MENG 6260
Don Quixote and the Development of the Novel
Dr. Craig N. Bergeson
Weber State University

First Part Reading Questions

Preliminary readings

  1. How might the social and historical context of Don Quixote affect our reading of it?

Prologue & Chapters I-VIII (1/14)

  1. How might the Prologue affect our reading of the novel? 

  2. Compare the first eight chapters of Don Quixote to what Daniel Eisenberg calls "a typical romance of chivalry." In what ways are these chapters a parody of the romance of chivalry?

  3.  Don Quixote recognizes that someone will write the story of his adventures. Comment on the affects of this recognition—for Don Quixote and for the reader.

  4. In Chapter VI, some of Don Quixote's "friends" burn some of his books. What characteristics do the burned books share, and what characteristics do the saved books share? What is Cervantes saying about writing and reading literature in this episode?

  5. Sancho Panza doesn't appear until Chapter VII. What does he add to the novel? How are Sancho and Don Quixote different? As a pair, what effect might they have on the novel and the reader? 

  6. What might the effect of the ending of Chapter VIII be on our reading of the first eight chapters and the rest of the novel?

Chapters IX-XXIII (1/21)

  1. Who is Cide Hamete and how will he affect our reading of the novel?

  2. Why did seventeenth-century readers—and why do many readers today—find the adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho to be so funny? What is the source of the humor?

  3. What are some of the elements of the pastoral romance in these chapters, and how does the pastoral genre change this novel, which up till this point has been mainly a chivalresque, or anti chivalresque romance?

  4. How does the Marcela episode relate to the rest of the novel (thus far)? How does it portray women? Is it a feminist story? Why or why not?

  5. What are the social and political implications of the galley slaves episode?

  6. In many of the episodes thus far, desengaño (disillusionment) has played a major role. What appear to be some of the causes, effects and functions of desengaño in this novel?

Chapters XXIV-XXXV (1/30)

  1. What is the function and importance of Cardenio's tale?

  2. How does Don Quixote's penance relate to the novel as a whole?

  3. What is the function of Dorotea and her story in the novel? What is the function of Micomicona?

  4. How does "The Man Who Was Recklessly Curious" relate to the rest of the novel? What might be its function in the novel?

  5. What is the function and significance of the discussion of the priest and the innkeeper about romances of chivalry?

  6. Identify the various narrators and narrative levels of the novel (thus far) and explain how this proliferation of narrators and narrative levels might affect our reading of the novel?

  7. What is Cervantes telling us about stories, storytellers, and storytelling in these chapters?

Chapters XXXVI-XLVI (2/4)

  1. What implication does the reunion of the two couples have for our reading of the novel?

  2. What is the function (within the novel) of  Don Quixote's speech on arms and letters?

  3. The "Captive's Tale" is part history, part autobiography and part fiction. That being said, how might Hayden White's essay illuminate our interpretation of this story?

  4. What might be the purpose (and or function) of this story within the novel?

  5. How do you interpret the scene in which most of the characters agree that what the barber calls a basin is actually the helmet of Mambrino?

Chapters XLVII-LII (2/11)

  1. According to the many discussions about literature in the First Part of Don Quixote, how does Cervantes's poetics compare to Aristotle's?

  2. How has Cervantes portrayed women in the First Part of the novel? What role have they played? What might a feminist reading of this novel look like?

  3. How does the conclusion of the First Part of the novel affect your reading of the novel up till this point?

Bakhtin,  Introduction to The Dialogic Imagination, "Epic and novel" and selections from "Discourse in the Novel" (2/18)

  1. According to Bakhtin, in early theories of the novel, “the following prerequisites for the novel are characteristic: (1) the novel should not be ‘poetic,’ as the word ‘poetic’ is used in other genres of imaginative literature, (2), the hero of a novel should not be “heroic” in either the epic or the tragic sense of the word: he should combine in himself negative as well as positive features, low as well as lofty, ridiculous as well as serious; (3) the hero should not be portrayed as an already completed and unchanging person but as one who is evolving and developing, a person who learns from life; (4) the novel should become for the contemporary world what the epic was for the ancient world” (“Epic and Novel” 10). Does Don Quijote satisfy each of these prerequisites?

  2. Bakhtin finds "three basic characteristics that fundamentally distinguish the novel in principle from other genres: (1) its stylistic three-dimensionality, which is linked with the multi-languaged consciousness realized in the novel; (2) the radical change it effects in the temporal coordinates of the literary image; (3) the new zone opened by the novel for structuring literary images, namely, the zone of maximal contact with the present (with contemporary reality) in all its openendedness” (“Epic and Novel”11). Do we see these characteristics in Don Quijote?

  3. Explain the terms "heteroglossia" and "dialogism," and comment on how they function in the novel in general and how they function in Don Quixote specifically.

Second Part Reading Questions

Prologue-Chapter XVII (2/25)

  1. How might the Prologue of the Second Part affect our reading of the rest of the novel? How is it different from the Prologue to the First Part?

  2. Identify aspects of metafiction in these chapters and explain how they might affect our reading of the novel?

  3. How do you interpret the episode of  the Knight of the mirrors?

  4. What does the episode of the lions tell us about Don Quixote?

  5. How are Don Quixote and Sancho changing in this part of the novel—compared with how they were in the First Part?

Chapters XVIII-XXXV  (3/4)

  1. What does the episode of Camacho's wedding tell us about seventeenth-century Spain?

  2. How might we apply principles of psychoanalysis to a reading of the "Cave of Montesinos" episode and to the novel as a whole?

  3. How do you interpret the braying adventure and the episodes of Master Pedro the puppet master and the enchanted boat?

Chapters XXXVI-LV (3/18)

  1. What appears to be the role of the Duke and Duchess in these chapters?

  2. What do we learn about Sancho and about governments from Sancho's reign as governor?

  3. What are the function and the effect of the various letters in these chapters?

  4. How does irony function in these chapters and in the novel as a whole?

  5. What does Cervantes appear to be saying about seventeenth-century Spain in these chapters?

Chapters LVI-LXXIV (3/25)

  1. What appears to be the function of Roque Guinart in the novel?

  2. Why are the events that occur in Barcelona important to our reading of the novel?

  3. How do you interpret Don Quixote's battle with the Knight of the White Moon? What does this battle teach us about Don Quixote's character? How does he change after this battle?

  4. What effect has the false Second Part had on our reading of the novel? What is Cervantes saying about literature as he has Don Quixote and Sancho comment on the false version and meet characters from that version?

  5. What do you think of the novel's conclusion? Why does Don Quixote become sane and renounce books of chivalry? What has Cervantes taught us about literature and about life?

Allen, pp. 11-113 & 193-202 (4/1)

  1. Summarize Allen's argument, and critique that argument.

  2. Allen refutes two classic readings of Don Quixote and then offers a third. What other readings might be possible?

Gilman, Chapters 3-4 & Alter (4/8)

  1. Summarize Alter's argument, and critique that argument.

  2. Summarize Bayliss's argument, and critique that argument.