The use of a pit as a symbolic device, suggesting death and birth, end and beginning, deserves some discussion. That part of Sancho which is mercenary, power-hungry, and small-minded has died, while the uncovetous, contented, and faithful squire has emerged refreshed and reborn from the pit. Escaping from the cave the "dungeon" Sancho discovers his real freedom, which is not to rule an island but to serve Don Quixote. Only through his master can he glimpse idealistically, for Sancho can see no visions in a cave and can partake of imaginative words only if Don Quixote shows them to him. Cervantes furthermore uses this device of a pit to show the reader that the series of adventures with the duke and duchess is all but terminated, and that the knight and squire, firmly united, will go on to new encounters.
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