Violence, humor and Sancho’s resistance to carnival

Abstract

Many critics have designated Don Quixote's Sancho Panza as a carnivalesque figure, an embodiment of pleasurable physicality in contrast to Don Quixote‟s austere and self-denying nature. This article looks at three moments in the novel when Sanchos resists such a designation because of the often violent nature of humorous carnivalesque activity. The analysis reexamines scholarship on the subject of Sancho and carnival in light of what the character himself has to say about it.