Quixote first becomes fixated on the idea of enchantment at the suggestion of the priest and the barber, who blame enchanters for the destruction of Quixote’s library. From them on, enchanters become for Quixote the explanation for everything mysterious, irrational, and malevolent, for every event that wedges between his expectations and his reality. Enchanters explain away the differences between the world of chivalry books and the world of his experience. But as Quixote begins to lose faith in his worldview, he makes the enchanters responsible not for inconveniences or setbacks but for the distortions in his perception. Their malevolence shifts from the external world to his inner life: he begins to think that his problem is internal. Soon, enchantment begins to represent life’s irresolvable, inexplicable contradictions, which corrode Quixote’s former certainties. But in the end, those same certainties, the force and coherence of his imagination, are the true elements of enchantment, the madness that places obstacles in Quixote’s path. When those certainties are worn away, the evil enchanters disappear, and Quixote is disenchanted once and for all.
Enchanters Quotes in Don Quixote
The Don Quixote quotes below all refer to the symbol of Enchanters. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 1, Chapter 45
Quotes
It is possible that, since you have not been knighted, as I have, the enchantments in this place do not affect you, and that your understanding is unclouded, and that you can form judgments about the affairs of the castle as they really and truly are, rather than as they appeared to me.
Related Characters:
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Related Themes:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Enchanters Symbol Timeline in Don Quixote
The timeline below shows where the symbol Enchanters appears in Don Quixote. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 7
...had held the chivalry books and to tell Don Quixote that it was all an enchanter’s doing. When Don Quixote gets out of bed two days later and finds his library...
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Part 1, Chapter 8
...ground. When Sancho runs over to help him, he tells his squire that the same enchanter that stole his library must have turned the giants into windmills at the last moment.
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...carrying a lady on her way to Seville. Quixote decides that the two friars are enchanters who have abducted a princess. He demands that they release the princess; when the confused...
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Part 1, Chapter 17
...beautiful princess of the castle came to his bed to seduce him, but then some enchanted Moor or giant beat him very badly. Sancho complains that the enchanters got to him...
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Part 1, Chapter 18
As they ride away, Don Quixote says that the enchanters must have stopped him from helping Sancho, and Sancho says that with all these enchanters...
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...slides off his horse, and the shepherds ride away. Don Quixote explains to Sancho that enchanters turned the armies into sheep to spite him. Quixote had had a little of the...
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Part 1, Chapter 21
...to see his master so excited over a barber’s basin, but Quixote explains that an enchanter must have transformed its appearance out of malice. Sancho swaps his donkey’s saddle with the...
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Part 1, Chapter 25
...complains that sometimes knight-errantry seems like a bunch of lies, but Quixote angrily explains that enchanters are making everything related to knight-errantry look like mirage and folly out of spite.
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Part 1, Chapter 35
...ice water on his head. Sancho admits with confusion that the inn really must be enchanted, since he saw Quixote cutting off the giant’s head.
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Part 1, Chapter 37
...girl. Don Quixote tells him he must be mad to say such things, or that enchanters must be responsible for these transformations, but Sancho says that these transformations are as real...
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Part 1, Chapter 43
...from under him he’ll be left hanging painfully by one hand. He decides that the enchanters have played yet another trick on him. He is still trapped in the same place...
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Part 1, Chapter 44
...and quickly unties him. Don Quixote gets back onto Rocinante and alludes angrily to his enchantment. The new guests tell the innkeeper that they’re looking for a boy dressed as a...
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...basin and saddle, and if they’ve been transformed it must be the work of the enchanters always plaguing knights errant.
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Part 1, Chapter 45
...and not a caparison. He suggests that maybe only he has been affected by the enchanters in this castle, since he is a knight, and that perhaps someone else might be...
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Part 1, Chapter 46
...Quixote yells at Sancho to be quiet, but Dorotea gently interjects to say that an enchanter must have caused Sancho to see the impropriety he described. Don Quixote agrees and forgives...
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...asleep. When Quixote wakes up, he thinks that he has been abducted by ghosts and enchanters. The disguised barber tells Quixote in a frightening voice that it is time for him...
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Part 1, Chapter 47
...is an expert. Don Quixote explains that he has been placed into the cage by enchanters, but Sancho interrupts to say that in his opinion his master is not enchanted at...
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Part 1, Chapter 48
...merely the priest and the barber, who envy his great adventures. Quixote replies that only enchanters would be able to trap him in a cage so easily, and therefore the people...
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Part 1, Chapter 49
Sancho tells Quixote triumphantly that enchanted people don’t have that need, and therefore he must not be enchanted. But Quixote explains...
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Part 2, Chapter 8
...Dulcinea does not sieve anything, but pursues only activities appropriate to her station, so an enchanter must have created the illusion Sancho describes.
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Part 2, Chapter 10
...decides to try and convince Quixote that some peasant girl is Dulcinea, and that an enchanter has transformed her into a peasant girl in Quixote’s eyes.
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...way. Quixote, who can only see a very plain-looking peasant girl, tells her that an enchanter must have distorted her image in his eye, but affirms his love for her. The...
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Part 2, Chapter 14
...away. Quixote and Sancho, though, remain convinced that the two men are enemies disguised by enchanters.
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Part 2, Chapter 16
...no good reason to challenge him to fights, he must be a stranger transformed by enchanters to resemble Carrasco. An older man in green riding a grey horse comes up behind...
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Part 2, Chapter 23
...crystal. An old man in a purple cloak came towards him, telling him that the enchanted inhabitants of the castle have waited for his arrival for a long time. The old...
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...lay sighing and asking Montesinos to cut out his heart. Montesinos explained that the great enchanter Merlin has trapped the knight, his squire, Lady Belerma and many others inside the cave....
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...not believe Quixote’s story, but he doesn’t suggest that his master’s lying: rather, he thinks Merlin put the memories in his head. But Quixote insists that everything he described is real....
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Part 2, Chapter 26
When Quixote realizes what he’s done, he says sadly that the enchanters once again distorted his perception of reality to suit their wishes. He thought the puppets...
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Part 2, Chapter 29
...the boat, which floats off on the current. Quixote thinks that with the help of enchanters they are travelling for thousands of miles, and that perhaps they’ve already crossed the line...
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...Sancho that though they look like water mills, they are really a city that the enchanters have transformed in their mind’s eyes. The boat begins to speed up, and the millers...
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...them for the boat. He concludes that the world is contradictory and illusory, where several enchanters work at cross purposes. The author concludes by saying that the two friends “went back...
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Part 2, Chapter 31
The Duchess inquires about the Lady Dulcinea, and Quixote mournfully admits that enchanters have turned her into an ugly peasant girl. Here the priest realizes the man in...
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Part 2, Chapter 32
...describe Dulcinea’s beauty, but Quixote explains that he can only remember her in her distorted, enchanted state. The Duchess says that the history led her to believe that he had never...
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...a very noble occupation. Quixote answers that he believes that he has become immune to enchantment, and that the enchanters harm him by enchanting others close to him, like the beautiful...
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Part 2, Chapter 34
...young man in costume introduces himself as the devil; he has come with troops of enchanters, Dulcinea, and Montesinos to tell Don Quixote how Dulcinea is to be disenchanted. He tells...
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Part 2, Chapter 35
...figure in black removes his veil to show a frightening, death-like face. He calls himself Merlin and recites verses that describe Dulcinea’s enchantment and explain that she will be disenchanted if...
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Part 2, Chapter 46
...lights, and one of them tears up Quixote’s face. Quixote assumes the cats are evil enchanters. Altisidora tends to his wounds and reproaches him for his hard-heartedness.
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Part 2, Chapter 56
...by the Duke’s lackey. Quixote calmly explains that the illusion must be the work of enchanters, who changed the man’s face into that of the lackey. The Duke suggests that the...
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Part 2, Chapter 62
...a bust on a slab and tells him that the bust was created by an enchanter, and can answer any question – except on Fridays, when it never speaks. Since it...
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Part 2, Chapter 67
...Dulcinea is on his mind, he urges Sancho to lash himself and hurry along Dulcinea’s disenchantment. Sancho resists, finding it hard to believe that his lashes have anything to do with...
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Part 2, Chapter 72
...the wrong version of Don Quixote, “Don Quixote the Bad,” is the work of evil enchanters, and that the man in front of him is “Don Quixote the Good.”
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Part 2, Chapter 73
...the same impression, though Sancho says it could mean that Dulcinea has escaped from evil enchanters. The two boys tell Sancho that they were arguing about a cricket cage; Sancho buys...
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Part 2, Chapter 74
...has gone mad in some new way, and remind him that Dulcinea has finally been disenchanted, but he only calls for a confessor. His apparent sanity makes his friends believe that...
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