QUIXOTIZATION OF SANCHO PANZA & SANCHIFICATION OF DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA
By: Jéssica de la Portilla Montaño.
Lee este texto en español: Quijotización de Sancho y Sanchificación del Quijote | Ensayo y Análisis Completo
Table of Contents
I. The Quixotization of Sancho
In this text, the writer Salvador de Madariaga y Rojo highlights how the squire Sancho Panza, after some time serving his master, begins to reason and adopt attitudes worthy of Don Quixote of La Mancha. This is what is known as the process of quixotization.
Madariaga takes as an example the beginning of the Chapter V of the Second Part of the book:
“Of the discreet and gracious dialogue between Sancho Panza and his wife Teresa Panza, and other events worthy of happy recollection”:
“When the translator of this history reached the fifth chapter, he declares it apocryphal, for in it Sancho Panza speaks in a style unlike what might be expected from his limited wit…”.
Here, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra plays with words and the narrator’s voice, as in other chapters of the First Part. He aims to convince the reader that these adventures were drawn from another source —though he may also allude to the unauthorized sequels of Don Quixote published after the original.
I.I The Process of Sancho Panza’s Quixotization
Later, Madariaga references the Chapter III of the Second Part:
“Of the laughable exchange between Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, and the bachelor Sansón Carrasco”.
This bachelor informs the protagonists of a book written by Cide Hamete Benengeli, “who left recorded the history of your great deeds”.
Sancho listens to the conversation between the bachelor and his master. As he learns that his name has gained fame, the squire swells with pride, even declaring himself “one of the principal presonages” (sic) of the story.
Sancho’s quixotization lies in this: after so often hearing Don Quixote speak of how their adventures would be remembered through the ages… Sancho comes to believe it and acts accordingly.
II. The Sanchification of Don Quixote
Here, Salvador de Madariaga explains how Don Quixote gradually sheds his knight-errant persona. In the First Part, Alonso Quixano abandons everything to roam the world, honoring his king and his lady.
But as the novel progresses, the protagonist —through his madness— gains awareness of the real world. He now travels with saddlebags full of coins and pays for his lodging at the inns where he stays.
He even seeks advice from the bachelor Sansón Carrasco on how to begin his new series of adventures.
II.I The Meaning of Don Quixote’s Sanchification
The fervor with which Don Quixote begins his exploits wanes as reality intrudes.
The knight and his squire travel to El Toboso, to seek the maiden Dulcinea. But when Don Quixote sees that his lady is merely a peasant girl, he blames his enemy, the enchanter:
“Sancho, dost thou see how I am hated by enchanters? And mark how far their malice and the grudge they bear me extend, for they would deprive me of the joy I might have in seeing my lady in her true form. Truly, I was born to be a model of misfortune, the target and bull’s-eye for the arrows of adversity…”.
Ultimately, Madariaga contrasts how Don Quixote’s illusions are eroded by reality, while Sancho undergoes the inverse: he begins grounded but becomes filled with fantasy and dreams of glory.
SOURCE:
De Madariaga, Salvador. Quixote reading guide. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1981. Chaps. VII–VIII: “The quixotization of Sancho and the sanchification of Don Quixote”.
