Download file 155 KB Texto completo en español More of: David  Gallagher

After summarizing the many facets of Quixote, the article stops to look at one, the friendship between Quixote and Sancho Panza, two characters who are much more complex than the stereotypes that exist of them and much more similar to each other than what one often believes. The two share a life project. The key elements in the complex friendship, based on complicities and deceits, are established when Sancho returns to Sierra Morena after his failed mission to Dulcinea. The two begin to develop an epistemological pact where, unlike Anselmo in "The Curious Impertinent Fellow," they keep their life project from being violated by an excess of truth. The two friends are loyal to each other but in different degrees of intensity, sometimes even approaching treason. The main difference between the two is that one is the master and the other servant, one the doer and instigator and the other the employee and follower. But the two need each other and feel very vulnerable when they are apart. The two value the freedom recovered when they say farewell to the Dukes. The two accept that the drama they have played has a limit, so it is logical for Quixote to die denying it without Sancho, on his part, protesting too much.