[Music] in part one chapter five of Don Quixote a farmer from Don Quixote's hometown puts the dawn on the back of his donkey and brings him home when they arrive his niece and his housekeeper are reporting his disappearance to the barber surgeon master nicolas and the priest pero Perez the women blame it on the Dons books which Don Quixote 's niece says deserve burning every bit as much as heretics do in part one chapter 6 pero Perez master nicolas the housekeeper and Don Quixote's nice rifle through Don Quixote books while he sleeps the nascent housekeeper
are ready to burn them all but the priest insists on examining each one individually the men cast books aside based on topic author and writing style while rescuing their own favorites they soon grow tired of debating the merits of each book and decide to label the rest contents unknown and throw them in the burn pile below the window the Inquisition of Don Quixote library mirrors the Spanish Inquisition a state sanctioned effort to remove or convert Jews and Muslims living in Spain between 1478 and 1834 the early years of the Spanish Inquisition were especially brutal and
many people were tortured or burned at the stake sentencing was handled by the secular arm Cervantes injects humor into the already absurd scene by having the priest prefer to the housekeeper who's throwing books out the window to the burn pile below as their own secular arm this pivotal scene also reflects the divide between gender class and position in 17th century society literacy was rare generally reserved for men with money who lived in cities and towns Don Quixote a man with expendable income and the barber surgeon and the priest both learned men learn how to read
but Don Quixote is nice and housekeeper never do they're quick to burn the books without looking at them because they don't care about the words within the housekeeper thinks the books are enchanted by magicians and worries that even being in the same room with books is dangerous the priest laughs at her naivete but does father explaining the truth to a woman whom he believes could never understand anything as academic as literature the priest representing all that is both Christian and true is a realist he prefers books based on reality rather than fantastical fantasies you
