Doña Rodríguez Asks Don Quixote to Administer Justice

Doña Rodríguez’s appeal turns a private grievance into a test of whether Don Quixote’s chivalric promises can produce justice where the household’s established authority has failed. She asks him to defend her daughter against a wealthy farmer’s son who promised marriage and then refused to honor his word. Don Quixote accepts the charge, and the Duke intervenes to arrange a formal challenge before the knight can depart for Saragossa. The episode establishes a remedy in prospect, but does not report its outcome.

Background to the Complaint

Doña Rodríguez explains that her daughter’s vulnerability is bound up with the mother’s own history. Left a widow with a young child, she accepted the Duchess’s offer of employment and accompanied her to Aragon. Her daughter grew up in the household and, according to her mother, became accomplished in singing, dancing, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Doña Rodríguez gives her age precisely as sixteen years, five months, and three days, allowing for a possible error of a day. The detail makes the daughter’s youth part of the case the mother asks Don Quixote to consider, rather than treating the grievance as an abstract dispute.

The alleged wrong begins when the son of a rich farmer in one of the Duke’s villages falls in love with the daughter. He wins her trust under a promise that he will marry her, but later declines to fulfill that promise. Doña Rodríguez has repeatedly complained to the Duke and asked him to order the marriage. She believes his dependence on the farmer’s father explains his inaction: the father is wealthy, lends the Duke money, and guarantees his debts. Her account therefore makes the dispute about more than a broken personal promise. It also raises the question of whether a powerful household will enforce justice when doing so may offend a useful creditor.

The Appeal and Its Rhetoric

In her first account, Doña Rodríguez asks Don Quixote to redress the wrong by persuasion or by arms. She appeals to the reputation he has acquired as a defender of the unfortunate, and directs him to consider her daughter’s youth and exposed position. Her praise of the daughter’s accomplishments and appearance strengthens the plea by presenting her as worthy of protection; her comparison with Altisidora likewise shows how vigorously she advocates for her child. The appeal is personal and practical at once: a mother describes a specific promise and refusal, then calls on the knight’s public vocation to make that refusal answerable.

The narrative gives Doña Rodríguez’s complaint a history beyond the immediate case. She recalls that her late husband’s excessive courtesy once made him an object of ridicule, after which the Duchess dismissed him. Doña Rodríguez is convinced that the resulting chagrin contributed to his death. That earlier account helps explain why she presents herself as a widow with a daughter to protect and why she distrusts the Duke’s willingness to act. It does not establish the farmer’s son’s guilt independently; the reader receives the allegation through the mother’s petition. Her account is thus both evidence of the household’s unequal power and a plea framed by the person who says she has been denied a hearing.

The Appeal at the Castle

The renewed petition takes place just as Don Quixote is preparing to ask the Duke and Duchess for permission to leave. He considers life at the castle inconsistent with the chivalric order he professes and intends to travel to Saragossa, where he hopes to win the armor offered as a festival prize. Before he can raise the matter, two women enter the great hall in mourning. One falls at his feet, and the depth of her grief confuses the company. The Duke and Duchess initially suspect a servants’ joke, but the woman’s solemn display leaves them uncertain. When Don Quixote raises her and asks her to uncover her face, she proves to be Doña Rodríguez; the other mourner is her daughter.

Doña Rodríguez asks permission to address Don Quixote, explaining that she needs his help to escape the predicament caused by the young man’s conduct. She reminds him that she has already told him of the alleged injustice and that he promised to take her daughter’s part. Since she has heard that he is about to leave, she now asks him to challenge the farmer’s son and compel him to honor his marriage promise. She expressly doubts that the Duke will deliver justice, referring back to the financial connection she had described privately. The repeated appeal converts Don Quixote’s earlier assurance into an obligation she expects him to discharge before he resumes his travels.

Promised Remedy and Its Limits

Don Quixote answers by telling Doña Rodríguez to dry her tears and promising to seek redress. He describes the young man as an oppressor and says that, if he refuses to keep his promise, he will challenge and kill him. His response follows the knightly principle he invokes: protect the humble and punish the proud. It also shows the risk of his method. He translates a dispute over a marriage promise into a prospective armed encounter, although no contest has yet occurred and the young man has not appeared to answer the accusation.

The Duke redirects the matter from a private challenge into a formal proceeding on his estate. He says Don Quixote need not seek the young man or request permission to challenge him: the Duke will treat him as challenged, notify him, and arrange for him to come to the castle. The Duke promises a fair field and says that the customary conditions and justice for both sides will be observed. This intervention answers Doña Rodríguez’s charge of inaction with a concrete undertaking, while leaving open how impartial the resulting process will be. The episode ends with a challenge arranged, not a marriage secured: the request has changed the Duke’s response and interrupted Don Quixote’s departure, but the daughter’s future remains unresolved.