ENG 273: World Literature

DON QUIXOTE BY MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA

• Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616)• Spanish Navy• Captured and held as a slave for

five years in Algiers• Tax Collector• Discrepancies in the accounts

led to time in prison• Written in Spain• Published in two volumes (1605 and

1615)• Very influential work of literature

• Spanish language

• Western literature

• Spoofs to Medieval chivalric romance

• Song of Roland

• Morte d’Arthur

HISTORY

• A older gentleman reads a lot of books about knights and chivalry• Decides that what the world

really needs is for someone to revive chivalry

• He “goes mad”• Sees everything in the world as

if it were out of one of his books

• Perception is wrong and leads to trouble

• Becomes a “knight-errant”• Goes on adventures• To gain honor for his name

and his lady• Usually unsuccessful

PLOT

• Cervantes (Narrator/Author)• Don Quixote de la Mancha• Rocinante (“Great Steed”)• Sancho Panza (“Squire”)• Niece• Housekeeper• Barber• Curate• People at the Inn

• Innkeeper (“Castellan”)• Two women (“Gentle Ladies”)• Mule Drivers

• People on the Road

• Two Friars (“Magicians”)

• Woman in a Carriage (“Kidnapped Lady”)

• Biscayune (“Kidnapper”)

• Aldonza Lorenza (“Dulcinea del Toroboso”)

CHARACTERS

• Imagination versus Reality (Madness versus Sanity)

• Deception

• Idealism

• Power of Reading

• Educated versus Uneducated

• Romanticized Nature of Chivalric Literature

• Knightly virtues

• Significance of Names and Renaming

• Fame

• Honor

• Humor

KEY THEMES