Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Don Quixote Day Five


I am not sure that Lela has multiple identities as she does several different pieces of her character that contribute to the whole. For example, she is still linked to her old culture by knowing the language as well as still dressing in her old clothes, while her husband and her desire to convert to Christianity links her to Spain. Whether she has more or less agency than the other women in the text depends on perspective. In my opinion, she seems to have a huge amount of agency considering she organized her own escape. And since she has left her father behind, his absence could indicate that there is no one else to ensure that she remains hidden away from the world. She pursued freedom, making her a little like Don Quixote, so of course she must appear at the inn. She demonstrates that Don Quixote has a way attracting miraculous happenings thus making it look like everything is possible and that there are stranger things than Don Quixote.

"'By God, sirs', said Don Quixote, 'so very many strange things have happened to me in this castle on the two occasions when I have lodged here that I dare not give a clear answer to any question about anything in it, because I imagine that everything that occurs here is carried out by enchantment."' (XLV, 419)

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