Don Quixote is defeated by the Knight of the White Moon on the beach at Barcelona.
This episode occurs late in Part II of Cervantes’ novel. The Knight of the White Moon is actually Sansón Carrasco, a young man from Quixote’s home village who has previously attempted to defeat him while disguised as another knight. Carrasco challenges Quixote and wins the combat on Barcelona’s beach.
The defeat has serious consequences because Quixote has agreed to obey the victor’s conditions. He must lay down his arms and return home, abandoning knight-errantry for a year. His friends and relatives hope that this enforced retirement will end his delusions. Back in La Mancha, Quixote gradually regains his identity as Alonso Quijano and renounces his former chivalric ambitions. Barcelona is therefore more than a setting: it marks the beginning of the novel’s final movement toward homecoming and death.