In Chapters nine through fourteen there were several controversial moments. These few chapters, especially chapter nine held a lot of very small details. Most of the controversy was over Marcela and whether or not she was conceded or actually kind-hearted.

Don Quixote in Arabic

Chapter nine is one of the most complex and confusing chapters we have read thus far. It begins with the narrator not knowing where he/she placed the rest of the story, then supposedly finding it being sold in Arabic by a boy on the streets of Toledo.

Now there are many other details mixed in with that but it seems strange that the story was switching back and forth between the narrative and reality. Chapter nine was also a place where we were introduced to new characters that were not necessarily in the story, but were people such as narrators and the boy selling notebooks and paper. I questioned why this portion was put in to the story and decided that it was partially just Don Quixote’s writing style.

When the narrator starts telling Don Quixote’s story again, it is just Quixote continuing on with his knight-errantry. He gets his ear badly damaged and finds shelter with some shepherds.

The Shepherds and Men on Horseback

The remaining chapters we read this week (11-14) is where the controversy occurred in my opinion. First, Quixote and Sancho came across some shepherds and decided to stop there for the night. The shepherds were aware of Quixote’s insanity but were kind to him. They gave him food and wine, as well as fixing his wounds on his ear.

They heard about the death of Grisostimo who was also perceived as crazy. The shepherds and Quixote decided they would set out for the burial the next morning. On the way to the burial they came across two men on horseback and some servants going to the burial. These men caught onto Quixote’s insanity early on and asked him many questions, only to be mocking him the entire time.

Some people may question if the shepherds and the men on horseback were just being mean to Quixote by asking him questions and listening to his story. In my opinion, there are several distinctions between the shepherds and the men they come across later on. One is that the shepherds may have thought Quixote was crazy and enjoyed hearing his crazy stories, but they were still kind to him. Quixote may have been entertaining to them but they were never cruel to him. The other men they came across were strictly asking Quixote questions just to mock him.

 

The Beautiful Marcela

Another very controversial portion of this story includes the beautiful Marcela. We first hear that Grisostimo killed himself because Marcela did not love him back. At the beginning of the chapter I personally thought that Marcela was conceited and selfish. When she showed up at the burial, my opinion about her changed drastically. Marcela gave a long speech about how she felt it was unfair for her to be looked down on because she did not reciprocate the feelings that many men had for her. She states, “Heaven made me beautiful- according to you-so that, in spite of yourselves, my beauty moves you to love me. And you insist that I, in return, am bound to love you back.” A few lines later she states, “What I don’t understand, is that just because a woman is loved because of her beauty, she’s obliged to reciprocate this love.”  I agree with her statement that she should not have to love the men back who love her and that it is her God-given right to love whomever she wants.

In the most recent chapters we got introduced to several new characters, some good and some not so good. There are also a lot of questions to be asked and opinions made in these chapters.