Man of La Mancha

Don Quixote has already left without realizing Aldonza’s fate. With unconscious irony, he tells Sancho that he envies the muleteers who are feeling his lady’s gentle touch and the knight joyously affirms that “virtue always prevails” (58). As he sings a reprise of his song about his quest, he is more convinced than ever that his impossible dream is worthwhile.

Suddenly Cervantes’s play is interrupted by the sound of the Inquisition coming to fetch a prisoner. The Duke mocks Cervantes’s obvious fear and asks if his fantasy of Don Quixote can do anything to protect him. The Inquisition, however, grabs another prisoner. A shaken Cervantes asks the Governor for a moment’s respite. They talk about La Mancha, the arid plains which both Cervantes and Don Quixote call home. The Duke challenges him, saying the empty lands grow lunatics who refuse to face life as it is.

Cervantes responds that he knows how life is. He has seen war, imprisonment, slavery, and suffering. He has seen the empty fear in the eyes of a dying soldier not knowing for what he had lived and died. Perhaps, Cervantes suggests, if the horrors of the world make life itself seem “mad,” then accepting the world as it is without a fight is true “madness.” As Cervantes speaks on the “madness” of accepting life as it is—rather than trying to make the world as it should be—he transforms himself again into the character of Don Quixote. He defiantly sings a reprise of “Man of La Mancha” as his play restarts.

As Don Quixote and Sancho travel, they encounter a dancing group of Moors (an outdated term for people of North Africa). One of the women dances seductively and tries to lure them into the dance. She speaks a foreign language. Don Quixote insists that she is an innocent damsel who is pleading for him to join a quest to save her brother, a fellow knight. Even when she grabs his hand and puts it on her breast, he assumes that she simply meant him to feel her heart beating for her brother and is too innocent to know her own anatomy. Sancho keeps trying to warn his lord but eventually bows to Don Quixote’s interpretation of events. Both join the dancers.

Sancho is proved correct. While the two are distracted, their horses, money, and possessions are stolen. They walk back to the inn. The innkeeper and his frantic wife initially try to keep them out, but eventually open the door as Sancho recounts their losses.

As Don Quixote defends his continued ideals, Aldonza enters visibly bruised from the muleteers’ assault. She yells at Don Quixote, calling him a “madman” who should be locked up. When Don Quixote pleads with “his lady,” Aldonza retorts that she is the opposite of a lady. She sings of her birth to a passing soldier and a mother who abandoned her as a baby. She contrasts the supposed virtues of ladies with her actual life selling her body to coarse men.

Finally, Aldonza tells Don Quixote that he is the worst of all the men who have used her. Her anger with the other men using her at least gave her strength for entering into a mutual give-and-take with them; the knight’s tenderness and impossible vision of her being a different kind of person only brings despair. Don Quixote proclaims that she is still his lady despite her shouted denial.

A fanfare of trumpets interrupts the scene. Another knight, accompanied by attendants, enters the stage in elaborate armor decorated with mirrors. Unbeknownst to the other characters or the audience, it is Dr. Carrasco in disguise. This new “Knight of the Mirrors” calls Don Quixote a “foolish pretender” engaged in a “child’s mockery” (68). His insults incense Don Quixote while subtly paving the way for convincing him that his knight-errantry is a delusion.

The Knight of the Mirrors challenges Don Quixote to a duel, with the defeated submitting to the victor or his lady—though the challenger mocks the idea of Dulcinea being an actual lady. The actual fight, however, takes an unexpected turn. The Knight of the Mirrors reveals a shield that is actually a large mirror and each of his attendants reveals a similar shield. He confronts Don Quixote with the reality of his old, pathetic appearance as shown in the mirrors’ reflection. Don Quixote recoils, only to be confronted with another mirror while his challenger narrates his delusions. Finally, Don Quixote collapses. The Knight of the Mirrors removes his helmet, revealing the face of Dr. Carrasco.

The arrival of an Inquisition guard interrupts Cervantes’s playacting. He announces that the playwright will be summoned soon. The Governor urges Cervantes to finish in the time remaining and is shocked to hear that this is the end. He and the other prisoners prepare to show their displeasure until Cervantes begs for a chance to improvise a new ending.

Don Quixote, now in his old persona of Alonso Quijana, lies in bed insensible to the outside world. His niece, Dr. Carrasco, and the Padre stand around the bedside disconsolate. They talk briefly. The Padre especially feels the contradiction of supporting the attempt to cure the knight’s “madness” while seeing the tragedy of the broken man before him.

Sancho arrives to see the former Don Quixote. The household reluctantly lets him enter with a warning not to speak about knights or chivalry. Sancho promises to just share idle gossip. Initially he does so in his solo, talking about his amusingly unhappy reunion with his wife until he allays the suspicion of the eavesdropping household. Then Sancho begins to talk about how he longs to go on adventures with Don Quixote again. Dr. Carrasco catches him and interrupts his song.

Don Quixote, however, has been roused from his stupor by Sancho’s words, although the former knight only remembers his adventures and ideals as a dream. He says he is dying and asks to make a will.

Aldonza barges into the house despite the attempts to stop her. The former knight doesn’t recognize her, but still insists she be treated with courtesy and allowed to approach him. She calls him by the name of Don Quixote and his memory begins to vaguely stir.

A worried Dr. Carrasco attempts to remove Aldonza, but she escapes and throws herself down to beg Don Quixote to remember. She tells him that her life changed when he called her “Dulcinea.” She begs him to bring back that dream.

Don Quixote realizes that perhaps he had not been dreaming. Aldonza jumps on his words, reminding him of his dream and his quest. She begins to sing “The Impossible Dream” again until Don Quixote remembers. He joins in, cautiously at first and then with vigor. Restored to his knightly persona, he rises from his sick bed, raises his Dulcinea to her feet, and calls for an eager Sancho to arm him.

Don Quixote speaks of adventure and sings again “Man of La Mancha,” his initial song of purpose. Sancho and Aldonza join him in song. Then Don Quixote falters and falls. Antonia and the Padre rush over to join Sancho and Aldonza. They discover that the fallen man has died.

The Padre begins to pray by singing Psalm 130 (“De profundis clamo ad te…” which translates to “Out of the depths I cry to you…”). Meanwhile Sancho and Aldonza talk. Sancho mourns, but Aldonza insists, “Don Quixote is not dead” (81). The ideals of the knight errant live on in Sancho and in her as she adopts the name Dulcinea.

As Cervantes’s play ends, the Inquisition returns to take him to his real trial. The Governor wishes him well and hands him back the bundle of papers, now revealed to be the manuscript of Don Quixote. As Cervantes leaves, the Governor wryly observes that both Cervantes and Don Quixote are the same: both men of La Mancha.

The play concludes with the prisoners singing “The Impossible Dream.” The prisoner who played Aldonza starts the song. Gradually the other prisoners, inspired by Cervantes’s story, join in until their combined voices overwhelm the muted musical theme that had accompanied the Inquisition guards.