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1-Page Summary of Don Quixote
Overview
A man named Alonso Quixana lives in La Mancha, Spain. He has read many books about chivalry and now he is delusional. He believes that he’s a knight-errant called Don Quixote de La Mancha. His niece tries to stop him from going out into the countryside but she can’t do anything to deter him from riding his horse, Rocinante, out into the country. His first sally ends quickly because he insists on having an innkeeper knighted as part of the order of chivalry. However, it turns out that this is not a castle at all; it was just an inn where they refused to serve him wine for free! When Quixote returns home for clothes and money, he gets beaten up by some farmhands who leave him for dead in the middle of nowhere. A commoner rescues him and brings him back home safely.
Sancho Panza, a peasant who becomes Quixote’s squire, is able to convince his master that he needs help. The niece and housekeeper of Quixote agree with Sancho Panza because they think the books have made him crazy. They decide to burn many of the chivalric books in order to get rid of them. In doing so, they hope it will cure Quixote. When he recovers from this attack, he asks for his books and learns that they’ve been taken by Muñaton. He believes it was Friston who took them instead because these two are enemies. With a new squire named Sancho Panza, Quixote leaves on another adventure while promising Sancho that he’ll become governor when their journey is over if everything goes well in their quest for adventures.
There is a peaceful interlude when Quixote joins the goatherds who are mourning the death of their friend, Chrysostom. He has died from a broken heart after his love rejected him. Continuing on with Sancho, Quixote runs into some horse breeders and he gets beaten up badly. Sancho quickly takes him to an inn so that he can recover there. However, Quixote perceives the inn as a castle again and believes that the daughter of the owner is going to come to his bed in order for them to make love together. Later on that night, Maritornes comes into his room: she’s half-blind and hunchbacked yet still attractive enough for her lover (the mule carrier) to get jealous about her being touched by another man (Quixote). The carrier beats up Quixote when he realizes what’s happening between Maritornes and Quixote because he doesn’t want anyone touching “his” woman; however, it turns out that Maritornes isn’t even interested in sleeping with this guy anyway–she just wanted someone else around while she slept because she was afraid of being alone at night! Then all hell breaks loose when everyone starts fighting each other including Sancho Panza who tries desperately trying to break things up but fails miserably until finally an officer shows up and thinks that they’ve killed poor old Don Qyotó de la Mancha…
Don Quixote is not dead. When he revives, he asks for the ingredients so that he might prepare a true balsam of Fierabras. He prepares it and passes out. Sancho drinks the balsam and almost dies. The next day, knight and squire leave without paying for their stay at an inn (which they believed to be enchanted). Quixote believes it to be an enchanted castle and gets offended when told that he should pay his bill. Sancho escapes with some difficulty as well; in fact, the squire is tossed in a blanket and has his bags stolen by some men who also beat him up while escaping from them. In an arc of violence, Don Quixote murders some sheep thinking they were giants (because giants are known for eating sheep), loses teeth due to this act of violence against innocent animals, steals a barber’s basin believing it to be Mambrino’s helmet (the famous helmet which will make him invincible) but instead becomes vulnerable because of this action taken on impulse without any forethought or reason behind it other than sheer delusion about what may happen if one acts rashly without proper planning or thought put into actions before taking them; finally, sets free several galley-slaves who then repay his kindness by beating him up severely after recognizing him as Don Quixote de la Mancha—a man whose reputation precedes him wherever he goes thanks to books written about his exploits many years ago during different times in history!
