Don Quixote Chap 36-45 (Part 2)

2) Quote 1 – Chapter 36, Luscinda, Dorotea, Cardenio & Don Fernando meet.

1st Speaker- Luscinda: “You must allow me to go and cling to that wall on which I am the ivy, and lean on that support from which you have never been able to separate me with all your insistence, your threats, your promises and your gifts.’ ‘And you know very well, from a thousand costly experiences, that only death would be strong enough to erase him from my memory,” (Don Quixote, chapter 36, page 340).

2nd Speaker – Dorotea: “…the women’s blood is not what counts in illustrious pedigrees; what’s more, true nobility consists in virtue, and if you forfeit that by denying me my just rights, I shall be left with better claims to nobility than you,” (Don Quixote, chapter 36, page 342).

3rd Speaker – Don Fernando: “You’ve won, lovely Dorotea, you’ve won: nobody could have the heart to deny such an assemblage of truths,”(Don Quixote, chapter 36, page 342).

4th Speaker – Cardenio: “If merciful heaven is minded to grant you some repose at last, my steadfast, faithful, and beautiful lady, I believe that nowhere can you rest more safely than in these arms that hold you now and held you once before, when fortune was pleased to let me call you mine,”(Don Quixote, chapter 35, page 343).

“…He had no alternative but to keep the promise he’d made her; and that in this way he would be doing his duty to God and what was right in the eyes of all men of good sense, who well know that it’s one of the prerogatives of beauty, even in women of low birth, so long as her beauty is united with virtue, to be capable to being raised to any height without disparagement to the man who thus raises it to equality with himself,”(Don Quixote, chapter 36, page 344).

Chapter 36 is significant in Don Quixote; I was struck by the role-reversal and circle of Fortune that is represented in these quotes. First is the fact that Luscinda and Dorotea, the women, are the first to speak within the scene. I found this important to the underlying themes of women’s role in society and potential for equality that Cervantes writes about (and Quixote carries out, treating all women as equals) as women’s opinions and beliefs are most commonly suppressed and silence, but here Luscinda and Dorotea show Cardenio, but more importantly Don Fernando – the light of truth.

Dorotea, who I did not perceive as one of the stronger female characters, is the primary messenger who makes a distinction between the image of beauty and the truth of honor and virtue. Fernando is described as giving in to the truth – which is illustrated to him by a woman of inferior blood.

Additionally, Cervantes pushes the radical notion of women having a say in who they love and are married to as the will of Fernando is not satisfied when Dorotea shows him that it is wrong for him to force Luscinda to love him when she is in love with her husband, Cardenio. I also thought the recurring ideas of “the will of heaven,” and death as the ULTIMATE penalties/vehicles to truth and justice. Luscinda says that only death will separate her from her love and devotion to Cardenio. The will of heaven is referred to by Cardenio who is in love with Luscinda, also by Dorotea who refers to heaven as a witness for their marriage. This creates an interesting paradox of divine devotion and death as they relate to the four characters that converge in chapter 36.

Finally, one of Dorotea’s final lines is extremely potent and sums up the purpose of her speech: “…you will be showing the generosity of your illustrious and noble breast, and all the world will be able to see that reason has more power over you than passion,”(Don Quixote, chapter 36, page 343).

“Passion destroys reason,” – a quotation from Joseph Campbell, author of The Power of Myth. This proved to be true for the weaker characters such as Grisóstomo, who died because of his passion based on lust and external beauty – not at all rooted in reason. Dorotea is throwing herself onto Don Fernando, probably more for the sake of the true love between Cardenio and Luscinda, than her own sake. She brings to light the “honor & duty” that Fernando has as her husband – and she encourages him to act with LOGIC, and not passion, that he should fulfill his duties and honor Luscinda as his wife – he must let his passion for Luscinda go as he will never be satisfied with his unrequited love.