What is Sancho Panza's role in relation to Don Quixote?

Sancho Panza is Don Quixote’s squire.

Sancho begins as a poor farm labourer and neighbour whom Don Quixote recruits for his second journey. Don Quixote promises him the governorship of an island, an extravagant reward drawn from the chivalric romances that shape his imagination. Sancho accepts partly because he hopes the promise will make him wealthy and powerful.

Unlike his master, Sancho is practical, earthy, and strongly aware of ordinary reality. He rides a donkey rather than a noble warhorse and frequently responds to Don Quixote’s lofty speeches with proverbs, jokes, and common sense. Their contrast creates much of the novel’s comedy: Don Quixote interprets windmills and inns through the language of adventure, while Sancho usually sees machines and roadside buildings.

Sancho is more than a comic assistant. He becomes Don Quixote’s loyal companion and gradually absorbs some of his idealism, while Don Quixote becomes more attentive to practical reality. In Part Two, Sancho is made governor of the fictional Barataria, where his unexpected judgment and fairness surprise those watching him.