, only to die after having recovered his sanity.
Narrative Technique
Cervantes used the literary device of the found manuscript to achieve greater credibility and autonomy for his work. He attributes the original history of Don Quixote to an Arab historian. Following this resource, he acknowledges in Chapter VII that he cannot continue the story of the battle between Don Quixote and the Biscayan because his source was exhausted. Only through a stroke of luck will he find some manuscripts in a market in Toledo, in which the story of Don Quixote continues, allowing him to continue the narrative.
The narrator primarily uses the third-person omniscient point of view, but introduces the second person on those occasions when he addresses the reader directly. The first-person narrative appears when short stories told by the protagonists are included.
Characters
- Alonso Quijano/Don Quixote: A gentleman from La Mancha who loses his mind due to his fondness for reading books of chivalry. From that moment on, he confuses reality and fiction. He is moved by reasons such as justice, nobility, and honor. Dulcinea del Toboso is always in his thoughts. Don Quixote has become a symbol of idealism and the struggle to improve the world. Don Quixote goes from being deceived by his senses to being deceived by others.
- Sancho Panza: Contributes realism; he is a naive farmer of jovial nature who possesses great folk wisdom. He aspires to govern the island his master has promised him and becomes infected by Don Quixote’s madness.
- Dulcinea del Toboso: She is an invention of Don Quixote’s mind. She is based on a peasant girl from a vulgar environment, who has nothing to do with the sweet lady that the gentleman invents.
Language and Style
Don Quixote is capable of using the rhetorical and bombastic language of chivalric books, while Sancho expresses himself in a vulgar manner. The dialogue enriches the work and provides the possibility of interchanging two points of view: the idealistic one of Don Quixote and the realistic one of Sancho Panza. Humor and irony are also constants in the book.
Interpretations
Don Quixote is a reflection of the society of its time: the gentleman Alonso Quijano wants to escape from reality but constantly encounters it. It has also been interpreted as the novelization of a conflict between man and the Renaissance, and even the Baroque: the fact-fiction dichotomy.