Don Quixote

1. What steps does Don Quixote take to transform himself from a regular gentleman into a knight-errant?

2. Why do the curate and barber burn Quixote's books instead of simply talking to him about his obsession?

3. Why does Cervantes give us a table of contents showing all the adventures before they happen?

4. What does it reveal about Don Quixote that he sees his upcoming journey as a series of grand adventures rather than random encounters?

5. How does Don Quixote explain away each of his failures - the barber's basin, the ungrateful prisoners, his public humiliation?

6. Why does Sancho continue following Quixote despite witnessing his obvious self-deception?

7. What specific actions does Don Quixote perform in the mountains, and what is he trying to prove through these dramatic gestures?

8. Why do Don Quixote's friends choose to work within his fantasy rather than directly confronting his delusions?

9. In 'The Ill-Advised Curiosity,' what specific actions does the husband take to test his wife's faithfulness, and what are the immediate consequences?

10. Why does the husband's need to 'prove' his wife's loyalty actually create the very betrayal he feared? What psychological mechanism is at work here?

11. Why does everyone at the inn end up fighting over whether the barber's basin is really a magical helmet?

12. Why do the people at the inn eventually decide to let Don Quixote keep the 'helmet' and just pay the barber instead of continuing to argue?

13. Why can't the canon and Don Quixote agree about the value of chivalric romances, even though they're both intelligent people?

14. What does each character need to believe about themselves, and how do their views on books protect those beliefs?

15. Why does Cervantes give us a preview of upcoming adventures instead of just diving into the next story?