Don Quixote

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1605

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Part 2, Prologue-Chapter 9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2, Prologue Summary

Cervantes, the author and narrator of Don Quixote, opens Part 2 of the novel by criticizing an unnamed person’s decision to publish an unauthorized second volume of Quixote’s adventures. Cervantes mocks his rival, whose work he does not consider to be good, and then provides a collection of poems and allegories that describe the difficulty of writing a book. He finishes by thanking his patrons, the Count of Lemons and Cardinal Bernardo de Sandoval y Rojas. In the future, he says, he will publish two more works.

Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary

Cervantes returns to the work of Cide Hamete Benengeli, whose writing provides the foundation for the story of Quixote’s life. After Quixote returned to his hometown, Pero Perez and Master Nicholas did not visit him so they did not reawaken any troublesome thoughts. One month later, they returned to Quixote’s house and the men have a sensible conversation about war and current events. In response to Spain’s war with the Ottoman Empire, Quixote believes Spain should summon all her knights and send them to fight for their country. The comment worries Perez and Nicholas, who realize Quixote has not abandoned his fantasies about knights and chivalry. Changing the subject, Nicholas shares a story about an educated man who was sent to a mental health hospital by his family.

The man claimed to have no mental illness and claimed his family was trying to take his money; just before he was deemed “sane” and set to be released, a chaplain noticed the man still believed himself to be a god. He was left in the hospital. Quixote rejects any comparisons between himself and the man in the story. He does not believe there is anything wrong with trying to revitalize the order of chivalry that once belonged to the knights. When Pero Perez mentions the stories about knights are works of fiction, Quixote provides intricate details of the lives of these supposedly historical figures. Their conversation is interrupted by shouts from outside.

Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary

Outside, Quixote’s housekeeper and his niece are trying to block Panza’s entrance. They accuse him of leading Quixote astray. Panza defends himself, claiming that their adventure was Quixote’s idea. Quixote demands Panza be allowed into his house. The two men speak in private, and Panza tells his friend about the rumors that Quixote has lost touch with reality, though many people still like him. Furthermore, someone has published a book about Quixote’s adventures. Quixote wonders whether the author of the book is a magician, up to no good again. However, Panza tells him the book was written by a Moor named Cide Hamete Benengeli. Panza goes into the town to obtain more knowledge about the book from a local scholar named Sanson Carrasco.

Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary

Panza goes to visit Carrasco. Quixote stays at his home, thinking about Cide Hamete Benengeli. He wonders whether Benengeli wants to praise or criticize him. Benengeli is a Moor, Quixote notes, which means that he cannot be trusted to tell the truth. When Panza returns with Carrasco, Quixote learns more about Benengeli’s book. The book has been translated into Christian languages though Sanson criticizes Benengeli’s tendency to launch into digressions and anecdotes that distract from the story. However, he claims the novel is enjoyable and has made Quixote quite famous. He admits some of the minor inconsistencies in the novel do attract attention, such as the location of Panza’s donkey or the fate of the gold coins.

Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary

Panza explains that his donkey Dapple was stolen from him by Gines de Pasamonte. Sanson dismisses this explanation, and the two men argue about whether it should be included in the book. After Panza explains what happened to the coins, Sanson promises to tell Benengeli so revisions to the book can be made. He also mentions a jousting festival in Zaragoza and suggests Quixote could attend. Quixote asks Sanson to help him write a poem for Dulcinea. He wants each line to begin with the letters of her name. They make plans to set out on another adventure.

Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary

Before leaving on another adventure, Panza must talk to his wife Teresa. He excitedly explains to her that he is leaving with Quixote and promises to return home with a great reward. His wife worries about her husband being awarded some aristocratic title or trying to marry their daughter to a nobleman, as she knows that they cannot pass as members of the aristocracy. Though they disagree, she knows she cannot stop her husband from being so ambitious.

Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary

Quixote ignores the pleas from his niece and his housekeeper that he should stay at home. They suggest they visit the King’s court rather than go on another adventure, but Quixote insists he was born to be a knight. As he lectures them about honor and chivalry, he concludes he must fight as a knight because it is the only way he knows to achieve fame and fortune.

Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary

At the request of Quixote’s housekeeper, Carrasco returns to the house to try to talk Quixote out of his latest adventure. Meanwhile, Panza arrives at the house and wishes to discuss the matter of his salary. Quixote is horrified at Panza’s discussions about money. He insists he does not need Panza, as he will recruit an even better squire. He points to Carrasco as a potential replacement. Panza retracts his demands and begs to continue as the squire. They plan to leave for their adventure in three days’ time. Meanwhile, Quixote’s niece and his housekeeper are annoyed Carrasco did not bring an end to the adventure. They do not know that Carrasco has made his own plan along with Nicholas and Perez.

Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary

Quixote and Panza set out on another adventure. They first plan to visit Toboso so Quixote can receive a blessing from his beloved Dulcinea. As they approach Toboso, Quixote is eager to see her. He discusses the nature of fame as they ride. Panza says they will likely find Dulcinea in her small peasant’s house, but Quixote continues to insist he must be mistaken because Dulcinea is a beautiful princess.

Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary

Night falls as Quixote and Panza approach the town of Toboso. Panza begins to panic; he does not know the location of Dulcinea’s palace and his lack of knowledge may reveal his earlier lies. They ask a passing farmer about Dulcinea. The man claims he does not know any princesses who live nearby. The men exit the town and find somewhere to sleep.

Part 2, Prologue-Chapter 9 Analysis

In his Prologue for Part 2, Cervantes uses his role as the narrator to blur the lines between fiction and reality. The way he criticizes a counterfeit edition of stories of Quixote is based on a real event. During the gap between the publication of the first and second parts of the novel, many fake books were published that claimed to continue the story of Quixote’s adventures. These inauthentic versions become an issue for Cervantes and Quixote, both of whom take a real-world event and turn it into motivation for the narrator and the protagonist. These counterfeit copies become a feature of the plot; Cervantes’s own resentment of the fake copies is folded into Quixote’s resentment that people have told his story in an incorrect manner. Fiction and reality are built on the same resentments and Cervantes uses his fiction to settle his real disagreements.

Part 2 of Don Quixote reveals the characters’ plan from Part 1 has failed. Pero Perez, Master Nicholas, and others wanted Quixote to abandon his adventures and return home. Once Quixote is home, however, they begin to share his disillusionment. They realize his adventures (and their attempts to bring him home) gave some degree of purpose and pleasure to their lives, which were previously lacking. The introduction of Carrasco shows the way Quixote’s absurdity can seduce seemingly intelligent people. Sanson Carrasco is introduced as a scholar whose wisdom will help return Quixote to normal. Rather than Carrasco helping Quixote return to his prior state, however, Quixote changes Carrasco. By the end of the novel, the young priest will be forced to live his life as a knight out of bitterness, a desire for revenge, and because he realizes Quixote’s chivalry gives him a sense of purpose that academia could not. Carrasco is swept along in the absurdity and forced to take up the same ideals he criticizes in Quixote, simply to keep up with the protagonist.

The introduction of Panza’s wife Teresa ratifies Panza’s position as a representative of the working class. For most of the novel, Panza has claimed that he wants to be the governor of an island because he wishes to have power and wealth after a lifetime of poverty and feeling unimportant. Teresa voices her concern about his ambition. She worries that being so ambitious will only make them more vulnerable. She is self-conscious about having to appear among nobles and important people because she has internalized her own low status in society. She has spent so long in poverty that she cannot imagine a world in which she is anywhere else and believes this to be the natural order. Teresa’s role is to demonstrate how ideas of wealth and class can be self-fulfilling. The status quo is maintained because peasants are told so frequently their poverty is natural that they cannot imagine the world in any other way. After spending so long with Quixote’s delusions, however, Panza is beginning to understand the world can be reshaped.