The Theme in the Work
In the novel, appearance is not an occasional deception, it is a dispute between the one who sees and the one who names. Don Quixote sees what the books taught him to see, Sancho Panza states the name and the use of things, and the narrator, who knows what was there, sometimes sides with one, sometimes with the other, sometimes with no one. The dispute has three movements. In Part One, the gentleman sees giants, armies, golden helmets, and castles, the squire sees windmills, flocks, basins, and inns, and the defeat is always explained by an enchanter enemy. In the middle of Part Two, Sancho inverts the game: it is he who fabricates the appearance, the peasant woman whom he presents as Dulcinea, and the master, for whom enchantment was always the rule, comes to suffer it in his own sight. In the end, it is the duke and duchess and the fairground artists who stage appearances on purpose, and the question ceases to be what the gentleman sees and becomes what each person wants the others to see.
In Chapter VIII of Part One, at the windmills, the dispute appears whole in a single scene: the gentleman announces thirty giants.
ves allí, amigo Sancho Panza, donde se descubren treinta, o pocos más, desaforados gigantes, con quien pienso hacer batalla y quitarles a todos las vidas, do you see over there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or so outrageous giants appear, with whom I intend to do battle and take the lives of all of them.
The squire responds with the parts and the use of what he sees.
aquellos que allí se parecen no son gigantes, sino molinos de viento, y lo que en ellos parecen brazos son las aspas, que, volteadas del viento, hacen andar la piedra del molino, those that appear there are not giants, but windmills, and what seem to be arms are the sails, which, turned by the wind, make the millstone go round.
And the gentleman closes the system with the wizard who explains the defeat without correcting the vision.
aquel sabio Frestón que me robó el aposento y los libros ha vuelto estos gigantes en molinos por quitarme la gloria de su vencimiento: tal es la enemistad que me tiene, that wise Frestón who robbed me of my study and my books has turned these giants into windmills to deprive me of the glory of defeating them: such is the enmity he bears me.
In Chapter XVIII of Part One, at the flocks, the narrator says in so many words what is happening: he sees in his imagination what he does not see and what is not there.
viendo en su imaginación lo que no veía ni había, seeing in his imagination what he did not see and what was not there.
Sancho, beside him, says what he hears.
No oigo otra cosa -respondió Sancho- sino muchos balidos de ovejas y carneros, I hear nothing else, answered Sancho, but many bleatings of ewes and rams.
In Chapter XXI of Part One, at Mambrino's helmet, the narrator explains the mechanism: the gentleman accommodates everything he sees to his knightly thoughts.
todas las cosas que veía, con mucha facilidad las acomodaba a sus desvariadas caballerías y malandantes pensamientos, everything he saw he very easily accommodated to his deranged chivalries and ill-starred thoughts.
The inversion comes in Chapter X of Part Two. Sancho, not knowing how to carry out the errand he did not run, resolves to present to his master the first peasant girl he meets as Dulcinea, and when the master sees only three peasant women on three she-asses, the only explanation left to him is the usual one.
ya que el maligno encantador me persigue, y ha puesto nubes y cataratas en mis ojos, y para sólo ellos y no para otros ha mudado y transformado tu sin igual hermosura y rostro en el de una labradora pobre, si ya también el mío no le ha cambiado en el de algún vestiglo, para hacerle aborrecible a tus ojos, since the malicious enchanter persecutes me, and has put clouds and cataracts in my eyes, and for them alone and not for others has changed and transformed your matchless beauty and face into that of a poor peasant woman, unless my own too has been changed into that of some monster, to make it hateful to your eyes.
The only datum of the senses that he admits against the illusion, the smell of raw garlic, becomes proof that the enchanters took from the lady her sweet scent as well.
Y has también de advertir, Sancho, que no se contentaron estos traidores de haber vuelto y transformado a mi Dulcinea, sino que la transformaron y volvieron en una figura tan baja y tan fea como la de aquella aldeana, y juntamente le quitaron lo que es tan suyo de las principales señoras, que es el buen olor, por andar siempre entre ámbares y entre flores. Porque te hago saber, Sancho, que cuando llegé a subir a Dulcinea sobre su hacanea, según tú dices, que a mí me pareció borrica, me dio un olor de ajos crudos, que me encalabrinó y atosigó el alma, and you must also note, Sancho, that these traitors were not content with having changed and transformed my Dulcinea, but transformed and turned her into a figure as low and ugly as that of that peasant girl, and at the same time took from her what is so proper to ladies of rank, which is the good smell, from always moving among amber and flowers. For I let you know, Sancho, that when I went to lift Dulcinea onto her hackney, as you say, which to me looked like a she-ass, she gave me a smell of raw garlic that stupefied me and poisoned my soul.
In Chapter XI of Part Two, before the cart of the Parliament of Death, which he took for a great adventure and which was a company of players, the gentleman makes a concession.
así como vi este carro, imaginé que alguna grande aventura se me ofrecía; y ahora digo que es menester tocar las apariencias con la mano para dar lugar al desengaño, as soon as I saw this cart, I imagined that some great adventure was offering itself to me; and now I say that one must touch appearances with the hand to make room for disillusionment.
In Chapter XIV of Part Two, when he unhorses the Knight of the Mirrors and unlaces the helmet, he sees the very face of the bachelor Sansón Carrasco, and attributes it to magic.
Vio, dice la historia, el rostro mesmo, la misma figura, el mesmo aspecto, la misma fisonomía, la mesma efigie, la pespetiva mesma del bachiller Sansón Carrasco, he saw, says the history, the very face, the same figure, the same aspect, the same physiognomy, the same effigy, the very perspective of the bachelor Sansón Carrasco.
In Chapter XXIII of Part Two, in Montesinos's cave, the gentleman feels himself all over to prove that he was awake, and the test only shows that he is awake while he examines himself.
vi que no dormía, sino que realmente estaba despierto [...] me certificaron que yo era allí entonces el que soy aquí ahora, I saw that I was not asleep, but really awake [...] they assured me that I was there then the one I am here now.
In Chapter XXVI of Part Two, at Master Pedro's puppet show, he attacks the paste figures. The owner of the theater shouts that the Moors he knocks down are not real Moors.
estos que derriba, destroza y mata no son verdaderos moros, sino unas figurillas de pasta. ¡Mire, pecador de mí, que me destruye y echa a perder toda mi hacienda!, these that he knocks down, destroys, and kills are not true Moors, but little paste figures. Look, sinner that I am, he is destroying me and ruining all my property!
The gentleman answers with the theory of the enchanter who puts the figures before him as they are and then changes them.
estos encantadores que me persiguen no hacen sino ponerme las figuras como ellas son delante de los ojos, y luego me las mudan y truecan en las que ellos quieren [...] que Melisendra era Melisendra, don Gaiferos don Gaiferos, Marsilio Marsilio, y Carlomagno Carlomagno, these enchanters who persecute me do nothing but put the figures before my eyes as they are, and then change them and turn them into what they wish [...] that Melisendra was Melisendra, don Gaiferos don Gaiferos, Marsilio Marsilio, and Charlemagne Charlemagne.
In Chapter XXIX of Part Two, in the enchanted boat, he grants Sancho the appearance and takes away its value.
todas las cosas trastruecan y mudan de su ser natural los encantos. No quiero decir que las mudan de en uno en otro ser realmente, sino que lo parece, como lo mostró la experiencia en la transformación de Dulcinea, único refugio de mis esperanzas, enchantments transmute and change all things from their natural being. I do not mean to say that they really change them from one being to another, but that it seems so, as experience showed in the transformation of Dulcinea, the sole refuge of my hopes.
In Chapter XLI of Part Two, after the flight on Clavileño, truth becomes exchange: the gentleman accepts Sancho's lie about the sky in return for Sancho's accepting the cave of Montesinos.
Sancho, pues vos queréis que se os crea lo que habéis visto en el cielo, yo quiero que vos me creáis a mí lo que vi en la cueva de Montesinos; y no os digo más, Sancho, since you want us to believe what you saw in the sky, I want you to believe me what I saw in the cave of Montesinos; and I say no more.
The book gives three answers to what to do with an appearance that is not believed. Sancho's is to name: to say windmill, basin, flock. The narrator's is to describe the mechanism without condemning whoever uses it: he "accommodated things." The gentleman's is the theory of the enchanter, which in Chapter XXIX of Part Two reaches its final form, in which what one sees is what one sees and the enchantment is precisely that. None of the three wins, and what the book does is stage them against one another until Sancho's becomes an instrument of his master's. Two readings: the laughter of the book lies in watching the theory perfect itself with each refutation; or what the theory gains in solidity it loses in necessity, because an appearance that the master himself concedes no longer threatens him.
Who Embodies It
Don Quixote is the one who sees too much, and he is also the one who, in Chapter XI of Part Two, admits that one must touch appearances. Sancho is the other side, the one who sees too little: in Chapter IX of Part Two, on the night at El Toboso, he lets slip to his master, half in jest, that the sight and the answer he brought were also hearsay, because he knows who Dulcinea is as well as he knows how to punch the sky, and the master keeps him bound to the old lie.
también fue de oídas la vista y la respuesta que le truje; porque, así sé yo quién es la señora Dulcinea como dar un puño en el cielo, the sight and the answer I brought him were also hearsay; for I know who lady Dulcinea is as well as I know how to punch the sky.
Dulcinea del Toboso is appearance par excellence: she never appears on stage, and the one who knows her, as the daughter of Lorenzo Corchuelo, is Sancho. The gentleman loves her by hearsay, without having seen her, as he tells Sancho the same night.
¿no te he dicho mil veces que en todos los días de mi vida no he visto a la sin par Dulcinea, ni jamás atravesé los umbrales de su palacio, y que sólo estoy enamorado de oídas y de la gran fama que tiene de hermosa y discreta?, have I not told you a thousand times that in all the days of my life I have not seen the peerless Dulcinea, nor ever crossed the threshold of her palace, and that I am in love only by hearsay and from the great fame she has of being beautiful and discreet?
Where It Appears
- Part One, Chapter II: The gentleman sees in the inn a castle with four silver towers and a drawbridge, and takes the two girls at the door for damsels.
- Part One, Chapter VIII: Thirty windmills are thirty monstrous giants, and the wizard Frestón explains the defeat.
- Part One, Chapter XVIII: Two flocks of sheep are two armies, and Sancho hears only bleating.
- Part One, Chapter XXI: The barber's basin is Mambrino's helmet, and Sancho describes a man on a dun donkey.
- Part One, Chapter XLV: The inn votes on whether the packsaddle is a harness and whether the basin is a helmet.
- Part Two, Chapter X: Sancho presents a peasant woman as Dulcinea, and the master sees the enchantment in his own eyes.
- Part Two, Chapter XI: The cart of the Parliament of Death is a company of players, and the gentleman concedes that one must touch appearances.
- Part Two, Chapter XIV: The Knight of the Mirrors has the face of the bachelor Sansón Carrasco, and the gentleman sees in this yet another enchantment.
- Part Two, Chapter XXIII: In the cave of Montesinos, the gentleman claims to have seen the crystal palace, and what he tells comes to depend on believing him.
- Part Two, Chapter XXVI: At the puppet show, he knocks down Master Pedro's figures and says that the enchanters swap them.
- Part Two, Chapter XXIX: In the boat on the Ebro, the water mills are water mills, and the gentleman says that the enchantment is precisely that.
- Part Two, Chapter XLI: Sancho invents the goats in the sky, and the gentleman proposes the exchange of lies.
Where the Readings Diverge
Otto Maria Carpeaux sees in the opposition between appearance and reality the very substance of the novel as a genre, and for that reason calls Quixote the novel of novels.
the contrast between appearances and reality is the very substance of the "novel" genre. In this sense Don Quixote is "the novel of novels."
Erich Auerbach resists making a depth of this opposition: read in the text, the scene of the enchanted Dulcinea is a joke, and an overpoweringly comic one.
On the very scene of Dulcinea, Auerbach rejects any hidden depth: if it seems sad or tragic, it is because it was deliberately presented that way by whoever summarizes it; read in Cervantes's text, it is a joke.But if we simply read Cervantes's text, we read a joke, and it is overpoweringly comic.
Both positions are right about different scenes. Carpeaux's serves for Part One, in which the distance between what the gentleman sees and what is there is the very mechanism of the book and decides the effect of each chapter. Auerbach's serves for Chapter X of Part Two, in which the distance is manufactured by Sancho, is in plain view of the reader, and asks for laughter before asking for meaning. What both leave aside is Part Two after Chapter XXIX of Part Two, in which appearance is negotiated: the gentleman concedes, the squire invents, the duke and duchess stage, and truth is whatever the parties agree on for the moment.