At the start of the story, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza had a great dynamic. Don Quixote’s craziness was perfectly evened out with Sancho Panza’s reason. But as you continue through the story you see the relationship between them start to implode. In chapter 10, Sancho has an idea to mass produce the balsam of fierbras, which can cure anything, but Don Quixote immediately dismisses the idea. That is one small example from early in the story where there’s a conflict, of sorts, between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
From chapters 15-27, you see the conflict between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza escalate even further. In chapter 17, Sancho was very mad at Don Quixote for the injuries he had received from previous fights, and when Don Quixote finally makes the balsam of fierbras, it makes Sancho extremely ill. As they leave the inn that they were at, Sancho is captured and blanketed, which makes Sancho even angrier at Don Quixote. Time after time Don Quixote ignores Sancho, whether it be the galley slaves or the “armies” of sheep. Sancho even complains about being blanketed at the inn while Don Quixote did nothing to help but Don Quixote tries to tell Sancho that the blanketing was a joke and if it were a serious threat then Don Quixote would’ve helped Sancho. And finally, Sancho tells the priest and barber where Don Quixote is and helps with their plan to get Don Quixote back to his house.
The conflicts between Don Quixote and Sancho keep mounting up to the point where one could say that Sancho betrayed Don Quixote by helping the priest and the barber. One could also say that Don Quixote betrayed Sancho from the start by giving Sancho an unrealistic reward of being named governor of an island. From the start of the story to chapter 27, Don Quixote and Sancho’s friendship has reached its lowest point. Right now in the story, Don Quixote’s personality keeps getting Sancho into trouble and Sancho’s faith in Don Quixote is fading and he doesn’t believe in Don Quixote like he used to.
A prediction I have for the story is that Don Quixote will realize that his actions affect not only himself but the people around him, namely Sancho Panza. Once he realizes this, he will apologize to Sancho and he will make it up to Sancho by appealing to Sancho’s number one interest, money. After that the dynamic duo will be back and better than ever.
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