Don Quixote

1. What specific activities does the gentleman abandon as his reading habit grows more intense?

2. Why does Cervantes show us the helmet breaking immediately after our hero builds it?

3. What terrible thought strikes Don Quixote on the open plain, and how does he resolve to handle this problem?

4. Why does Cervantes show us Don Quixote rehearsing his own future biography while riding alone?

5. What does the landlord confess about his past adventures, and how does Don Quixote react to hearing about swindling and cheating?

6. Why does Cervantes have the landlord read from an account book instead of a prayer book during the knighting ceremony?

7. When Don Quixote finds Andres being beaten, what specific command does he give the farmer, and how does the farmer respond?

8. Why does Cervantes show us the farmer beating Andres worse after Quixote leaves, rather than ending the scene with the knight's departure?

9. When Pedro Alonso finds Quixote and wipes the dust from his face, what does he call him, and why is this significant?

10. Why does Cervantes have Quixote switch from the Baldwin story to the Abindarraez tale when Pedro keeps questioning him?

11. Why does the housekeeper bring holy water and a sprinkler to the library before the book burning begins?

12. What does it reveal that the curate knows these romance books so well he can quote characters and plot details from memory?

13. When Don Quixote wakes shouting about a tourney, what does this interrupt and why does the narrator mention specific books going 'unseen and unheard'?

14. Why does Cervantes have the housekeeper and niece create such an elaborate lie about a magician stealing the books instead of telling the truth?

15. When Sancho tells Don Quixote 'did I not tell your worship to mind what you were about, for they were only windmills?' what does this reveal about their relationship?