Cervantes: Don Quixote (Volume C)

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) multi-faceted, son of apothecary adventurer Madrid Rome, 1569 Battle of Lepanto, 1571 imprisonment and ransom (1580) Cervantes was a student, soldier, captive and tax-collector. The son of an apothecary, he was born in a university town near Madrid but left in 1569 to live in Rome to prepare for becoming a cardinal. He enlisted in the Spanish fleet and took part in the wars with the Ottomans. He was at the Battle of Lepanto (1571), where he received three gunshot wounds and fought in spite of fever. Being captured and imprisoned in Algiers on his way back to Spain, he was finally ransomed in 1580, where he began his literary career. The image is a painting of Cervantes by Juan de Jauregui, though its authenticity is denied by modern scholars.

Philip II Habsburg monarch “prudent king” 1580, imperialism gold and inflation England, 1588 Spain was ruled by Philip II, the devout Habsburg monarch who became known as the “prudent king” for his careful administration. In 1580, he annexed the Portuguese crown and its commercial empire in Asia, Africa, and the New World, rendering Spain a universal power. The influx of gold from the Americas led to inflation and widespread poverty, and the perception that everything could be bought. In 1588, Spain suffered the Armada’s defeat against England and entered a long period of decline. The image is a portrait of Philip II of Spain wearing his customary outfit with the Order of the Golden Fleece on his chest (ca. 1564). by Sofonisba Anguissola. Prado Museum.

Counter-Reformation religious orthodoxy humanist reform conversos Moriscos Cervantes’s heritage The Counter-Reformation led to an increased emphasis on religious orthodoxy and heightened suspicion of the humanist reform traditions that had shaped Cervantes’s thought. The Counter-Reformation began with the Council of Trent and ended with the Thirty Years’ War; its main purpose was to reform religious life by focusing on devotion, a personal relationship with Jesus, and addressing issues of corruption among orders, including indulgences. Increasingly, Cervantes’s society scrutinized not only people’s religious practices but also their roots, holding all conversos and Moriscos (converts from Judaism and Islam) suspect. Cervantes may have come from a line of conversos, and this position is maintained by scholars due to the lack of honors and privileges he received in spite of his heroic military service and request for New World employment (barred for converts). The image is a painting depicting the Battle of Lepanto (1571), by Paulo Veronese. Spaniards attributed their victory to the Virgin Mary, which marks a return to Marian theology that had been displaced by the Counter-Reformation.

Picaresque prologue picaro caricature, dark comedy social class morality dreams, hallucinations, the fanciful Cervantes’s prologue states that the book is a real history to emphasize how out of touch the gentry is with reality. The picaresque genre emphasizes economic and social problems in blunt terms, often exposing hypocrisy; the protagonist is often a rogue adventurer who survives by outwitting the wealthy corrupt. Picaresque works largely differed from the more popular chivalric romance and pastoral works of the period, depicting the world more with caricatures, comic episodes, and graphic depictions of suffering.  The picaro is often a member of the lower social classes, and he often relies on his cleverness to survive in a corrupt and morally bankrupt society; though Don Quixote is a member of the aristocracy, he is an adventurer, living through a deluded view of self that includes hallucinations of low‑status characters as knights and damsels in distress.

Don Quixote The famous image shows Don Quixote in his library (1863). By Gustave Dore.

Feudalism Spanish golden age “Age of Expansion” Habsburgs imperialism inflation Spanish Inquisition, 1516 pesantry The Spanish golden age (the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries) marks the “Age of Expansion” for Spain, under Habsburg rule. Though Spain expanded its empire, its government twice went bankrupt due to military campaigns, leading to increased taxes and mass inflation. The Spanish Inquisition began in 1516 and peaked during Philip II’s reign, leading to (among other things) expulsion of the Jews, Moors, and Moriscos, which in turn directly affected the Spanish economy. The Moriscos lived through subsistence farming, and noblemen lost rents due to their expulsion; land was not redistributed, and the Church collected large percentages of the country’s properties. The importation of silver from New World resources led to a price increase of 500 percent for wool, grain, and other goods, which in turn created hardship for the peasants. As a knight-errant, Quixote behaves according to feudal scenarios described in the stories he has read. He does not carry money on his person and therefore expects innkeepers and the poor to shelter and feed him, he collects income off others’ property, and he demands pay for a poor servant who has been abused and exploited by the farmer who employed him. The image is a painting titled Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor) (1656–57) by Diego Velazquez .Prado Museum. The painting focuses on Margaret Theresa, the oldest daughter of Queen Mariana of Austria.

Foil As a literary device, the foil character contrasts with another character (usually the hero or protagonist) to emphasize, contrast, or complement the other persona. The foil or sidekick often acts as a confidant, offers contrasting views, completes minor but important tasks, or provides skills and services that the main character lacks or cannot offer. Idealistic morals such as “knowing thyself” and “righting all wrongs in the world” are promoted throughout Cervantes’s text, as a thin and idealistic Quixote tries to impress his values upon his fat and skeptical sidekick, Panza. Readers are more likely to sympathize with Quixote due to their identification with and appreciation for Panza. Chapter 10 emphasizes the master-servant, crazy-witty dynamic between the two characters, illustrating Panza’s ability to make rational suggestions that enable Quixote’s success during his chivalric adventures. The image is a photograph of statues of Panza and Quixote by Lorenzo Coullaut Valera. Plaza de Espana, Madrid.

Love “O Princess Dulcinea, lady of this captive heart! Much wrong have you done me in thus sending me forth with your reproaches and sternly commanding me not to appear in your beauteous presence. O lady, deign to be mindful of this your subject who endures so many woes for the love of you” (p. 396). Cervantes attempts to produce a parody of chivalric romances, focusing on knights completing valorous deeds and saving maidens in distress, supernatural intervention and enchanted items, and implausible adventures and tasks. The reading of chivalric tales drives Quixote insane (“his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind ”). Cervantes caricatures this lifestyle by placing Quixote into scenarios based on these fictional romances. The image is a statue of Dulcinea, an idealization of Aldonza Lorenzo, sculpted by Federico Coullaut-Valera.  

Dramatic Irony “Seeing now that the combat was over and the knight was returning to mount Rocinante once more, he went up to hold the stirrup for him; but first, he fell on his knees in front of him and, taking his hand, kissed it, and said, “May your Grace be pleased, Señor Don Quixote, to grant me the governorship of that island which you have won in this deadly affray” (p. 422). Dramatic irony occurs when the reader (or audience) has more knowledge about a situation than some characters in that situation; as a device, dramatic irony often emphasizes the limitations of human perception and the consequences of misunderstandings that result from that flawed perception. Dramatic irony serves to critique the problems facing Spaniards during Cervantes’s period, including poverty and unemployment, a corrupt landed gentry, a failed effort at empire, an obsession with “purity,” and fears about political and religious practices. Though Panza is an intelligent person, he is more molded by social convention; Quixote manipulates these conventions when he promises to make Panza governor of an island for upholding his knightly duties. Panza consents, not realizing that Quixote has selected him as a squire only in his desire to emulate fictional knightly tales, which require the knight to have a sidekick. The reader is aware of Panza’s stupidity yet unable to inform Panza of his misguided perception of this fictitious island (which he, in spite of its fantasy location, justly rules).

Discussion Questions What important morals does Quixote glorify throughout the text? For example, based on the history you have learned about Cervantes’s period, how does Quixote feel about property ownership, slavery, and marriage? Students should note the relationship between Panza and Quixote: is it one of equality, or is Panza treated as a doting subordinate? How do the two respond to the different people they meet during their travels?

Discussion Questions Is reading dangerous? What do you make of the conclusion when Quixote alters his will such that his niece will not inherit unless she renounces the reading of chivalric tales? The reading of chivalric tales and delusions it produces not only suggests the dangers of too much reading, but perhaps also the dangers of becoming obsessed with a woman to the extent that she gets idealized and fictionalized; this may, in other words, parallel the idealization of the Virgin Mary that occurred after the Battle of Lepanto and as a result of the Counter-Reformation.

This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for The Norton Anthology Oof World Literature