Don Quixote: Structure, Themes, and Modern Novel Creation
Argument and Structure of Don Quixote
The novel is divided into two main parts:
Part One: The First and Second Sallies
An old man, crazed by reading chivalric romances, decides to set out with his horse for the first sally. He arrives at an inn he mistakes for a castle, where he is mockingly dubbed a knight. He then returns home, acquires a squire, Sancho Panza, and begins the second sally. After several events, Quixote’s neighbors, concerned about his state, manage to trick him into returning home.
Part Two: The Third Sally and Conclusion
The second part details Don Quixote’s third sally. Sancho becomes governor of an island, but eventually tires of the role and returns to his master. Quixote is defeated by the Knight of the White Moon, finally returns home, recovers his sanity, and dies.
Major Themes in Don Quixote
The work addresses several profound issues:
- Utopia and Reality: The conflict between the individual who wants to fulfill his dream and the family and social environment that hinder it is the most imitated theme of this work.
- Justice: The Quixotic spirit moves him to seek righteousness and correct perceived wrongs.
- Love: Don Quixote, in imitation of the chivalric romances, feels the need to have a beautiful lady to love (Dulcinea).
- Literature: The whole work is full of references to literary themes (e.g., The Golden Age of Man). This work was primarily designed to parody chivalric romances.
Key Characters
Cervantes’ work features more than 700 characters, but two stand above the rest:
- Don Quixote: A gentleman of 50 years, driven mad by reading too many novels of chivalry. Throughout the work, he gradually regains his sanity until he is completely lucid before his death.
- Sancho Panza: A humble farmer, faithful to his master, and possessing a peculiar philosophy of life. He gains greater importance and depth in the second part of the book.
Literary Style and Techniques
The style of Cervantes’ work balances the simplicity and naturalness of the Renaissance with the complexity and artifice of the Baroque. This novel successfully combines different styles and techniques.
Cervantes’ main stylistic success is his ability to adapt language to the needs of the work, ranging from Sancho’s popular style to the presentation of idealized, bucolic settings. The book combines cultivated and archaic styles with a plain, natural, and expressive language.
A notably modern technique employed is narrative perspectivism. Cervantes appears in the work as a narrator who is limited to transcribing a manuscript he claims to have found. The most common techniques and resources in the play are irony, parody, and the constant presence of dialogue.
Don Quixote and the Birth of the Modern Novel
The publication of Don Quixote was a revolution for universal literature, marking the beginning of the novel, the genre with the greatest representation today. The work of Miguel de Cervantes introduced structural and formal innovations that defined the evolution of the genre. These innovations include:
- Realism and Verisimilitude: The work involves the creation of a universe close to reality, moving away from the idealization so fashionable at the time.
- Non-Heroic Protagonist: The focus shifts from traditional heroic figures to characters defined by both misery and greatness.
- Psychological Depth of Characters: Characters possess complex, evolving psychological states, contrasting with the often unshakable nature of the classic hero.
- Confrontation Between the Individual and Society: The novel places the reader between desire and reality.
- Internal Consistency of the Narrative: Cervantes manages to integrate all the narrative elements surrounding Don Quixote into a cohesive whole.
- Dialogic Narrative: The action is advanced through the dialogue of the characters; their words serve fundamentally to characterize them.