Don Quixote

Don Quixote

by

Miguel de Cervantes

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Don Quixote: Part 2, Chapter 40 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Quixote vows to help the duennas and the petrified lovers. The Duenna explains that Malambruno promised to send a magical wooden horse to carry the knight to the faraway kingdom, the one described in a famous chivalry tale. The horse will arrive a half-hour after midnight, after the duenna sends the giant a special signal. The horse’s name is Clavileño the Swift, it can carry two riders, and it is operated by a wooden peg.
Just as the first part of the story echoes Ovid, the second part echoes Homer’s Iliad, in which a hollow wooden horse is used to invade the city of Troy. It is a symbol of cunning and deceit. In The Iliad, the kingdom that the wooden horse invades is destroyed; here, the kingdom invaded is a magical kingdom, meant to represent Quixote’s fantasies.
Themes
Truth and Lies Theme Icon
Literature, Realism, and Idealism Theme Icon