A Window onto the Heart: Cervantes and the Cardiocentric Self.

Longstanding representations of the heart and all its complexities in art, religion, literature, medicine, and natural philosophy depicted the organ as the center of feelings, but early modern advances in anatomy led to a physiological reinterpretation. Cervantes was aware of both traditions, and the Cervantine heart repeatedly appears subject to surveillance. For Cervantes, to open a window onto the heart of his characters is to reveal an interior ensconcing secrets and passions, offering an intimate view of feelings and images. This is especially relevant in the Cave of Montesinos, where the knight's solitary spelunking marks a pivotal moment, as his physical descent into the cave is commensurate with higher self-revelation, marking the episode as a synecdoche for the larger work. Seen as an act of individual introspection, Don Quixote's experience unveils his confused interior, opening a window to the protagonist's concealed and most deep-seated anxieties that demystifies his decreasingly idealized chivalric world. Longstanding representations of the heart and all its concomitant complexities in art, religion, literature, medicine, and natural philosophy depicted the organ as the center of feelings and emotion, but early modern advances in anatomy led to a physiological reinterpretation. Cervantes was aware of both traditions and throughout his oeuvre the Cervantine heart repeatedly appears subject to surveillance, yet open to scrutiny. For Cervantes, to open a window onto the heart of his characters is to reveal a hidden interior ensconcing secrets and passions, offering an intimate view of feelings and images. This is especially relevant in the Cave of Montesinos where the knight's solitary spelunking marks a pivotal moment in the novel as his physical descent into the cave is commensurate with higher self-revelation, marking the episode as a synecdoche for the larger work. Seen as an act of individual introspection and an exploration of his inwardness, Don Quixote's experience unveils his confused and perplexed interior, opening a window to the protagonist's concealed and most deep-seated anxieties that demystifies his less and less idealized chivalric world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]