SUMMARRY OF DON QUIXOTE

Don Quixote Book I Summary

Alonso Quixana is an older gentleman who lives in La Mancha, in the Spanish
countryside. He has read many of the books of chivalry and as a result, he has lost his
wits, and he decides to roam the country as a knight-errant named Don Quixote de La
Mancha. Neither his niece nor his housekeeper can stop him from riding his old horse,
Rocinante, out into the country. Quixote's first sally ends quickly. He insists on having
an innkeeper knight him into the chivalric order. Quixote believes that the inn is a castle.
Returning home for clothes and money, Quixote is beaten and left for dead. A
commoner rescues Quixote and brings him home.
The niece and housekeeper deliberate with two of Quixote's friends, the priest and
barber, and they decide to destroy Quixote's library, burning many of the books of
chivalry. These books are the culprit. When Quixote recovers, he asks for his books and
his niece tells him that the sage Muaton has taken them. Quixote believes it was the
sage Friston, his mortal foe. Having found a squire, a common peasant named Sancho
Panza, Quixote leaves yet again. This second sally provides the story for the rest of
Book I. Panza quickly realizes that his master is mad, but the squire hopes that Quixote
will make good on his promise to name Sancho as the Governor of an island. Quixote
attacks a windmill, believing it to be a giant, destroying his lance in the process. Indeed,
Quixote gets involved in several altercations and violent disputes while traveling on the
road.
There is a peaceful and pastoral interlude when Quixote joins the goatherds who mourn
the death of their friend Chrysostom, a poet who died of a broken heart. Continuing on
the road with Sancho, Quixote has a run in with some horse-breeders and he is beaten
so badly that Sancho has to quickly get the knight to an inn. Quixote perceives the inn
to be a castle, yet again. Quixote believes the innkeeper's daughter to be a beautiful
princess who has promised to come to his bed during the knight. Later that night,
Quixote ends up caressing Maritornes: the half-blind, hunchbacked servant girl. Her
lover, a mule carrier, is enraged and the carrier beats Quixote when he realizes that his
lover, Maritornes, is struggling to get away from Quixote. In the darkness a brawl
ensues, including Sancho, Maritornes, the innkeeper, the mule carrier and
Quixote who quickly passes out. An officer of the Holy Brotherhood enters the room,
having heard the commotion, and he fears that Quixote is dead.
Quixote is not dead. When he revives, he asks for the ingredients so that he might
prepare for himself the "true balsam of Fierabras." He prepares the balsam, vomits,
passes out, and wakes up feeling better. Sancho drinks the balsam and nearly dies.
The next day, knight and squire leave the inn without paying. Quixote believes it to be
an enchanted castle and he is offended by the suggestion that he should pay. Sancho
does not escape as easily as Quixote does. Indeed, the squire is tossed in a blanket
and his bags are stolen. In an arc of violence, Quixote murders some sheep, loses
some teeth, steals a barber's basin (believing it to be Mambrino's helmet) and sets free
a chain of galley-slaves who repay the knight's kindness with bruises.
Quixote befriends Cardenio, The Ragged Knight of the Sorry Countenance, who
mourns the fact that his true love, Lucinda, has married another man: Don Fernando.
Cardenio has gone mad with grief, running half-naked through the hills of Sierra
Morena. Quixote imitates Cardenio, pining for his beloved lady, Dulcinea del Toboso.
Quixote sends Sancho with a letter to deliver to Dulcinea but instead Sancho finds the
barber and priest and leads them to Quixote.
With the help of Dorotea, a woman who has been deceived by Don Fernando, the priest
and barber make plans to trick Don Quixote into coming home. Dorotea pretends to be
the Princess Micomicona, desperately in need of Quixote's assistance. The final
chapters of the novel combine romantic intrigue with the comedy of errors surrounding
Don Quixote. Dorotea is reunited with Don Fernando and Cardenio is reunited with
Lucinda. This takes place at the same inn which Quixote visited earlier (where was
boxed by Maritornes' lover). Numerous guests arrive at the inn, as long-lost brothers are
reunited, two other pairs of lovers are blessed and Don Quixote is almost arrested. The
Holy Brotherhood has an arrest for Quixote's arrest on account of his "setting at liberty"
a "group of galley-slaves." The priest begs for the officer to have mercy on Quixote
because the knight is insane. The officer assents; Quixote is locked in a cage and
carted home. Quixote believes the cage to be an enchantment, but when it is clear that
he is going home he does not fight back. Of course, in Book II, Quixote goes out on his
third and final sally, so Book I is not resolved.
Don Quixote Book II Summary
As Book II begins, Don Quixote is back at home in La Mancha, under the watch of his
niece and housekeeper. The priest and barber visit Don Quixote to see how he is doing.
They don't want to remind him of his recent adventures because the old gentleman
needs to stay at home. Sancho arrives with news that there is a book called The
Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha. Sancho finds a young scholar named
Sampson Carrasco and Carrasco gives the two men the details of the book. Quixote
and Sancho are more energized to continue their adventures, now that their previous
adventures have been chronicled and published. Quixote's niece and housekeeper
insist that he should remain at home but Quixote does not pay much attention to them.
On the road, Quixote decides that he wants to go to Toboso to see Dulcinea. Sancho
tries to dissuade Quixote from doing this, but the knight persists. Quixote wants Sancho
to lead the way, but of course, as Sancho has only pretended to visit Dulcinea, the
squire does not actually know how to reach Dulcinea's home. In the end, Sancho grabs
a girl from a mule and says that it is Dulcinea only she has suffered an enchantment.
The ugly is very ugly and she has a horrible odor. She runs off and Quixote is saddened
that Dulcinea's beauty has been withheld from him. The two travelers are apprehended
by "The cart of death," and the knight and squire fear for their lives. In the end, the men
inside of the cart convince Quixote that they are merely actors.
Quixote continues on the road and in the middle of the night he encounters his next
adventure: The Knight of the Woods and his squire challenge Quixote and Sancho to do
battle. That night the two squires talk to each other and each man is convinced of his
master's madness. In the morning, Sancho refuses to battle the Squire of the Woods
because of his giant and hideous face. Quixote looks at the costume that the Knight of
the Woods is wearing and he renames the knight as Knight of the Looking-Glasses
(mirrors). Quixote throws the knight off of his horse. The Knight and Squire turn out to
be Sampson Carrasco and Tom Cecial, a neighbor of Sancho. Sampson intended to
defeat Quixote and bring him home, but alas, Sampson has lost.
Quixote believes that Sampson and Tom are enchantments.
Quixote gets into trouble in the countryside, killing seven sheep because he perceived
them to be pagan warriors, and unsuccessfully baiting a fierce lion to fight with him.
After this adventure, the knight renames himself Knight of the Lions.
Quixote and Sancho attend a wedding where a poor man named Basilio manages to
secure the bride, Quiteria the Fair, despite the fact that Quiteria was supposed to marry
Camacho the Rich. Basilio's cousin is full of stories, chivalric and otherwise. He tells the
story of the Cave of Montesinos, and Don Quixote is eager to see the cave. Basilio
brings Sancho and Quixote to the cave, which is a hole in the ground. Quixote is
lowered into the hole and he then falls asleep. When Quixote is dragged out, he claims
that he has had visions about sage magicians and enchantments.
Quixote's luck turns for the worst when he becomes the amusement of a twisted duke
and duchess. Sancho and Don Quixote are their guests of honor, for several weeks.
The castle staff is instructed to play a number of cruel jokes on Quixote and Sancho. All
of these jokes have the effect of deluding Quixote into believing that chivalry and
enchantments are true. The duke and duchess have read The Ingenious Gentleman
and from the stories that Sancho tells her, the Duchess is able to compose new stories
and scenarios in which to entangle Quixote.
Quixote and Panza are brought on a boar hunt, and the hunt is interrupted by a
procession of devils and sages. Fierce music is played and the enchanted Dulcinea is
presented inside of a carriage. A sage proclaims that Dulcinea will only be disenchanted
and returned to beauty once Sancho has voluntarily whipped himself 3300 times. Not
much later, Countess Trifaldi and her attendants arrive at the castle, having sought
Quixote's assistance. They have been cursed with beards, but if Quixote will fly on a
wooden horse to battle an evil giant, Malumbruno, the ladies will be restored. Quixote
and Sancho are blindfolded when they sit upon Clavileo, the winged wooden horse.
The horse is full of firecrackers that go off, lightly injuring the men and throwing them to
the ground.
Sancho is made governor of a town but he soon leaves the job. Don Quixote remains at
the castle, tortured by cats and by Altisidora, a maiden who has fallen in love with Don
Quixote. Doa Rodriguez, one of the duchess' attendants, asks for Don Quixote's
assistance, and he ends up agreeing to joust in the defense of her daughter's honor.
The joust never occurs, though.
Quixote and Sancho leave the duchess' castle. They are robbed by thieves, though the
ringleader, Roque Guinart, restores what was stolen and escorts the two men to
Barcelona. In Barcelona, Quixote becomes the laughing-stock of the town, lodging with
a nobleman Don Antonio Moreno. Moreno claims to have a talking head that can tell the
future and Don Quixote is mesmerized by this creation. Carrasco returns as the Knight
of the White Moon, and this time he battles and defeats Don Quixote. Quixote must
swear to go home for a year. Quixote decides that he might become a shepherd but he
is overwhelmingly depressed.
When Quixote gets home, he takes ill with a fever almost immediately. He regains his
senses, disavows chivalry and knight-errantry, and dies.


CHARACTERS:
Character List
Don Quixote - The novels tragicomic hero. Don Quixotes main quest in life is to revive
knight-errantry in a world devoid of chivalric virtues and values. He believes only what
he chooses to believe and sees the world very differently from most people. Honest,
dignified, proud, and idealistic, he wants to save the world. As intelligent as he is mad,
Don Quixote starts out as an absurd and isolated figure and ends up as a pitiable and
lovable old man whose strength and wisdom have failed him.
Sancho Panza - The peasant laborergreedy but kind, faithful but cowardlywhom
Don Quixote takes as his squire. A representation of the common man, Sancho is a foil
to Don Quixote and virtually every other character in the novel. His proverb-ridden
peasants wisdom and self-sacrificing Christian behavior prove to be the novels most
insightful and honorable worldview. He has an awestruck love for Don Quixote but
grows self-confident and saucy, ending the novel by advising his master in matters of
deep personal philosophy.
Rocinante - Don Quixotes barn horse. Rocinante is slow but faithful, and he is as worn
out as Don Quixote is.
Dapple - Sanchos donkey. Dapples disappearance and reappearance is the subject of
much controversy both within the story and within the literary criticism concerning Don
Quixote.
Cide Hamete Benengeli - The fictional writer of Moorish decent from whose
manuscripts Cervantes supposedly translates the novel. Cervantes uses the figure of
Benengeli to comment on the ideas of authorship and literature explored in the novel
and to critique historians. Benengelis opinions, bound in his so-called historical text,
show his contempt for those who write about chivalry falsely and with embellishment.
Dulcinea del Toboso - The unseen force driving all of Don Quixotes adventures.
Dulcinea, a peasant woman whom Don Quixote envisions as his ladylove, has no
knowledge of his chivalric dedication to her. Though constantly mentioned and centrally
important to the novel, she never appears as a physical character.
Cervantes - The supposed translator of Benengelis historical novel, who interjects his
opinions into the novel at key times. Cervantes intentionally creates the impression that
he did not invent the character of Don Quixote. Like Benengeli, Cervantes is not
physically present but is a character nonetheless. In his prologues, dedications, and
invention of Benengeli, Cervantes enhances the self-referential nature of the novel and
forces us to think about literatures purpose and limitations.

The Duke and Duchess - The cruel and haughty contrivers of the adventures that
occupy Don Quixote for the majority of the novels Second Part. Bored and snobby, the
Duke and Duchess feign interest in Don Quixote and Sancho but continually play
pranks on them for their personal entertainment. The Duke and Duchess spend so
much money and effort on their ploys that they seem as mad as Don Quixote.

Altisidora - The Duchesss bratty maid. Altisidora pretends to love Don Quixote,
mocking his concept of romantic love.

Sampson Carrasco - A sarcastic student from Don Quixotes village. Sampson mocks
Don Quixote at first but loses to him in combat and then dedicates himself to revenge.
Self-important and stuffy, Sampson fails to grasp the often playful nature of Don
Quixotes madness.

The priest - A friend of Don Quixotes. The priest disapproves of fictional books that, in
his opinion, negatively influence society. Nonetheless, he enjoys tales of chivalry so
much that he cannot throw them away. Moreover, despite his social conscience, he
enjoys Don Quixotes madness at times.

The barber - Don Quixotes friend who recognizes Quixotes madness but intervenes
only to help the priest carry out his plans. The barber strenuously disapproves of Don
Quixotes chivalry.

Teresa Panza - Sanchos good-hearted wife. Teresa speaks in proverbs, exhibiting
more wisdom than most other characters. Unambitious but a bit greedy, she endures
Sanchos exploits and supports him with her prayers.

Cardenio - An honorable man who is driven mad by the infidelities of his wife, Lucinda,
and the treachery of a duke, Ferdinand. Cardenio is the quintessential romantic lover.

Lucinda - Cardenios wife. Silent and beautiful, Lucinda is a model of the courtly
woman. Docile and innocent, she obliges her parents and her lover.

Ferdinand - An arrogant young duke who steals Lucinda from Cardenio with no
remorse.

Dorothea - Ferdinands faithful and persistent love. Dorothea flouts tradition to hunt
down Ferdinand when he takes her chastity but refuses to marry her. Deceptive and
cunning, smart and aggressive, Dorothea is not the typical female character of her time.

Countess Trifaldi - A fictitious maidservant in distress who is impersonated by the
Dukes steward. The countesss sob story sends Don Quixote and Sancho off on their
expedition on the wooden horse. She is more ridiculous and fantastic than anyone
except Don Quixote.

Gines de Pasamonte - An ungrateful galley slave whom Don Quixote frees. Gines
appears mostly for comic relief, but his justifications for his crimes force us to be more
critical of Don Quixotes justifications for his crimes.

Roque Guinart - A chivalrous bandit. Inherently conflicted, Roque believes in justice
and generosity but kills an underling who challenges him for being so generous to
others.