the barber

The barber is a friend and practical companion of Don Quixote, most clearly seen alongside the curate in the examination of the books in Don Quixote’s library. His part in that scene is chiefly to identify and present the volumes; the curate supplies most of the judgments. The distinction makes the barber a useful intermediary between the books and the reader, while his later presence in discussions with Don Quixote places him among those trying to manage their friend’s persistent faith in knight-errantry.

Friendship and Counsel

During the fifteen days Don Quixote remains quietly at home, he holds lively discussions with the barber and the curate about the need for knight-errants and his own mission to revive the institution. The barber is thus not merely a figure in the library episode: he belongs to the small circle of companions with whom Don Quixote debates his governing conviction. The curate sometimes contradicts Don Quixote and sometimes agrees with him as a precaution in trying to bring him to reason; the account names the curate as using this tactic, and does not assign it specifically to the barber.

The Library Examination

As the barber and the curate inspect Don Quixote’s books, the barber identifies a range of works for consideration. He presents the second part of the Diana attributed to the Salamancan and another book of the same title by Gil Polo. The curate condemns the former but recommends preserving Gil Polo’s work, showing that the review distinguishes among books rather than treating them all alike.

The barber also identifies Cervantes’s Galatea. The curate calls attention to its inventiveness while observing that it leaves its story unfinished and promises a second part; instead of condemning it outright, he orders it kept in the barber’s quarters. The barber then presents three works of heroic verse: the Araucana, the Austriada, and the Montserrate. The curate praises these as the best Castilian works of their kind and recommends preserving them. Across these judgments, the barber supplies the titles while the curate acts as evaluator, a division that keeps the examination moving and makes its selective verdicts visible.

Narrative Role

The barber’s role is modest but structurally important. His successive identifications give the library review its sequence, allowing the curate’s decisions to range from condemnation to qualified preservation and high praise. The scene therefore presents the barber as a participant in a household effort to remove or contain books thought capable of renewing Don Quixote’s delusions, but it also reveals that the companions’ response to literature is discriminating rather than indiscriminate. His presence in the later discussions at home connects that practical intervention with the continuing attempt to reason with Don Quixote.