Chapter XXXIV
The Duke and Duchess go on a boar hunt with Sancho and
Don Quixote. During the hunt, Sancho becomes afraid and attempts
to climb a tree. The Duke tells Sancho that hunting helps to hone
a governor’s skill for warfare, but Sancho maintains his distaste
for the sport. Suddenly the woods fill with the sound of drumbeats
and Moorish battle cries. The devil appears to announce the coming
of Montesinos, who will give instructions to Don Quixote about how to
disenchant Dulcinea. The noises continue and three wagons drive by.
The wagons, which carry demons, are drawn by oxen with torches on
their horns. Each of the wagons contains an enchanter who announces
himself and then drives on.
Chapter XXXV
An enormous wagon arrives carrying penitents dressed in
white linen and a beautiful maiden with a golden veil. Merlin, bearing
the face of death’s head, also rides on the wagon and addresses
Don Quixote in verse, telling him that to disenchant Dulcinea, Sancho must
whip himself 3,300 times
on his bare buttocks and that he must do it willingly. This news
distresses Sancho, who says that Dulcinea’s enchantment is not his
problem. The maiden on the wagon, who pretends to be Dulcinea, chastises
Sancho for his reluctance to come to her aid, and the Duke threatens
to take away Sancho’s governorship if he does not comply. Sancho
finally agrees but says that he will perform the whipping only when
he feels like it. The scene pleases the Duke and the Duchess, who,
it turns out, have arranged the whole trick in the first place.
Analysis: Chapters XXIX–XXXV
The Duke and the Duchess indulge Don Quixote’s and Sancho’s
fantasies, validating both Don Quixote’s belief that he is a grand knight-errant
and Sancho’s belief that he will gain a governorship by being a
good squire. Through all of their trickery they exhibit their willingness
to engage Don Quixote’s madness. Don Quixote’s imagination does
not need to do much work to transform his stay at the Duke’s castle
into a magical one; it is the Duchess’s imagination, not his, that
drives most of his adventures there. Furthermore, the Duchess’s
indulgence of Sancho’s high opinion of himself gives Sancho a chance
to express his philosophy about life, which turns out to be quite
wise and deeply rooted in Christian ideals of charity. By playing
along with Don Quixote and Sancho rather than mocking them outright,
the Duke and Duchess gain Don Quixote’s and Sancho’s trust. This
trust gives them power over Don Quixote and Sancho, which they abuse
to stage their elaborate ruse.
Cervantes uses the encounter at the castle to continue
his critique of his era’s conventional wisdom that social class
corresponds to personal worth. Sancho is free to disagree with the
lower-class Doña Rodriguez, but he is severely chastized by Don
Quixote when he presumes to disagree with the Duke or the Duchess
at dinner. According to the dictates of chivalry, Sancho, as a servant,
may spar only with one of his own class. Likewise, Don Quixote treats
the clergyman as roughly an equal, but he treats the Duke and the
Duchess with the respect due to royalty. During their antics, the
Duke and Duchess pretend that they are above everyone else, acting
as puppeteers by stringing Don Quixote and Sancho along, tricking
the men into believing each new fantasy simply for their own amusement. Though
the Duchess does not appear overtly malicious, we see that she enjoys
watching Sancho become more embroiled in Don Quixote’s madness.
The pleasure she takes is a symptom of her tendency to look upon
the peasant squire with condescension, which compels us to disdain
her. The Duchess begins to appear cruel, since she enjoys keeping
Sancho in a confused and vulnerable position, most notably when
she tells him to believe in the enchantment of Dulcinea despite
the fact that it is clearly fake.
In highlighting the Duchess’s awareness of the existence
of the First Part of Don Quixote, Cervantes breaks
down the wall between the work’s factual and fictional components.
The Duchess has knowledge of Don Quixote’s past exploits, which
shows that Cide Hamete Benengeli’s so-called historical account
has influenced the events and people Don Quixote encounters. Notably,
Don Quixote himself has not read the novel, which accounts for his
failure to understand the perhaps good-natured mockery of those
who have read it. In essence, he fails to see himself the way other
characters within the story see him. Cervantes implies that if only
Don Quixote would pick up the book and begin reading his own story,
he might respond differently to those around him. Because they have
read the story, the Duchess and other characters later in the Second
Part can share a joke with us. The result is dramatic irony, since
we are aware of the joke while Don Quixote himself is not. This
irony draws us deeper into the novel, further blurring the line
between madness and sanity, truth and lies.
