Don Quixote

Don Quixote

by

Miguel de Cervantes

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Don Quixote: Part 2, Chapter 57 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Quixote grows tired of his idle life in the castle and decides to take to the road. One morning he and Sancho gather his belongings and ride out into the courtyard, where they hear Altisidora sing a song that curses Quixote for ignoring her love - also for stealing her heart, three nightcaps, and two garters. Sancho confesses to taking the nightcaps and quickly returns them, and Altisidora realizes to her embarrassment that she herself is wearing the missing garters. Everyone says their goodbyes.
Altisidora’s performances mostly serve to debase Quixote’s ideas of romantic love. In that way, the episode is tragic. But it also has the cheerful absurdity of the squabbles at the inn. It is tragic in its effect on Quixote’s feelings, but it is comic in that it represents a more complete worldview, where absurdity, ugliness, and pettiness have their rightful places.
Themes
Truth and Lies Theme Icon
Literature, Realism, and Idealism Theme Icon