Life and Works of Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)
Life
Born in Alcalá de Henares, Cervantes lived a life full of adventure and adversity. He spent time in Italy, witnessing the Battle of Lepanto where he was wounded in his left hand. Captured by Turkish pirates on his return to Spain, he endured years of captivity in Algiers. After his release, he worked as a commissioner in Seville and lived his final years in Valladolid and Madrid.
Literary Works
Poetry and Drama
Poetry
While Cervantes’s fame rests primarily on his prose, he also wrote poetry. His most significant poetic work is The Journey to Parnassus, an eight-chapter poem composed of triplets and over 3,000 verses.
Drama
Cervantes achieved some success as a playwright before the rise of Lope de Vega. His early works include the tragedy The Siege of Numancia and comedies such as The Baths of Algiers, The Dashing Spaniard, and The Fortunate Ruffian. He also wrote short, humorous interludes known as entremeses, including The Altar of Wonders, The Judge of Divorces, The Cave of Salamanca, The Fake Biscayan, and The Election of the Mayors of Daganzo. These plays often explore themes of captivity and offer witty social satire.
Fiction
Cervantes is considered a master of prose and the father of the modern novel. His fictional works include:
- La Galatea: A pastoral novel in six books, exploring themes of heartbreak amidst idealized landscapes and refined shepherds. Within La Galatea is the “Song of Calliope,” a critique of writers who had criticized Cervantes.
- Exemplary Novels: A collection of twelve short stories covering themes such as infidelity and jealousy (The Jealous Extremaduran), love (The Illustrious Gypsy Girl), madness (The Glass Graduate), social mores (The Dialogue of the Dogs), and roguery (Rinconete and Cortadillo). These stories showcase Cervantes’s narrative skill and mature literary artistry.
- The Works of Persiles and Sigismunda: An adventure novel modeled on the Byzantine style, published posthumously. It features a careful, elegant, and harmonious style.
Don Quixote
Publication
- Part One: The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha (1605). The ending hinted at the possibility of further adventures.
- In 1614, an unauthorized sequel by Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda spurred Cervantes to write the second part.
- Part Two (1615): Addresses Avellaneda’s attacks in the prologue.
- Achieved immense success upon publication and was translated into French, English, and Italian, becoming one of the most translated books of all time.
- Established Cervantes as a celebrated figure in Spanish and world literature.
The Two Parts
- Part One (1605): Features several stories that interrupt the main narrative (e.g., the pastoral tale of Marcela and Chrysostom, the sentimental story of Cardenio and Lucinda, the Moorish history of the captive, and the psychological exploration of El Curioso). The adventures are relatively independent, with an emphasis on action, and Don Quixote’s madness begins to build his fame.
- Part Two (1615): Fewer digressions interrupt the central action, with greater interaction between episodes and events. Dialogue and psychological understanding of the protagonists are emphasized, and the characters are aware of Don Quixote’s adventures from the first part.
Plot
- Part One: Don Quixote embarks on two journeys (the second with Sancho). He decides to become a knight errant and mistakes an inn for a castle. He encounters various adventures (windmills, galley slaves, etc.), often emerging injured. Eventually, the priest and barber of his village trick him into returning home in a cage, believing he is enchanted.
- Part Two: Recounts Don Quixote’s third journey with Sancho. They travel to Toboso, home of Dulcinea, encountering further adventures. They then proceed to Aragon, where Sancho governs the island of Barataria and they experience the adventure of Clavileño. In Barcelona, Don Quixote is defeated by the Knight of the White Moon (his friend Sansón Carrasco), who had imposed the condition that if defeated, Don Quixote must return home. Don Quixote regains his sanity and dies peacefully, surrounded by family and friends.
Themes and Analysis
- Don Quixote and the Novels of Chivalry: Cervantes intended to satirize the popular genre of chivalric romances. He created a parody filled with improbable situations that mocked chivalric conventions. His protagonist, a delusional gentleman who becomes a self-proclaimed knight, rides a scrawny horse (Rocinante) and idealizes a peasant woman (Dulcinea).
- Don Quixote and Sancho Panza: The two characters complement each other. Don Quixote represents idealism and fantasy, while Sancho embodies materialism. Both characters evolve throughout the story, influencing each other. Sancho is gradually drawn into his master’s follies, while Don Quixote eventually regains his sanity.
- The Richness and Interpretation of Don Quixote: The novel is more than a simple adventure story. Initially perceived as a parody, it explores literary, moral, and religious themes, as well as heroism, freedom, illusion, reality, and the ideal. It has inspired diverse interpretations and evaluations.
- Style: Cervantes demonstrates mastery of various language styles and narrative techniques, employing irony and humor effectively.
- Language of the Characters: Don Quixote’s language is archaic and often ridiculous, yet educated and well-constructed. Sancho’s language is colloquial but not vulgar. The dialogues between them are rich in both language and content, showcasing Cervantes’s skill in using dialogue to advance the plot, develop characters, and provide humor and insight.
17th-Century Literature: Poetry and Prose
The three main currents of the Baroque period are conceptismo, culteranismo, and the exaggerated naturalism of picaresque and satirical literature. Both conceptismo and culteranismo extend beyond poetry to theater, prose, and narrative. Reacting against the Renaissance, they embrace skepticism and explore two different stylistic directions: conceptismo (complexity of thought) and culteranismo (formal elaboration).
Culteranismo
Represented by Luis de Góngora, culteranismo emphasizes learned poetry, formal beauty, and colorful brilliance. It features elaborate language and literary devices such as metaphors, hyperbole, learned vocabulary, and attention to the sound of words. Góngora’s notable works include Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea and The Solitudes.
Conceptismo
Francisco de Quevedo and Baltasar Gracián are key figures in conceptismo. This style prioritizes brevity and density of expression, aiming for wit and ingenuity. It employs literary devices like ellipsis, paradox, antithesis, hyperbole, and puns.
Poetry
Baroque poetry inherits and expands upon Renaissance features while breaking from classical molds. It utilizes both Italian and Castilian verse forms, including hendecasyllables, sonnets, stanzas, and silvas. Themes range from romantic and sentimental to moral and metaphysical, religious, and satirical-burlesque.
Prose
Various prose forms flourished in the 17th century, including the short story (e.g., Cervantes’s Exemplary Novels, María de Zayas’s Exemplary and Loving Novels, and Cristóbal Lozano’s Solitudes of Life and Disappointments of the World), the Byzantine novel (e.g., Lope de Vega’s Pilgrimage to His Homeland), the allegorical novel (e.g., Baltasar Gracián’s The Critic), and the novel of manners (e.g., Agustín de Rojas’s The Entertaining Journey and Luis Vélez de Guevara’s The Devil on Two Sticks).
The Picaresque Novel
The picaresque novel thrived in the 17th century, with notable examples including Mateo Alemán’s Guzmán de Alfarache, Vicente Espinel’s The Life of Marcos de Obregón, the anonymous Estebanillo González, and Francisco de Quevedo’s The Swindler. Characteristic features of the picaresque include first-person narration, realistic depiction of events, a protagonist born into a dishonorable family who remains socially marginalized, an open structure allowing for new episodes, a protagonist who is a victim of their own actions, and sometimes a moralizing tone.
Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561-1627)
Born in Córdoba, Góngora studied at the University of Salamanca and served as a royal chaplain. His literary output is primarily poetic, ranging from traditional and popular forms to learned and elaborate styles. His tone varies from severe and noble to humorous and burlesque.
Francisco de Quevedo Villegas (1580-1645)
Born in Madrid, Quevedo studied at Alcalá and Valladolid, spent time in Italy, and was imprisoned in León. A renowned poet, he wrote sonnets, romances, letrillas, songs, and letters. He was also a prominent prose writer, known for both political and satirical works. His poetry covers themes of love, metaphysics, morals, and satire, showcasing his mastery of language and poetic devices. His prose works include Dreams and The Swindler, a masterpiece of the picaresque genre.