Alani Hicks-Bartlett
This article considers Don Quijote's important first sally and the novel's early discussions of money, economic need, and financial responsibilities, alongside the contentions and inconsistencies surrounding the protagonist's use and proclaimed understanding of money. Despite repeatedly denigrating the economic world throughout the novel, and attempting to create distance between himself and it, Don Quijote's attempts to shirk his own financial responsibilities while negotiating the issues such as payment, payback (in the fullest sense of the word), debt, and financial obligation, only substantiate his fundamental enmeshment in the economic world. Indeed, economic realities that he scorns or claims to be unaware of consistently impact and govern both his own behavior and his dealings with others, as the events of his truncated first sally proleptically reveal