Don Quixote | Part 2, Chapters 58–60 | Summary

Summary

Part 2, Chapter 58

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza leave the castle. A few hours later, they find themselves tangled in green nets meant for catching birds. Two young women emerge from the trees to apologize for the nets; they are with a group of nobles vacationing in the area, who soon appear to find the source of the commotion. Don Quixote, eager to show his bravery, decides to fight anyone who disagrees that these two women are the most beautiful in the world, save for Dulcinea del Toboso. Nobody takes him up on his offer. They have all read about his and Sancho Panza's adventures, and they're not quite sure if he's crazy or not. He challenges a group of cowherds hurrying to town and ends up getting trampled by their bulls. Embarrassed, Don Quixote and company slink off without saying goodbye to the vacationers.

Part 2, Chapter 59

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza stop for lunch, but Don Quixote isn't interested in eating. "Leave me to die, murdered by my thoughts and misfortunes," he tells Sancho Panza. They travel until they reach an inn, which Don Quixote, for once, agrees is actually an inn. They dine with two men who are reading a second part of Don Quixote that isn't nearly as good as the first. Don Quixote skims a few pages and pronounces them completely incorrect. He abandons their plans to go to Zaragoza simply because the imposter's manuscript says they went there, and Don Quixote wants everyone to know this second book is nothing but lies.

Part 2, Chapter 60

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza meet Roque Guinart, the commander of a group of bandits who have taken everything the Don and Sancho own. He recognizes master and squire by name, and demands his men give them back their belongings. Roque isn't the usual type of bandit: he is kind to pilgrims, soldiers, and women, and he helps an ally's daughter after she foolishly kills her own fiancé. He even writes a letter to a friend in Barcelona to let him know of Don Quixote's impending arrival.

Analysis

Real people are just as likely to be characters in Cervantes's work as fictional ones. Roque Guinart was a famous bandit in 17th-century Spain. Little is known about the real man other than he was a folk hero who was eventually pardoned and made a captain in the Spanish army. He would have been immediately recognized by those who read Don Quixote soon after its publication. Cervantes portrays him as chivalrous in his own right, taking only what his victims can afford. He actually gives money to the poor pilgrims and Sancho Panza to ease their journeys.

Roque Guinart's presence in Don Quixote is the basis for much humor and irony. Roque has heard a lot about Don Quixote but never imagined he was a real person, which is an example of situational irony, as Roque himself was the basis of a lot of fictional stories. The tone of their interaction changes, however, when Roque admits that his banditry is based on a desire for revenge. Don Quixote sees an opportunity to convert Roque from a life of crime to the life of a knight-errant. Don Quixote sees goodness in this man with questionable morals for the same reason he views innkeepers as nobles: he wants it to be true. Roque, however, is under no such delusions. He knows who he is. Despite his kindness to Don Quixote, he is an outlaw through and through.

The other real person mentioned in this chapter is Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, who wrote an unauthorized continuation of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza's story following the publication of Part 1 of Don Quixote. Cervantes was livid about the unsanctioned work, and he spends a good portion of Part 2 debunking the "lies" Alonso Fernández included in his version of events. Even the characters in the real Part 2 dislike the faux sequel. Don Juan, one of the men reading the book in question, notes that it should be "illegal for anyone but ... the original author, to write about ... Don Quixote," the original author, of course, being Cervantes himself.