Don Quixote (Style)

Style

Structure

Cervantes switches between a style of narration that Boccacio employed in the Decamaron — a renowned collection of tales — to a more modern style. Like the Decamaron, Don Quixote is a medieval work wherein characters incorporate novellas, old ballads, and legends. Cervantes combines this style with the chivalric genre. This hybrid style is considered innovative.

Another result of Cervantes's unique style is that his characters have independent, interesting stories of their own. To offset this, Cervantes adds the device of the found manuscript; well into the story, the reader discovers the story is part of a manuscript found in the ruins of an old building. In fact, the history is the work of Cide Hamete Berengena, "the author of our true history."

This clever stylistic device does not change the tone of the narration, which is that of an omniscient, omnipresent, and amused narrator. This duplicity of narration only adds to the overall irony of the work. The characters are aware of being characters in a story that is being delivered by a narrator who is quoting, with liberality, from a found manuscript. In addition, there are other narrative viewpoints mixed into the melange. The potential layering — anticipating later Russian narrative forms — is kept at a minimum by the picaresque.

Satire

Don Quixote is a satire on conditions in Spain at the time the novel was written. This is accomplished by rendering Spain's archetype — the knight-errant as formidable, honorable, and above reproach — into realistic terms. For example, at the end of the first section, Don Quixote answers the call of nature — bathroom breaks are not a part of chivalric tales.

Picaresque

Don Quixote transforms the chivalric tale of adventure into the picaresque. This type of narrative chronicles the humorous adventures of a rogue, like Gines de Pasamonte (who has been working on a manuscript about his own adventures), while on the road, often traveling a long distance. The picaresque is often a satiric tale.

Irony

The technique of irony has its roots in the character Eiron. This character in Greek comedy always manages to outsmart Alazon. The term has come to mean a moment when words express something other than their literal meaning. The result is often intentionally humorous. Cervantes employs this technique on many levels.

In the process, Cervantes tears down the barriers between maturity and fantasy. Don Quixote and Sancho are so famous by the beginning of the second part of the novel that they are able to have a man with a degree help them judge the verisimilitude of their story — they are aware of themselves as being fictional characters. This leads to other jokes about whether the character or the narrator or the writer said such and such.

In fact, this occurs at the opening of the second part of the novel. There, Sancho surprises the narrator, and the reader, with his clever speech — or he has been faking his stupidity the whole time. Although the audience should know the truth, in many moments of Don Quixote the truth is whatever you wish it to be and therein lies the irony.

Dialogue

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, dialogue was being developed into an artistic technique. At that time, dialogues in histories or "novels" were flat, presenting and debating ideas; then the techniques of the playwright were incorporated into dialogue, and the technique was used to show characterization and motivation, as well as propel the action of the story. Cervantes's practice as a playwright enabled him to utilize dialogue in an engaging, non-pedantic manner.

Don Quixote is an excellent example of an early effort to inject depth of psychology into a character through conversation. Two hundred years before the first psychological thriller, psychology — usually shown in mannerisms and action — could be revealed and confessed by the character.

Topics for Further Study

• Discuss the importance of reading in the novel and in the lives of the characters. Be sure to examine negative, as well as positive, examples from the story.
• Don Diego believes that "if the laws and ordinances of knight-errantry had been lost, they would be found in your worship's heart, as in their right repository and archive." What does he mean by this? What is the code of the knight-errant according to Don Quixote? How does this compare with the real code of chivalry?
• Find misrepresentations of the Don Quixote character in the media, on film, or in cartoons. Compare these versions with the original character in the book. How has the image of Don Quixote changed throughout time?
• Spain's tenure as a superpower was ruined by extravagant military spending and a lack of investment in business and industry. How does Spain's experience as a superpower contrast with that of the United States? Will the United States suffer the same fate as Spain? Why or why not?
• Investigate the meaning of the story about the madman and the dog experiment at the start of