This week, we were tasked with reading chapters twenty six through thirty five. In these chapters, the duke and duchess invite don Quixote and Sancho Panza to their place and do a variety of pranks, from convincing Quixote that “thy squire, Sancho, shall, On his own sturdy buttocks bared to heaven, Three thousand and three hundred lashes lay.” in order to lift a curse on Dulcinea, to making servants wash their beards with soap and leave them there without washing the bubbles off. They committed all of these pranks against team Quixote because the events of the first book that we read were transcribed and published in the world that Quixote inhabits.

What 4th Wall?

In the first novel, Cervantes tried to be subtle about parodying the fantasy novels that use “discovered” manuscripts to tell tales of knights. But in the second part, his subtly is lessen by the fact that everyone has read the first part and it is more of a reaction or a falling action in the events of Quixote’s adventure. He isn’t a volatile and eager to fight as he was in the first novel. He prefers to talk things out and even pays for the damages he does to a puppet theater he does a little earlier on in the second part.

I’m intrigued to see for how much longer Quixote stays his current self and if something will happen to him because it seems like he is the victim of a lot of people instead of being the perpetrator like most events in the first novel. All i can say for certain is that it seems like the sun is setting on Quixote’s time as a knight errant and I hope he can find some sort of peace in the meantime. Three Hundred Words.