Aragon

Aragon serves as the setting for Doña Rodríguez’s appeal to Don Quixote at the Duke and Duchess’s castle, where a domestic grievance becomes part of the knight’s professed work of redressing wrongs. The region also frames his intended departure for Saragossa, linking the castle episode to the next stage of his travels.

Setting and Geographic Role

Doña Rodríguez identifies herself as seated in the middle of the kingdom of Aragon when she explains her circumstances to Don Quixote. She is not native to the region: she says she comes from Asturias, went to Madrid for service after her parents fell into poverty, and now serves as a duenna of honour to the Duchess. Aragon is therefore the place of her present appeal, not the origin of her family history.

Her brief reference to the cold of the Aragon country comes while she explains that she has lost one or two teeth to it. The remark gives her account a particular local detail without making Aragon the cause of the larger misfortunes she recounts.

The Castle Episode

At the castle, Doña Rodríguez approaches Don Quixote with a grievance she believes he can redress. Her daughter, who accompanies her, has been wronged by a rich farmer’s son. Their sudden appearance at the Duke and Duchess’s table, both dressed in mourning, first perplexes the company; Doña Rodríguez then reveals herself and asks permission to speak to Don Quixote about the matter.

The episode also begins with Don Quixote considering whether to leave the castle. He feels that his life there is inconsistent with his chivalric calling and hopes to travel to Saragossa for its approaching festival, where he expects to compete for a suit of armour. The appeal interrupts that plan and places a local dispute before him as another possible duty.

Narrative Significance

Aragon gathers several strands of Doña Rodríguez’s account into one setting: her service in the Duchess’s household, her daughter’s predicament, and her request for Don Quixote’s intervention. The contrast between her earlier life in Asturias and Madrid and her present position at the castle makes the region a point of arrival in her personal history as well as the scene of her appeal.

The location also connects the castle’s staged courtly life with the roads and destinations of Don Quixote’s travels. His proposed journey to Saragossa supplies a geographic horizon beyond the household, while Doña Rodríguez’s plea draws his attention back to an immediate wrong within it.