Man of La Mancha fictionalizes Cervantes’s historical imprisonment on charges of fraud and embezzlement. Instead, the musical’s Cervantes has taken a principled stand on applying the tax law equally to everyone, including churches, which has led to his arrest by the Inquisition. The Inquisition is thus the symbol of the oppressive, real-world forces that seek to crush principled idealists like Cervantes.  

The play signals this oppression with ominous theme music whenever Inquisition guards enter the prison. When the play reaches its darkest moments after the muleteers’ assault on Aldonza, this theme music overwhelms Don Quixote’s reprise of “The Impossible Dream” and interrupts the play’s performance. Cervantes mutely shrinks away in fear as the guards descend, emphasizing the magnitude of the Inquisition’s threat. It also serves to link the Inquisition to the themes of The Conflict Between Idealism and Realism and The Transformative Power of Imagination. Since Cervantes is imprisoned for his idealistic stand for principles of equality, the scene equates realism and unjust oppression with the Inquisition. In interrupting the play, the Inquisition also momentarily disrupts imagination’s power, ushering back in a bleak reality.

This scene reverses itself at the end. Cervantes courageously goes with the guards to fight for truth against the Inquisition.