Dulcinea

Dulcinea del Toboso
Don Quixote character
Dulcinea (1957), sculpture by F. Coullaut-Valera, in Madrid (Spain).
Created by	Miguel de Cervantes
Information
Gender	Female
Religion	Roman Catholic
Nationality	Spanish

"Dulcinea del Toboso" is a fictional character who is unseen in Miguel de Cervantes' novel Don Quixote. Don Quixote describes her appearance in the following terms: "... her name is Dulcinea, her country El Toboso, a village of La Mancha, her rank must be at least that of a princess, since she is my queen and lady, and her beauty superhuman, since all the impossible and fanciful attributes of beauty which the poets apply to their ladies are verified in her; for her hairs are gold, her forehead Elysian fields, her eyebrows rainbows, her eyes suns, her cheeks roses, her lips coral, her teeth pearls, her neck alabaster, her bosom marble, her hands ivory, her fairness snow, and what modesty conceals from sight such, I think and imagine, as rational reflection can only extol, not compare." [Volume 1/Chapter XIII]

She is identified as Aldonza Lorenzo in some parts of the novel, and although she never came to see Don Quixote on his deathbed in the novel, some adaptions, like in Man of La Mancha suggest that Aldonza decides to change her name to Dulcinea to honor Don Quixote after his death when she does visits him because she believes in him. Also, in some adaptions, Aldonza's occupation varies like being the innkeeper's daughter or a prostitute, instead of a farm girl.

In the Spanish of the time, Dulcinea means something akin to an overly elegant "sweetness". In this way, Dulcinea is an entirely fictional person for whom Quixote relentlessly fights. To this day, a reference to someone as one's "Dulcinea" implies hopeless devotion and love for her, and particularly unrequited love.

The Jules Massenet opera Don Quichotte depicts Dulcinée as a major character, the local queen who sends the knight on a quest to retrieve her jewels.