Don Quixote: Adventures, Characters, and Literary Analysis

Don Quixote: A Literary Masterpiece by Cervantes

Don Quixote is the most famous and celebrated work of Miguel de Cervantes. It tells the adventures of Alonso Quijano, a gentleman from La Mancha who, driven mad by excessive reading, decides to embark on a quest for adventures similar to those of the characters in chivalric novels.

External Structure

The work is divided into two parts:

• Part 1: Titled The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, it consists of fifty-two chapters. It recounts the first two sallies of Don Quixote:
  • Don Quixote is knighted by an innkeeper and returns home after being beaten.
  • He finds a squire, Sancho Panza, and they travel together to the Sierra Morena in La Mancha. This part includes famous episodes like the windmills, the galley slaves, and the goatherds.
• Part 2: Titled The Ingenious Knight Don Quixote de la Mancha, it has sixty-four chapters and narrates the third sally of Don Quixote and Sancho. They travel to Aragon and Catalonia, and much of the narrative takes place in the palace of the Dukes of Aragon. The protagonists return home after Don Quixote is defeated by the Knight of the White Moon. There, he regains his sanity and dies.

Internal Structure: Characters and Themes

The novel revolves around the central figures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

• Don Quixote: A character who evolves throughout the novel, undergoing a significant transformation.
• Sancho Panza: Also an evolving character, he represents the antithesis of Don Quixote.
• Dulcinea: The idealized image of a maiden in Don Quixote's imagination, though in reality, she is just a village neighbor.
• Samson Carrasco: The Knight of the White Moon, a family friend who disguises himself as a knight with the sole, fictitious aim of bringing Don Quixote home.
• Don Quixote's Niece and Housekeeper: They represent Don Quixote's home and his eventual return to his senses.

Literary and Social Criticism

• Literary Criticism: The work contains dialogues about the great problems of literary creation.
• Social Criticism: All levels of society are represented and satirized, except for the monarchy and the absolute values in which Cervantes believed.

The Baroque Paradox

The theme of paradox is central to the novel, reflected in the choice of characters and the treatment of themes like madness and sanity, reality and the ideal.

Style and Narrative Techniques

The complexity of the novel is largely based on the narrator and the interplay of perspectives. Cervantes uses three different narrators:

• Cervantes: Initially, he tells the story based on actual data collected from the author's archives.
• Cide Hamete Benengeli: Cervantes explains that he found a manuscript in Arabic containing the continuation of the story.
• A Moorish Translator: Hired to translate the manuscript.

Part 1 features interwoven stories, while Part 2 has a more linear plot.

Language and Style

To achieve naturalness, Cervantes employs these linguistic features:

• Dialogue: The dialogue reveals the characters' way of being and thinking.
• Neologisms: Reflecting the awareness that language is alive and that speakers have power over it.
• Irony: Cervantes uses kind, understanding humor to portray human flaws and failures.

Cervantes masterfully combines features of the narrative genres of his time:

• Chivalric: The main plot of the novel.
• Pastoral: Numerous references throughout the work.
• Italian-style Novellas.
• Picaresque: Don Quixote's conversation with the galley slaves.
• Sentimental Novels: The story of Cardenio.
• Moorish Novel: The story of the beautiful captive and Zoraida.
• Doctrinal: Present throughout the entire work.