In the most recent chapters read, there were several different short narratives told throughout. A question that came to mind was; Are most authors original, or just the great ones? Also, Is Cervantes an original author?

First, the story of Cardenio, Ferdinand, Lucinda, and Dorothea is an example of an unoriginal story in my opinion. How many love stories have you heard of someone running off but in the end everyone lives happily ever after? Cervantes on the other hand, is a very original author. Not only have I never read a story even remotely close to Don Quixote, but Cervantes’s writing style is so much his own, that no one could copy it even if they tried.

Cervantes as an Author

Some things that really stand out about Cervantes as an author is his mistake making on purpose. We learn before the story even begins that mistake making was a characteristic of Cervantes’ writing. He makes mistakes but to him they are not mistakes, they are purposeful. To the audience they may appear as mistakes early on but Cervantes makes them intentionally to make the novel stronger. In my opinion this is one of the reasons Cervantes is an original author.

Recent Chapters

Following Cervantes originality, these chapters hold a lot to discuss. We are no longer just following Quixote and his journey but are introduced to several new characters. We start to learn other people’s stories while still trying to keep up with what Quixote is doing. Not to mention that all of the stories intertwine with each other. Also, throughout these chapters, Cervantes does not continue a story until its finish. Instead, he stops one story picks up with another starts a new story, finishes the first story, etc. It is not the easiest to keep up with.

He intertwines the stories in several different ways. The first character we are introduced to is Cardenio; whose story we heard in the chapters previous to this week. He then runs into the character Dorothea who also ties into Cardenios story but also ends up in the main novel of Quixote. Dorothea and Cardenio realize that their lovers have left them for each other. Dorothea also pretends to be a princess in order to trick Quixote. The priest introduced her saying, “Her name, is Princess Micomicona, because since her kingdom is Micomicona, it’s obvious she’d have that name.” As we know from the chapter her name is Dorothea and she is not actually a princess.

Dorothea is not the only character intertwined within these chapters. Everyone from Dorothea’s story including Ferdinand, Lucinda, and Cardenio all show up to the same inn that Quixote is at.

As you can see there are a lot of little bits and pieces involved throughout these chapters. Cervantes, as an author takes us through several different journeys as well as introduces us to several different characters. This is an example of Cervantes being an original author.