1. The priest is first introduced on page 32 of the text. Volume 1 Chapter 5.
2. The priest is a faithful man, who is "great friends with Don Quijote" (32). The priest has concerns that Don Quijote's book's are the cause of his madness. At face value the priest goes along with Don Quijote's story about the 10 giants who attacked him (34) and vows to "burn them all before nightfall tomorrow" (34). The priest is a genuine friend of Don Quijote, who has many concerns over Don's sanity.
3. The priest compares most to the barber, who just like the priest, criticize most of the books that Don Quijote reads. Both being "good Christians" (36), they hope to rid Don Quijote's stakes of idol books which contain blasphimous adventures. The priest, like the barber, are willing to burn all of Don Quijote's books in an attempt to reconcile Don's sanity. While both begin to throw books off the balcony, The priest and the barber find books to their liking and decide that they are not along the same lines as the "chivalrous" ones, on the only basis that they had both read them before.
4. The priest is a powerful character who should be characterised in a heroistic way. He believes deep in his christian heart that the books that Don Quijote has read are truly poison. Why else has Don lost his mind, all he does is read books, night and day. It seems as thought e priest has every true intention of stirring Don in a good direction, even though his christian motive seems a little trival to the average reader.
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3 comments:
The priest may be a faithful man, but he puts great power in these books that have a "spell" over Quijote. Wouldn't a priest assess the state of Quijote's soul and the strength of his faith? What's funny about this chapter is the fact that the priest and the barber are acting more like book critics than concerned friends. We even see "Galatea, by Miguel de Cervantes" amongst the unburned books (Cervantes, of course, is the author of our text) (39). The priest is not meant to be heroic. He adds to the humor of the novel, and Cervantes presents a slightly barbed poke at Christians and their willingness to be subserviant to the cloth.
The priest as pday said as "a faithful man", but he abused his power to have Quijote's books tossed out of the window to be either buried or burned. I think Cervantes' misfortune experience with lack of ability to pay that landed him in jail, led him to mock anyone who mistreated him in his novels. This included the priest as well. The priest may be heroic in action but he is no hero for he did not do anything positive for Quijote.
In chapter 46 the priest pays the barber for the helmet that really isn't a helmet, just to keep peace for Don Quijote. He knows that Don Quijote is insane and he doesn't want him to go to jail for it. "In the end, the priest argues so forcefully, and Don Quijote himself did such mad things, that they'd have to be maddeer than he was not to see his madness, so the policemen decided it was better to calm down" (315). In that respect, I'd have to say that the priest is somewhat of a hero because he kept Don Quijote out of jail with his strength, determination and morals.
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