# XXI explained — Don Quixote

> Chapter companion for Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

## What happens

Camacho's wedding proceeds with pageantry, but Basilio interrupts, feigning suicide to win Quiteria's hand. Don Quixote defends the deception, and the marriage is validated.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Worship

Basilio's desperate act and Quiteria's eventual consent highlight love's power over reason and wealth.

### Chivalry and Idealism

Don Quixote defends Basilio's trick as a chivalric stratagem, upholding idealistic notions of love and honor.

### Justice and Morality

The episode questions the morality of deception in love and the justice of allowing the trick to succeed.

## Character check-ins

### Don Quixote

Defends Basilio's trick, asserting love's stratagems are justifiable.

### Sancho Panza

Offers boorish praise of Quiteria's appearance and retreats to the wine-jars during the conflict.

### Basilio

Fakes suicide with a hidden rapier to force Quiteria to marry him.

### Quiteria

Initially silent, she ultimately confirms her marriage to Basilio.

### Camacho

The wealthy bridegroom, who is tricked and eventually pacified.

### Rocinante

Don Quixote dismounts from him to aid Basilio.

## Key lines

> Wait a little, ye, as inconsiderate as ye are hasty!

Hold on, you who are thoughtless and rash!

_Basilio's dramatic interruption of the wedding._

> No miracle, no miracle; only a trick, a trick!

It's not a miracle, just a trick!

_Basilio reveals his feigned suicide was a deception._

> these two whom God hath joined man cannot separate

What God has united, no human can separate.

_Don Quixote's defense of Basilio and Quiteria's marriage._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-ii-xxi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/don_quixote_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters