Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T10:52:47.673Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - The Adventures and Episodes of Don Quixote Part II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2023

Get access

Summary

The Introductory Chapters

The first seven chapters of Don Quixote Part II are devoted primarily to two things: first, the discussion between Don Quixote, Sancho and Sansón Carrasco about the reception of Benengeli's chronicle – that is, Part I – and second, the crystallisation of the resolve of the two heroes to embark on a new sally, together with the reactions of their intimate circle to this news. The chapters are a splendid example of the major innovation brought by Cervantes to the genre of the novel: the comic depiction of traits of character displayed in colloquial style and a context of homely familiarity. Like the overture to an opera, they introduce a major theme to be developed in the rest of the work, and two new emphases that distinguish this Part from its precursor. The theme results from the characters’ awareness of the publication of a chronicle of Don Quixote's and Sancho's adventures; and this introduces a new reflexivity into the novel on various levels. The new emphases fall on the Don's lucidity and on Sancho's comic interventions, which will not only be treated as counterpoint to his master’s, but will also frequently occupy the reader's principal or exclusive attention in chapters devoted specifically to them.

We are offered a succession of intimate conversations, mostly set in the hidalgo's home. The first, marking the modified focus on his character, takes place in his bedroom following a visit by the priest and barber, who, encouraged though not convinced by the niece's and housekeeper's reports of his recovery of sanity, go to his house to put them to the test. They find him in bed, wearing a green dressing-gown and red bonnet, with a dried-up, mummified aspect, which would suggest, despite his judicious and elegant contributions to the ensuing discussion on politics, that nothing has really changed. This is because, from the beginning of the novel, Cervantes's conception of his madness reflects his age's assumptions about the physical determinants of the human psyche: its dependence on the specific mix of the four ‘qualities’ (heat, cold, humidity, dryness) and the four ‘humours’ (choler, phlegm, blood, melancholy), which, together with the individual's physical constitution, are conditioned by the influence of the planets, diet, climate, age and sex.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×