Don Quixote Part 1, Chapter 37 - 52
Sancho wakes his master and tells him that his fortune has faded while he slept. Don Quixote believes that he vanquished the giant already, and confronts the company of men with Sancho’s words. He asks them whether they have truly changed into common folk, but Dorotea yet persists that she is the princess and that she hopes to rise to the possession of her kingdom with the knight’s help. Don Quixote is calmed and admonishes a sulky Sancho for causing him needless alarm. The inn then receives another company of guests, which includes a man of European descent in Moorish garb that marks him as being a captive in that land. He is accompanied by a woman similarly clad, who does not speak the common language. Don Quixote entertains them all by talking at length of the superiority of the path of arms over that of letters. They are all amazed at his ability to make such complex and succinct arguments despite his madness of chivalry. Once Don Quixote has finished his monologue, the occupants of the inn entreat the captive to tell of his own story, and that of his companion.
The captive begins by telling them how his father, a spendthrift, a soldier had divided his wealth among him and his two younger brothers. His father had commanded that they take their portion of the wealth and chose either of the three vocations he offered, which included life in service to the king, church, or as a man of trade. The captive had taken his share and decided to take to the life of a warrior and had participated in several important battles. Unfortunately, he had been taken captive on the sea and had served important Moorish leaders in both Constantipole and Algiers. He had ended up in Algiers with other Christian captives, who found a surprising benefactress in the form of a young lady. The young lady had supplied the captives with a little gold, and written the captive a letter telling him of a Christian slave that her family had owned. The slave had passed away but her spirit had returned to the girl and asked her to go to Christian lands. She had taken a liking to the captive, and wished that he would be her husband.
The captive learned through a renegade moor, who had become a Christian, that the lady in question, Zoirada was the beautiful daughter of Haji Murad, one of the wealthiest men in all of Algiers. With the Zoirada’s help, the captive was able to supply his ransom along with that of the moor and the other captives. The renegade was able to find a ship in which they could rescue Zoirada, and escape to the Spanish coast, but their plan goes awry as Haji Murad interrupts their rescue. He is taken captive by the company and becomes horrified when he learns that his daughter was accompanying the Christians willingly. They drop off Haji Murad at an island, fight the seas, and are hijacked by a French ship only to reach the Spanish coast deprived of all the wealth that Zoirada had brought along. They raise an alarm in the Spanish countryside because of the appearance of both the renegade and Zoirada. They are given succor by the coast guard as one of their numbers happens to be the relative of one of the captives. The captive ends his tale by telling them that he is now journeying back to his land where he hopes either his father or one of his brothers will assist him in settling down with Zoirada, who now prefers the moniker, Marie.
Another party of travelers arrive at the inn and are treated most graciously given that they are escorting a judge and his beautiful sixteen-year-old daughter. The captive recognizes the judge as his brother who had taken to the path of letters but appeals to Don Fernando and the priest to advise him as to how he should approach his brother given his now impoverished condition. The priest intervenes and recounts the story of the captive, and reveals his brother to him once he has expressed his desire to be reconciled with his sibling irrespective of his sibling’s material status. Their joyful reunion reduces all the occupants to tears, but Dona Clara has another more pressing worry. She reveals her secret to Dorotea when they overhear a footman singing beautiful sonnets about Clara. The young girl tells her about the love that had grown in her neighbor’s heart, Don Luis, who was the son and heir to an important man. The boy had now been following her dressed as a footman, and she could not muster the courage to approach her father given that Don Luis’s family wealth and position dwarfed theirs. Dorotea promised to help Dona Clara, while the inn keeper’s daughter and Maritorness pranked Don Quixote by tying his hand through the only front-facing window of the inn. The prank proceeded so well that the next morning, four riders found Don Quixote standing on Rocinante, with his hand-tied through the window, unwilling to move even a hair. Martiorness cuts the cord that holds him there when Rocinante moves and don Quixote is suspended with all his weight on his arm.
Don Luis’s servants try to get the young man to return home but he resists and causes a commotion that attracts the attention of the judge. He discovers that Don Luis is his neighbor’s son, and attempts to discover why he has eloped from home. Don Luis reluctantly takes the judge aside and tells him about his feeling for Dona Clara as well as his intention to take her as his wife. The judge is eager to give away his daughter to the heir of his wealthy neighbor but wishes to ensure that it occurs with the consent of the boy’s father. In the stables of the inn, Sancho Panza is accosted by the barber that he and Don Quixote had robbed of a barber’s basin and mule tackle. The barber accuses the two of stealing his property, but all of the people at the inn take Don Quixote’s side in claiming that the basin was, in truth, Mambrino’s helmet. All of them agree, except some officers of the Holy Brotherhood, and this leads to a chaotic melee in which the innkeeper sides with the brotherhood while Don Quixote is supported by the members of his party. Don Quixote manages to bring order through his powerful voice, however, the peace is short-lived as one of the officers realizes that Don Quixote has a warrant issued against him for freeing convicts on the highway. They attempt to arrest Don Quixote but the priest dissuades them as he informs them of Don Quixote’s illness, and he also pays the barber in secret for the basin that Don Quixote had taken from him.
The knight then approaches his supposed princess and entreats her to carry on with their journey, she reassures him that they will continue, but the next morning Don Quixote is captured by his friends. They put on masks and put him in a cage tied to an ox cart. Don Quixote thinks that he has become enchanted although Sancho Panza remains free and is expected to follow as the ox cart sets out for La Mancha. The priest and barber accompany Don Quixote along with two officers of the Holy Brotherhood, while the rest of the group remain at the inn as they prepare to set out on their own journeys. Don Quixote’s group encounters a group led by a Canon, who takes an interest in the odd situation of Don Quixote. The priest approaches the canon and informs him of the condition that Don Quixote has been reduced to due to the influence of chivalry books. The priest and Canon discuss the poor utility of chivalry books and the travesty of Modern plays that seek to enthrall the masses without paying appropriate homage to art. Sancho tries to tell his master that he has been captured by the priest and barber from his village as he believes that they were jealous that Don Quixote was going to gain a kingdom. Don Quixote admits that the enchantment feels different than what he had read in the chivalry books, but he was convinced that he had been enchanted and could not break out of it. Sancho convinces the priest to let Don Quixote out of the cage so that he could see to the calls of nature. The Canon is moved by Don Quixote’s condition and entreats him to see the sense of the world which clearly indicated that the books of chivalry described fictitious events. Don Quixote defends the order of knight-errantry with zeal as he mixes in the fictional accounts of knights along with the real historical feats of brave men.
Their conversation is interrupted by the entry of a stray goat, whose shepherd follows soon after and addresses her as one would address an eloping maiden. The canon and Don Quixote press the youth into relating his harrowing tale. The goatherd describes how a beautiful girl in their village had been duped by a man who had claimed to return from being a soldier so that all the youths of the village had been ruined by her decision to leave with him. Don Quixote is moved by the youth’s story and loudly claims that he would return the girl from the convent that she had been sent to by her father, but the goatherd is shocked by Don Quixote’s gusto. He thinks that Don Quixote is crazy, and tells him so. Don Quixote attacks the youth, and the two fight quite fantastically until Don Quixote hears a trumpet and turns to see a procession moving towards them. He believes that the procession of Christians is actually a mob carrying away a lady, which in actuality is the image of the virgin mother Mary. He charges at the mob but receives such a cudgel blow that he collapses from his horse and faints. He is brought back to consciousness through the wails of Sancho Panza, who recommends that they return to the village so that Don Quixote can heal for the third sally.
The priest and barber take Don Quixote home, where he is warmly welcomed by his housekeeper as well as his niece. Sancho Panza receives a similar welcome although his wife is primarily concerned with the health of the ass first. The author concludes the tale by claiming that little is known of Don Quixote’s third sally which was said to involve his journey to Saragossa. He ends the account with epitaphs and sonnets in honor of the seemingly deceased Don Quixote, Lady Dulcinea Del Toboso, Sancho Panza, and Rocinante.
Analysis
The tale of the captive is considered to be an autobiographical account of Cervantes's own time as a soldier in the Spanish navy. The battles and the engagements described in the section don't have anything to do with any of the main plots, while the captive's wondrous escape from Algiers expresses the author's imagined escape. Cervantes had been taken prisoner during his time as a soldier and had attempted but failed to escape three times. The women mentioned in this first part of the book are always depicted as objects of desire that men wish to possess. Dorotea is an exception to the model of the damsel in distress as she sets out on her own to find her lover and resolve her problem but she then humbles herself quite spectacularly in Don Fernando's presence. Zoraida is demonstrated to be an independent woman who leaves her father's home to fulfill her aspirations against his wishes, but she remains mute throughout the whole story. Don Quixote is absent nearly throughout the meeting of the characters at the inn, almost as if these characters were the true protagonists of the plot.
In the falling action of the book, we see that the priest and the barber do not truly have the best intentions in restoring their neighbor to his village. They make remarkable efforts to ensure his safety from the Holy Brotherhood and placate him by claiming that he has been enchanted as they transport him in a wooden cage. However, the priest and the barber are among the first to laugh at Don Quixote's antics and cheer him on when he begins to fight the goatherd. It is evident that Don Quixote is little more than an animal to them, a source of entertainment, but Sancho continues to demonstrate genuine care and affection for his master despite his conniving designs of material gain.
