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In the novel, Don Quixote’s servants portray unique and contrasting characters of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. In the first part, Cervantes’s Sancho shows some affection for his master. Cervantes was, of course, one of the first to notice the disparities between his Sancho and this unsavory imitation, and he defended his character in Don Quixote, Part I portrays master-knight relations between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza based on friendship and authority relations.
In the beginning, servants portray contrasting characters of Sancho and Don Quixote. Sancho spends most of his time drunk and babbling nonsense, but his personality changes drastically from scene to scene and it is impossible to predict his moods. At times he is very learned, but at other times he is an ignoramus; he is a religious man and a blasphemer at the turn of a page; he is a loving father in one scene and has no paternal affection in the next. Don Quixote characterizes his knight: “Wounds received in battle confer honor instead of taking it away; and so, friend Panza, say no more, but, as I told thee before, get up as well as thou canst and put me on top of thy beast in whatever fashion pleases thee best, and let us go hence ere night come on and surprise us in these wilds” (Servantes). One characteristic of this unlovable Sancho that remains constant throughout the triad is his shocking irreverence towards sacred things, an attitude unthinkable in the Sancho of Cervantes. In Part, I, Act 4, Scene 1, Sancho complains about his wife and married life.
At the very beginning, Don Quixote and Sancha are ill-suited to each other. In Act 3, Scene 16, Sancho is caught by the cook eating everything he can in the kitchen and packing his wallet full for later consumption. When Don Quixote reprimands him, Sir Thomas Love land pleads for the squire, and Sancho then jokingly states that he would change masters if in the exchange his stomach would be better provided for. The very first dialogue between master and squire, and many other conversations, thoughts, and actions of Sancho in the early chapters seem to suggest that he is indeed a simpleton at the beginning of the story. The passages just considered above demonstrate, on the other hand, that he is no one’s fool at the end. So there might seem to be some grounds for the Quixotification theory (Echevarría 2005).
Relations between Sancho and Don Quixote are based on their social position and class location. The Panza’s are, in Cervantes’s fictional world, a family of honest Spanish peasants, whose old-Christian roots are repeatedly emphasized by Sancho. They are well known in their ancestral village, located in the plains of Castile near El Toboso, having had at some time in the past amongst their members two famous wine tasters (Echevarría 2005). In contrast to his master, Sancho is very talkative, but he is usually brief and direct, and very seldom do his speeches go beyond ten lines of text–in direct contrast to Don Quixote’s long and winding interventions. Sancho’s use of proverbs has come to be regarded as the quintessential characteristic of his personality. The widespread belief, however, that he continually misuses them is quite mistaken.
If one follows Sancho’s train of thought, one soon sees that any one of the proverbs or sayings of a particular series is perfectly appropriate to convey Sancho’s reaction and answer to whatever has provoked it. For example, when Don Quixote tells Sancho that Queen Madásima was never the mistress of the sage Elisabet, Sancho cannot accept his master’s assurances blindly, but remembering his fury when Cardenio stated that Queen Madásima and Elisabet were lovers, he simply answers in effect: “whatever they did is their business, not mine (Echevarría 2005). They’ll get what they deserve”, Sancho concludes by remarking that anything can be expected from gossiping busybodies. Sancho’s retort to this goes straight to the point, and also stands as an answer to the general misconception that holds that Sancho often does not know what he is talking about and misapplies his sayings. So, what annoys Don Quixote so greatly is not so much Sancho’s frequent use of proverbs, or his misusing them, or even his setting them one after the other in endless chains, as his inability to imitate his squire’s skill in finding and applying proverbs suited to every occasion.
Sancho and Don Quixote’s relations are not ideal or traditional as usually established between a master and subordinate. For instance, In Part, I, Chapter 26, Sancho is on his way to deliver Don Quixote’s letter to Dulcinea. He reaches the inn in which he and his master had recently spent an eventful night, but even though he is very hungry, he hesitates to enter, remembering the blanketing he had received there. The priest and the barber, who had left their village in search of Don Quixote, and who happen to be at the door of the inn when Sancho arrives, recognize him immediately, whereupon they approach him and inquire the whereabouts of Don Quixote. When Sancho, in an attempt ‘ to protect his master, gives them an evasive answer, they accuse him of having murdered and robbed the knight. Sancho then decides to tell them the truth: And he jumps from reality (his self-inflicted punishment for having lost the knight’s message to Dulcinea along with Don Quixote’s note instructing his niece to give three donkeys to Sancho) to the imaginary (fancying himself a widower and the husband of a lady-in-waiting to an empress), apparently without realizing the absurdity of this juxtaposition. Finally, Sancho shows greed and delusions of grandeur in his eagerness to see his master out of the Sierra Morena and begin to bestow favors and honors upon his servant.
To some extent, Servantes portrays relations based on care and support. Servantes show that Sancho cares about his master and his wellbeing. “It would be so,” answered Sancho, “if there were none of the herbs your worship says you know in these meadows, those with which knights-errant as unlucky as your worship are wont to supply such-like shortcomings” (Servantes). Before, he advises Don Quixote, pokes fun at him when he learns who Dulcinea is, brings to his master’s attention the foolhardiness of the penitencia he proposes to carry out, and refuses to stay and see him make a fool of himself; now Sancho is depicted as a babbling idiot, an uncouth peasant, and a greedy servant who sees his relationship with his master only in terms of his benefit and profit. It is worth noting that the Sancho of Chapter 26 of Part I, with his weak and failing memory, is the exact opposite of the Sancho who at other times and when necessary shows that he has an excellent memory. He can quote in full Don Quixote’s speech in the episode of the fulling hammers. This fact is the more remarkable because Sancho was able to memorize Don Quixote’s speech though he was in fear of the noise made by the fulling hammers and heard the speech only once. He forgets the content of a letter he pointedly had his master read and re-read to him. It is also worth noting that the only happening missing from Sancho’s detailed account of the priest and the barber is the blanketing he received at the inn. Furthermore, Sancho is seen striking a posture he knows will show him in the role of an idiot; he informs us indirectly, through one of his sayings, that to suck one’s finger is a sign of stupidity. In addition, a comparison of this episode with two other unrelated episodes in Don Quixote will uncover the basic elements that makeup Sancho’s complex personality and will clarify and indeed explain away the contradictions noted above. (Echevarría 2005).
During the adventure of the fulling mill Don Quixote wants to hear an entertaining story, and Sancho intends to keep him busy until morning arrives; hence, he tells his master the shaggy-dog story about a goatherd who has to take three hundred goats across a river, In the second episode, Sancho knows that the priest and the barber consider that his master is a deranged man, and rightly suspects that they must think him a fool for following Don Quixote. Thus he decides to keep them entertained, and, at the same time, he dampens his worries by making them believe that they are right on both counts. He, therefore, describes his master’s adventures in full and plays the role of the village idiot. Furthermore, to lengthen the farce, Sancho picks up and develops ideas used or suggested by his listeners: Sancho’s humor glitters throughout the various passages quoted above. It goes from the most subtle understatement to the most extravagant exclamation but to catalog here the gamut of forms it takes would be impossible. The use of proverbs, the adoption of the archaic language used by his master, the mixture of truth and fantasy, the exaggerations, and the wordplay are but a few of the many comical modes and devices interspersed in Sancho’s dialogues. “For all that,” replied Don Quixote, “I entreat thee, Sancho, to keep a good heart, for experience will tell thee what mine is (Servantes). For instance, when Sancho finds himself dubious concerning the true nature of any object or action, he resorts to describing it as a mixture of what it is and what it is not. For instance, when the innkeeper’s wife is taking care of Don Quixote’s bruises from the beating suffered at the hands of the Yanguesian carriers, Sancho lies, telling her that Don Quixote fell from a rock. After Don Quixote gains possession of the helmet of Mambrino, the barber has fled leaving behind his basin and donkey.
In sum, relations between Don Quixote and Sancho are based on a master-subordinate tradition but they go beyond traditional roles. These relations develop gradually based on mutual understanding and support. Sancho’s exaggerations go from complex and extravagant outbursts to simple and innocent remarks. Relations between Don Quixote and Sancho are based on mutual support and care, advice, and help.
Bibliography
Echevarría, R.G. Cervantes’ Don Quixote: A Casebook. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Servants, M. Don Quixote. Web.
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