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Similes
Part 1, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Slow Progress:
In a scene that exemplifies situational irony, Don Quixote spends so much time contemplating his future victories that he makes slow progress and accomplishes nothing in his first day as a knight errant:
He strung these absurdities together with many others, all in the style of those that he’d learned from his books. This made his progress so slow, and the sun was rising so fast and becoming so hot, that his brains would have melted, if he’d had any. He rode on almost throughout that day and nothing happened worth mentioning, which reduced him to despair because he was longing for an early encounter with someone on whom he could test the worth of his mighty arm.
After setting off from home in the dark of night, Don Quixote is so excited by his future adventures that he begins narrating his own activities in the style of chivalric literature. Because he is so preoccupied with these pleasurable fantasies, he makes “slow” progress and, before he has accomplished anything, his first night of adventuring comes to an end. Determined, he “rode on almost throughout that day” but “nothing happened worth mentioning,” leaving him in a state of despair. Ironically, Don Quixote’s excitement for adventure slows him down and prevents him from achieving anything on the first day of his quest.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—The Farmer and the Boy:
In a scene suffused with both situational and verbal irony, a farmer brutally punishes a young boy as a result of Don Quixote’s attempt to help the boy. Previously, Don Quixote encountered the farmer flogging the boy. Outraged, he threatened the farmer and demanded that he pay the boy the wages he is owed. After Don Quixote leaves, however, the farmer swiftly resumes the beating:
‘Come here, my son, I want to pay you what I owe you, just as that righter of wrongs has ordered.’
‘I swear you will, too,’ said Andrés, ‘and you’ll do well to obey that good knight’s commands, God bless him, because he’s such a brave man [...]'
‘And I swear I will, too,’ said the farmer, ‘but, since I’m so very fond of you, I think I’ll increase the debt first, just so as to increase the repayment.’ And seizing him by the arm, he tied him back to the evergreen oak and flogged him half dead.
Here, the farmer’s words are marked by clear verbal irony. Pretending that he simply wants to follow Don Quixote’s demands, the farmer claims that he wants to “pay” the boy what he is owed and promises to “increase the repayment.” What he really means, however, is that the boy deserves an even worse beating than before, and he beats the boy until he is “half dead.” The outcome, then, of Don Quixote’s first attempt to serve as a “righter of wrongs” is heavily ironic. Rather than helping the boy, he has only succeeded in further enraging the farmer.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 52
Explanation and Analysis—Keeping the Peace:
After a goatherd points out that Don Quixote has confused chivalric literature for reality, Quixote responds with rage and the two fight. Though Sancho attempts to break up the fight and protect Quixote, he is prevented from doing so by a canon, a priest, and several peace officers, who wish for the fight to continue for their own amusement, exemplifying situational irony:
As soon as Don Quixote found himself free he jumped on top of the goatherd, who, bloody-faced and pounded by Sancho’s feet, was crawling over the tablecloths in search of a knife with which to take some gory revenge [...] and then the barber intervened to enable the goatherd to climb on top of Don Quixote, at whom he flailed away [...] The canon and the priest were laughing fit to burst, the peace-officers were jumping with joy, everyone was cheering the two men on as dogs are cheered on when they’re fighting.
At first, Quixote has the upper hand in the fight, though the goatherd searches for a knife with which to take “gory revenge,” threatening serious violence. While Sancho attempts to stop the goatherd, the other men gathered in the inn encourage the fight, including a priest, a canon, and several peace officers. Ironically, given their professions, these men find the fight entertaining and do nothing to prevent it. Observing the fight, the canon and priest were “laughing fit to burst” and “the peace-officers were jumping with joy.” Through this ironic scene, Cervantes suggests that men of religion and law enjoy base pleasures as much as any other, despite their responsibility to keep the peace.
Part 2, Chapter 74
Explanation and Analysis—Some New Madness:
At the end of the novel, Don Quixote returns to his village and informs his friends and loved ones that he is no longer "mad." Abandoning the persona of "Don Quixote de la Mancha," he returns to his original identity of "Alonso Quixano" and hopes not for fame and glory but only to earn the nickname "the Good." In a scene saturated with situational irony, his friends believe that he is simply "in the grips of some new madness":
‘You must congratulate me, my good sirs, because I am no longer Don Quixote de la Mancha but Alonso Quixano, for whom my way of life earned me the nickname of “the Good”. I am now the enemy of Amadis of Gaul and the whole infinite horde of his descendants; [...] now I acknowledge my folly and the peril in which I was placed by reading them; now, by God’s mercy, having at long last learned my lesson, I abominate them all.’ When the three heard all this they were certain that he was in the grips of some new madness.
Don Quixote, now Alonso Quixano, speaks to the others in a calm and rational manner quite unlike his previous eccentricity. Ironically, the restoration of his sanity is so swift that the others become nervous, believing that he is now suffering from a "new" form of mental illness. The surprisingly rapid nature of his transformation at the end of the novel, then, shocks his friends and family, who had become accustomed to his assumed persona.
Related Themes:
