The Theme in the Work
In the novel freedom is spoken of in many ways, and each is defended by someone who has lost it or who refuses it. For Don Quixote, it is that of the knight who owes no favors, may succor those who suffer force, and does not accept the abundant table of his host; for Marcela, that of not loving out of an obligation to be loved; for the Captive, that which is worth more than any contentment; for Sancho Panza, that of returning to the trade he knows. Oppression has the corresponding faces: the captivity among the Moors, the chain of the galley slaves, the decree that expels the Moriscos, the cage, the obligation to repay what one has received. The book does not unify these freedoms. It shows each in the mouth of the one who speaks it and lets us see what it costs, and it is in the mouths of those who defend it that self-interested use appears: the gentleman who stresses that freedom is a precious gift just as he leaves a castle full of obligations; the freed captives who, according to the Captive, forget the word given in captivity.
In Chapter XI of Part One, still at the first supper with the goatherds, Sancho refuses to sit beside his master with a defense of freedom on a domestic scale: eating bread and onion in his own corner, without fuss or ceremony.
mucho mejor me sabe lo que como en mi rincón, sin melindres ni respetos, aunque sea pan y cebolla, que los gallipavos de otras mesas donde me sea forzoso mascar despacio, beber poco, limpiarme a menudo, no estornudar ni toser si me viene gana, ni hacer otras cosas que la soledad y la libertad traen consigo, I like what I eat in my own corner, without fuss or ceremony, even if it be bread and onion, far better than the turkeys of other tables, where I must chew slowly, drink little, wipe myself often, not sneeze or cough if I feel like it, nor do other things that solitude and freedom bring with them.
In Chapter XII of Part One, the goatherd Pedro tells that Marcela, in taking up a free life, has given no sign that it comes to the detriment of her honesty.
Y no se piense que porque Marcela se puso en aquella libertad y vida tan suelta y de tan poco o de ningún recogimiento, que por eso ha dado indicio, ni por semejas, que venga en menoscabo de su honestidad y recato, and let it not be thought that, because Marcela took up that freedom and a life so loose and of so little or no seclusion, she has therefore given any sign, even by resemblance, that it comes to the detriment of her honesty and modesty.
In Chapter XIV of Part One, at Chrysostom's burial, Marcela herself speaks: she rejects the rule that one who is loved for being beautiful is obliged to love the one who loves him.
mas no alcanzo que, por razón de ser amado, esté obligado lo que es amado por hermoso a amar a quien le ama, but I do not grasp that, for being loved, one who is loved for being beautiful is obliged to love the one who loves him.
And she says where she speaks from.
Yo nací libre, y para poder vivir libre escogí la soledad de los campos. Los árboles destas montañas son mi compañía, las claras aguas destos arroyos mis espejos, I was born free, and in order to live free I chose the solitude of the fields. The trees of these mountains are my company, the clear waters of these brooks my mirrors.
In Chapter XXII of Part One, on coming upon the galley slaves, the gentleman asks the cause of each, hears that they go by the king's force, and concludes that it falls to him to undo forces. When the guards resist, he says that it is not good for honorable men to be executioners of other men, when it is no concern of theirs.
no es bien que los hombres honrados sean verdugos de los otros hombres, no yéndoles nada en ello, it is not good that honorable men be executioners of other men, when it is no concern of theirs.
The last in the chain, Ginés de Pasamonte, is the one who corrects the name before answering, and the book he writes is finished only with his life.
¿Cómo puede estar acabado [...], si aún no está acabada mi vida?, how can it be finished, if my life is not yet finished?
In Chapter XXVIII of Part One, in the sierra, telling her story, Dorothea repeats what she said to Don Fernando when he wanted to avail himself of the nobility of his blood to dishonor her.
Tu vasalla soy, pero no tu esclava; ni tiene ni debe tener imperio la nobleza de tu sangre para deshonrar y tener en poco la humildad de la mía; y en tanto me estimo yo, villana y labradora, como tú, señor y caballero, I am your vassal, but not your slave; the nobility of your blood neither has nor ought to have the power to dishonor and hold cheap the humility of mine; and I esteem myself, a peasant and laborer, as much as you, lord and gentleman.
In Chapter XXXIX of Part One, the Captive tells what he lived among the Moors and gives the measure of what freedom is worth.
no hay en la tierra, conforme mi parecer, contento que se iguale a alcanzar la libertad perdida, there is no contentment on earth, in my opinion, that equals regaining lost freedom.
In Chapter XL of Part One, he adds, from experience, that the freed keep poorly the word given in captivity, because freedom gained and the fear of losing it again wipe all the obligations of the world from their memory.
la experiencia le había mostrado cuán mal cumplían los libres las palabras que daban en el cautiverio [...] porque la libertad alcanzada y el temor de no volver a perderla les borraba de la memoria todas las obligaciones del mundo, experience had shown him how badly the freed kept the words they gave in captivity [...] because the freedom gained and the fear of not losing it again wiped from their memory all the obligations of the world.
In Chapter XXI of Part Two, in Basilio's ruse, Quiteria says yes to him with the freest will she has.
Ninguna fuerza fuera bastante a torcer mi voluntad; y así, con la más libre que tengo te doy la mano de legítima esposa, y recibo la tuya, no force would be enough to twist my will; and so, with the freest I have, I give you my hand as lawful wife and accept yours.
In Chapter LIII of Part Two, on leaving the insula, Sancho asks those around him for what the governorship never gave him.
dejadme volver a mi antigua libertad; dejadme que vaya a buscar la vida pasada, para que me resucite de esta muerte presente, let me return to my old freedom; let me go and seek the past life, that it may resurrect me from this present death.
In Chapter LIV of Part Two, the Morisco Ricote, disguised as a German pilgrim, tells his former neighbor that the decree seemed to him divine inspiration, and the same speech says that exile was the most terrible penalty.
me parece que fue inspiración divina la que movió a Su Majestad a poner en efecto tan gallarda resolución, no porque todos fuésemos culpados, que algunos había cristianos firmes y verdaderos; pero eran tan pocos que no se podían oponer a los que no lo eran, y no era bien criar la sierpe en el seno, teniendo los enemigos dentro de casa. Finalmente, con justa razón fuimos castigados con la pena del destierro, blanda y suave al parecer de algunos, pero al nuestro, la más terrible que se nos podía dar, it seems to me that it was divine inspiration that moved His Majesty to carry out so gallant a resolution, not because we were all guilty, for there were some firm and true Christians among us; but they were so few that they could not oppose those who were not, and it was not good to nurse the serpent in one's bosom, having enemies inside the house. Finally, with just reason we were punished with the penalty of banishment, mild and gentle in the opinion of some, but in ours the most terrible that could be given us.
And he says what the expelled feel who return.
No hemos conocido el bien hasta que le hemos perdido; y es el deseo tan grande, que casi todos tenemos de volver a España, que los más de aquellos, y son muchos, que saben la lengua como yo, se vuelven a ella, y dejan allá sus mujeres y sus hijos desamparados: tanto es el amor que la tienen; y agora conozco y experimento lo que suele decirse: que es dulce el amor de la patria, we have not known the good until we have lost it; and the desire is so great, which almost all of us have, to return to Spain, that most of those, and they are many, who know the language like me, return to it, and leave their wives and children abandoned there: so great is the love they have for it; and now I know and experience what is usually said: that sweet is the love of one's country.
In Chapter LVI of Part Two, after the duel with the lackey Tosilos, whom the gentleman declares defeated and orders to marry the daughter of Doña Rodríguez, she says she would rather be the lawful wife of a lackey than the deceived mistress of a gentleman.
Séase quien fuere este que me pide por esposa, que yo se lo agradezco; que más quiero ser mujer legítima de un lacayo que no amiga y burlada de un caballero, puesto que el que a mí me burló no lo es, let whoever he is be the one who asks me for his wife, I thank him for it; for I would rather be the lawful wife of a lackey than the deceived mistress of a gentleman, even though the one who deceived me is not one.
In Chapter LVIII of Part Two, on leaving the dukes' castle, the gentleman makes his eulogy of freedom.
La libertad, Sancho, es uno de los más preciosos dones que a los hombres dieron los cielos; con ella no pueden igualarse los tesoros que encierra la tierra ni el mar encubre; por la libertad, así como por la honra, se puede y debe aventurar la vida, y, por el contrario, el cautiverio es el mayor mal que puede venir a los hombres, freedom, Sancho, is one of the most precious gifts that heaven gave to men; with it the treasures that the earth holds or the sea conceals cannot be compared; for freedom, as for honor, life can and must be ventured, and, on the contrary, captivity is the greatest evil that can come to men.
In Chapter LX of Part Two, in the wood, when Don Quixote tries to whip him by force, Sancho throws him down and says whose he is.
Ni quito rey, ni pongo rey -respondió Sancho-, sino ayúdome a mí, que soy mi señor, I neither remove king nor set king, Sancho replied, but I help myself, for I am my own master.
Between Chapter XL of Part One and Chapter LVIII of Part Two the book sets side by side two things that the word "freedom" hides. The Captive says that the freed forget the obligations of the world; Don Quixote, on leaving the dukes' castle, says he prefers the short bread of the road to the abundant table, because benefits received are bonds that do not let the free spirit range. Both sentences start from the same idea, that freedom and debt compete. The Captive tells it as an accusation against others; the gentleman, as a virtue of his own. Two readings: the book sides with the Captive, and the gentleman's eulogy of freedom is a flight from gratitude, visible at the moment he leaves a house where he was treated as a knight; or it sides with the gentleman, and the freedom he defends is that of not being obliged to pretend.
Who Embodies It
Marcela is freedom defended in words. She speaks once, at the burial, before the shepherds who accuse her of Chrysostom's death, and afterward does not reappear, but her speech is what the gentleman hears before ordering that no one follow her. Ginés de Pasamonte is the other face, the freedom of one who does not allow himself to be reduced to his sentence: he is the galley slave whom the gentleman frees, and who, without thanks, stones him. The Captive is freedom that is measured only after it is taken away: after years in Algiers, he knows what it is worth. And Sancho, who spends the book asking for an insula, is the one who chooses freedom when the governorship ends.
Where It Appears
- Part One, Chapter XI: Sancho refuses to sit beside his master and prefers to eat in his own corner.
- Part One, Chapter XII: The goatherd Pedro tells that Marcela, daughter of the rich Guillermo, lives free in the wilds in a shepherdess's dress, without dishonor, and that Chrysostom died of love for her.
- Part One, Chapter XIV: Marcela says that she was born free and that she is not obliged to love the one who loves her.
- Part One, Chapter XXII: Don Quixote frees the galley slaves because he thinks no one should be taken by force, and they, once free, stone him.
- Part One, Chapter XXVIII: Dorothea tells Don Fernando that she is his vassal, not his slave, and that the nobility of his blood does not give him power to dishonor her humility.
- Part One, Chapter XXXIX: The Captive says that there is no contentment that equals regaining lost freedom.
- Part One, Chapter XL: The Captive tells that the renegade opposes sending a ransomed man to fetch the boat, because freedom wipes out the obligations of captivity and many never came back.
- Part One, Chapter XLIX: Let out of the cage at Sancho's request, the gentleman gives his knightly word not to wander off and says that the enchanted man is not free.
- Part Two, Chapter XXI: Quiteria gives her hand to Basilio, who feigns death, saying she does so with the freest will she has, and Camacho and his people feel mocked.
- Part Two, Chapter LIII: Sancho leaves the governorship and asks to return to his old freedom.
- Part Two, Chapter LIV: Disguised as a foreign pilgrim, the Morisco Ricote embraces Sancho on the road and tells of the exile of the Moriscos and the love he still has for his homeland.
- Part Two, Chapter LVI: The daughter of Doña Rodríguez prefers to be the lawful wife of a lackey than the deceived mistress of a gentleman.
- Part Two, Chapter LVIII: The gentleman makes the eulogy of freedom and grounds it in the absence of obligations.
- Part Two, Chapter LX: Sancho defends himself against his master and says he is his own lord.
Where the Readings Diverge
The freeing of the galley slaves is the episode in which readings part most, and Erich Auerbach reads it from his own angle: for there to be a real conflict between natural-Christian law and positive law, an antagonist would be needed with the right and the will to defend the latter, and the commissioner who conducts the prisoners is not up to the role.
For there to be a real conflict between natural-Christian law and positive law, an antagonist would be needed with the right and the will to defend the latter, and Auerbach names this absent antagonist by the name of another Dostoevsky book: the commissioner who conducts the prisoners into captivity is not up to the role.there also appeared an antagonist who, like the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky, had the right and the will to take sides in favor of the principle of positive law, against Don Quixote. The commissioner who directs the transport of the prisoners is unsuited for this, and is also unwilling to do it
Another reading sees in the gentleman's imprisonment in the cage the place where he makes a declaration of faith that withstands his own defeat.
Auerbach points to an absence: the book has no antagonist equal to the question of freedom, and so the galley slaves episode ends in stones, not in a tribunal. The other reading points to a place: the cage, in which the gentleman's freedom is suspended and he responds with faith. The two readings touch on the question of who, in the book, has the power to actually imprison, and the answer is more displaced than expected: those who imprison the gentleman are the priest and the barber, in the name of his health, and the one who frees the squire is the squire himself, in his own name. The freedom to which the book gives the most room is that which is exercised by one's own will, even against an order, and the oppression it records most is that of those who believe they are doing good.