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Part 2, Chapter 19
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
In the morning Quixote walks over to wake up Sancho, saying to himself that the simple, innocent person sleeps best and lives most happily. Sancho wakes up and rails against Basilio, who is foolish to try to marry above his station. Quixote hushes him with irritation, noting that if Sancho talked his fill he wouldn’t have time to eat or sleep. They ride into the field where the wedding is to take place: it is covered in tents containing a dizzying amount of food and drink. While Sancho finds something to eat, Quixote watches the performers. A little later, Sancho and Quixote finally argue about whether Basilio or Camacho deserves Quiteria’s love. Sancho is on Camacho’s side, because his food is rich and good, and Basilio has nothing nourishing to offer, and Quixote is once again amazed at and irritated by his volubility.
Quixote’s opinions of Sancho are oversimplified and static. He thinks of their friendship in terms of self-congratulatory opposites. He is lofty and thoughtful, while Sancho is base and stupid; he is delicate and tortured, while Sancho is hearty and content. But Sancho is changing, and these generalities are tearing at the seams. The day before Sancho tried to argue for Basilio, and now he is trying to argue for Camacho; but Quixote just wants him to stop philosophizing and act like an ordinary peasant. Quixote has yet to quite grow into his generosity of spirit.
Themes
