The clever steward best expresses the theme of these chapters of Don Quixote's "martyrdom," when he tells Governor Sancho: "Every day produces some new wonder, jests are turned into earnest, and those who designed to laugh at others, happen to be laughed at themselves." As the duke and duchess continue with their extravagant entertainments, the knight seems to increase in stature, while they themselves appear fools. Instead of making Don Quixote ridiculous, his humiliating experiences enhance his nobility and exalt his purity of purpose. Sancho is given the opportunity to practice a responsible ethic he never realized he possessed, while Teresa Panza, with her spontaneous and genuine feelings, is favorably contrasted with the duchess. Closing the full cycle, Cervantes shows that the perpetrators of the joke are themselves the subject of ridicule, that madmen are sane in contrast to normal people, and that fools are best capable of great wisdom.
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