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Part 2, Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Don Quixote, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Truth and Lies
Literature, Realism, and Idealism
Madness and Sanity
Intention and Consequence
Self-Invention, Class Identity, and Social Change
Summary
Analysis
On the road, Sancho and Quixote encounter a group of two students and two farmers. One of the students invites Quixote to join them at the wedding of a wealthy farmer and a beautiful girl – Camacho the Rich and Quiteria the Fair. Everyone will be there except her former beau, a talented poor boy named Basilio who has been desolate ever since the engagement. Sancho commiserates with the boy and says that everyone should marry for love, but Quixote hushes him up. They approach the village just before dark, and our knight and squire sleep in the woods.
Sancho has watched his master make speeches and pass judgments on every occasion. Now, he himself wants to try making a speech. He is learning to analyze the world around him, to take a moral stance. Though Sancho comes out on the side of love, which is of highest importance to Quixote, his irritable master tells him to be quiet.
Themes
