Dulcinea del Toboso Character Analysis in Don Quixote

Quixote's beloved. On the one hand, she is a hearty peasant girl named Aldonza de Lorenzo from a neighboring village. On the other hand, she is a beautiful, ethereal princess, endowed with every possible feminine virtue and beauty. She is the height of Quixote's fantasies, the center of his chivalrous worldview, his strength and justification. Her mystery, her perfection, and her absence make her a god-like figure.

Dulcinea del Toboso Character Timeline in Don Quixote

The timeline below shows where the character Dulcinea del Toboso appears in Don Quixote. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Self-Invention, Class Identity, and Social Change Theme Icon

...Quixote had never met, and who may or may not have existed. He renames her Dulcinea del Toboso. (full context)

Literature, Realism, and Idealism Theme Icon

...in one of his books. He raises his lance and demands that they acknowledge that Dulcinea is the most beautiful lady in the world. The confused merchants ask to see this... (full context)

...Quixote makes his new lance from a branch. He stays awake all night thinking about Dulcinea, like the knights in his books. He doesn’t eat breakfast in the morning for a... (full context)

...Don Quixote greets the lady in the carriage and asks her to present herself to Dulcinea del Toboso and describe the adventure in full. The Basque coachman overhears Quixote and tells... (full context)

...to kill the coachman once the frightened ladies in the coach promised to meet with Dulcinea and tell her about his great victory. (full context)

...ends, Quixote and Sancho sleep in a shepherd’s hut – Quixote thinking all night of Dulcinea, Sancho snoring peacefully. (full context)

The horseman asks Don Quixote to describe his beloved, and the knight describes Dulcinea’s perfect beauty – a mixture of all the beauties described by poets. She is not... (full context)

...He speaks to her gently and formally of her loveliness and of his fidelity to Dulcinea. (full context)

Quixote asks the prisoners to present themselves to Dulcinea, but the murderer Ginés de Pasamonte explains rudely that they must go into hiding. Quixote... (full context)

...he says, to go mad without any particular reason. In the meantime, Sancho must deliver Dulcinea a letter in verse. Sancho complains that sometimes knight-errantry seems like a bunch of lies,... (full context)

...Don Quixote picks a mountain, where he strips and begins lamenting to the skies about Dulcinea; Sancho watches closely to report in detail to Dulcinea. (full context)

Don Quixote rips some paper from Cardenio’s notebook to write a letter to Dulcinea and a warrant for three donkeys for Sancho; he asks Sancho to have the letter... (full context)

...Sancho would go on ahead to find his master and tell him he had visited Dulcinea and brought back her kindly reply. (full context)

...princess’s offer of marriage. When Sancho angrily exclaims that the princess is much better than Dulcinea, Quixote pummels him and explains that he does everything only for Dulcinea’s sake, and all... (full context)

Don Quixote asks Sancho about his visit to Dulcinea. But suddenly they see Ginés de Pasamonte riding toward them on Sancho’s donkey; Sancho yells... (full context)

Quixote says Sancho must have found Dulcinea sorting gold or pearls, but Sancho pretends that she was sieving buckwheat in the yard.... (full context)

Sancho asks him why he embarrasses the discreet Dulcinea by sending all these people to her to speak of Quixote’s love, and Quixote explains... (full context)

...Maritornes decide to have some fun at Don Quixote’s expense. They watch him sighing for Dulcinea through a hole in the hayloft, which opens from the inside of the inn onto... (full context)

...tells Quixote in a frightening voice that it is time for him to unite with Dulcinea, which makes Don Quixote quite content. The servants load Quixote’s cage onto an ox-cart in... (full context)

...information about Quixote’s third sally. He did find a lead casket full of poems about Dulcinea, Rocinante, Sancho, and Don Quixote, written by a ridiculous group called “The Academicians of Argamasilla.” (full context)

Quixote tells Sancho that he wants to receive Dulcinea’s blessing before beginning any new quests, and asks Sancho to direct them to her house... (full context)

At midnight, the two friends enter the town. Quixote asks Sancho to lead them to Dulcinea’s palace; Sancho, who has never been to see Dulcinea, evades the question and suggests that... (full context)

Quixote asks a stranger on the road to point them to Dulcinea’s castle, and the stranger directs them to the house of the village priest, who has... (full context)

...them, no matter how absurd they may be. In the morning, Sancho leaves to find Dulcinea in order to arrange a discreet meeting. As soon as he leaves the forest, he... (full context)

...him on donkeys, he hurries back to his master and tells him that the beautiful Dulcinea and her two maids are riding toward them as they speak. They ride out of... (full context)

...neighbor of his from the village named Tomé Cecial. The Knight of the Spangles admits Dulcinea’s beauty and he and his squire limp away. Quixote and Sancho, though, remain convinced that... (full context)

...head. But Quixote insists that everything he described is real. He even saw the enchanted Dulcinea and the other two peasant girls playing in the fields. Sancho, who invented this enchantment,... (full context)

The Duchess inquires about the Lady Dulcinea, and Quixote mournfully admits that enchanters have turned her into an ugly peasant girl. Here... (full context)

The Duchess asks Quixote to describe Dulcinea’s beauty, but Quixote explains that he can only remember her in her distorted, enchanted state.... (full context)

The Duchess assures Quixote that she believes that Dulcinea is real, but she wonders why Sancho found her sieving buckwheat – not a very... (full context)

The Duchess asks Sancho whether he ever delivered the message to Dulcinea, and whether he completely invented her reply. Sancho paces around the room and replies that... (full context)

...Sancho that she knows for certain that the peasant girl on the donkey truly was Dulcinea, and she was definitely enchanted. He is relieved to hear it, because he doesn’t want... (full context)

...man in costume introduces himself as the devil; he has come with troops of enchanters, Dulcinea, and Montesinos to tell Don Quixote how Dulcinea is to be disenchanted. He tells Don... (full context)

...to show a frightening, death-like face. He calls himself Merlin and recites verses that describe Dulcinea’s enchantment and explain that she will be disenchanted if Sancho lashes himself three thousand and... (full context)

...harp and singing about her love for the knight from la Mancha, her jealousy of Dulcinea, and her own beauty and youth. Quixote says to himself that he loves only Dulcinea,... (full context)

...room and performs a ballad hinting at Altisidora’s impetuous flirtation and describing his loyalty to Dulcinea. Suddenly, a rope with a hundred goat bells and a sack of cats are dumped... (full context)

...girls for their hospitality and promises to profess their unsurpassed beauty (surpassed by none except Dulcinea) at the jousts in Saragossa. He rides out to the road to profess the girls’... (full context)

...to nap if Sancho promises to give himself some of the lashes that will disenchant Dulcinea. They sleep most of the day and hurry to a nearby inn, which Quixote calls... (full context)

...much worse than the first, especially because it describes Don Quixote out of love with Dulcinea. When don Quixote springs up challenging anyone who says such a thing, the two gentlemen... (full context)

...night of the sixth day Sancho quickly falls asleep and Quixote stays up thinking about Dulcinea. He rouses Sancho and tries to lash him, or to make him lash himself. Sancho... (full context)

...the adventures of the Cave of Montesinos real or dreamt? Will Sancho lash himself? Will Dulcinea be disenchanted? The bust replies that the adventure contained both reality and dreams, and answers... (full context)

...love, though he has nothing to give her in return, because he is loyal to Dulcinea and because “the treasures of knights errant are like fairy gold, false and illusory.” Now... (full context)

Don Quixote tells Altisidora once again that he loves only Dulcinea, and she tells him angrily that she does not really love him, and that last... (full context)

...that he was not paid for the resurrection, and Quixote offers to pay him for Dulcinea’s lashes. Sancho decides each lash will cost a quarter of a real, calculates the total... (full context)

...overjoyed, and in the morning he imagines that every woman walking down the road is Dulcinea – until he looks at her closely. Finally they see their own village in the... (full context)

...this incident is a bad omen, if one applies the phrase to his hopes about Dulcinea. A hare running from dogs and hunters gives Quixote the same impression, though Sancho says... (full context)

...friends assume that he has gone mad in some new way, and remind him that Dulcinea has finally been disenchanted, but he only calls for a confessor. His apparent sanity makes... (full context)

...die, since dying for no reason is true madness. He reminds Quixote about the beautiful Dulcinea and takes the blame for all Quixote’s defeats. But Quixote pays no attention. He leaves... (full context)