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Who is Dulcinea del Toboso in Don Quixote?

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Engraving of Miguel de Cervantes, shown with a mustache and beard, wearing a ruffled collar and cloak, based on works by Gregorio Ferro and Fernando Selma. — Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes, engraving by E. Mackenzie after Gregorio Ferro and Fernando Selma; from *The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography* (1863).

In the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, Dulcinea del Toboso is a fictional character who serves as the idealized beloved of the protagonist, Don Quixote.12

In reality, she is a sturdy Spanish peasant girl named Aldonza Lorenzo. However, the knight-errant Don Quixote, whose mind is clouded by chivalric romances, selects her to be his lady and renames her Dulcinea. He perceives her not as a peasant, but as a highborn, golden-haired woman of incomparable beauty for whom he performs heroic deeds as her paladin.12

Later in the story, Don Quixote becomes convinced that an enchantment has transformed her into an ordinary peasant girl, leading to various plot points involving attempts to break this perceived curse. The name Dulcinea has since entered the language as a generic term for a mistress or sweetheart.2134