Character Clues

Character Analysis

Clothing

Clothing plays a big part in this book, as it tends to give us a first impression of people's social standing. When Sancho sees someone wearing a very fine shirt, for example, he makes sure to treat that person with respect. Don Quixote, on the other hand, slaps on an old suit of armor and a makeshift helmet that are beyond useless, since part of the helmet is made from "some pasteboard" (1.1.1.9). He feels like he has to wear these things because they are what a knight is supposed to wear. Similarly, the Duke and Duchess dress Sancho in a strange black robe at one point when they convince him that he needs to bring a young girl back from the dead. In all cases, people tend to change their clothing when they change their social roles.

Names

Names have a lot of power in Don Quixote. When Alonso Quixano decides to become a knight, the first thing he does is change his name to something more knightly sounding. Next, he changes the name of his horse, "since the owner had changed his profession, that the horse should also change his title" (1.1.1.11). So he renames his horse Rocinante, which in Spanish literally means, "The horse that used to be normal." Don Quixote is a great knight who used to be regular old Alonso Quixano, just as his horse used to be normal.

By the end of the book, Don Quixote realizes the foolishness of his ways and re-adopts his real name, throwing out the moniker Don Quixote. And when the name Don Quixote leaves him, the character no longer exists. We're just left again with plain old Alonso Quixano.

Physical Appearances

Apart from social status, physical appearance is the first thing Cervantes wants you to know about a specific character. His descriptions of characters' physical appearances depend a lot on their gender. For the most part, every woman you meet in this book (especially in Part 1) is the most beautiful woman that any human being has ever set eyes on, whether it's Marcela, Dorotea, Zoraida, Clara, Lucinda… the list just keeps going on. The men, on the other hand, all sound average-looking.

(In case you were wondering: yeah, pretty much every lady who isn't a hag or a witch in stories of knight-errantry are "the most beautiful woman you've ever seen.")

Secondly, physical appearance is one of the main driving forces for Don Quixote in Part 2 of the book. Let's not forget that all of his adventures in Part 2 are dedicated toward lifting the curse that has supposedly made his beloved Dulcinea into an ugly country wench. The hope of restoring this girl's beauty is also what makes Don Quixote want to lash his friend Sancho 3,300 times on the bum. Looks are pretty important in the novel, but one of the big points the novel makes is that there's a big difference between appearance and reality.

Props

The first time Don Quixote breaks his lance, he acts as if he doesn't know how he can go on living. Second, his quest for a proper knight's helmet also leads him to attack an suspecting barber and steal the poor dude's basin. Don Quixote does this because, according to the books he's read, he can't be a proper knight without a helmet and lance.

Sex and Love

Don Quixote has sworn his chastity to Dulcinea del Toboso, a woman he's never met or seen. But despite the many sexual temptations that the Don thinks are being thrown his way, he vows to be always loyal to his beloved Dulcinea. It's actually pretty admirable in its own crazy way.

Besides Don Quixote, there are several other characters who show aspects of themselves through sex and love. Dorotea, for example, has made the mistake of having sex with the man she loves before marrying him. It's a mistake because Don Fernando loses interest in her as soon as they've had sex—which, of course, also shows how much of a fickle jerk he is.

Social Status

Throughout this book, characters always introduce themselves by saying where they are from and what family they come from. They do this because back in 17th-century Spain, people's opinions of you were totally based on whether or not you came from a good, noble family. A guy like Sancho Panza can only dream about joining this upper class, though his wife Teresa tells him that they're better off being simple and poor. She, of course, completely changes her tune once she finds out that Sancho has become a governor. As soon as she feels upper-class-hood within her reach, she is more than happy to climb the social ladder.

Don Quixote, on the other hand, is a gentleman who has enough money and property to bankroll all of his adventures. In fact, he sells off some of his most valuable land at basement prices just so he can keep doing what he loves. His ability to go out and have adventures is based solely on the fact that he has the money to fund these wacky fantasies. If he were the same status as someone like Sancho, you can bet that nobody would give him even the minimal respect he gets in the novel.