View source for Dulcinea del Toboso

{{Infobox character
| name               = Dulcinea del Toboso
| series             = [[Don Quixote]]
| image              = Monumento a Cervantes (Madrid) 09.jpg
| caption            = ''Dulcinea'' (1957), sculpture by [[Federico Coullaut-Valera|F. Coullaut-Valera]], in [[Madrid]] (Spain).
| creator            = [[Miguel de Cervantes]]
| gender             = Female
| family             = Lorenzo Gonzalo (father)<br>Aldonza Nogales (mother)
| religion           = [[Roman Catholic]]
| nationality        = [[Spanish people|Spanish]]
}}
'''Dulcinea del Toboso''' is a fictional character who is [[unseen character|unseen]] in [[Miguel de Cervantes]]'s novel ''[[Don Quixote]]''. Don Quixote believes he must have a lady, under his personal view that chivalry requires it.<ref name=Eis/>{{rp|117}}<ref>{{cite book
|first=Daniel
|last=Eisenberg
|chapter=La supuesta homosexualidad de Cervantes
|title=Siglos dorados: Homenaje a Agustín Redondo
|location=Madrid
|publisher=Castalia
|year=2004
|volume=1
|pages=399–410
|isbn=849740100X
|chapter-url=http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/la-supuesta-homosexualidad-de-cervantes-0/}}</ref>
As he does not have one, he invents her, making her the very model of female perfection: "[h]er 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 [[blond|hairs are gold]], her forehead [[Elysium|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" (Part I, Chapter 13, translation of [[John Ormsby (translator)|John Ormsby]]).

Don Quixote is portrayed as both admirable ("and doth she not of a truth accompany and adorn this greatness with a thousand million charms of mind!"  "that, winnowed by her hands, beyond a doubt the bread it made was of the whitest.") and ridiculous throughout the novel. Sancho knows this, and is enthusiastic for Dulcinea in as much as "if your worship goes looking for dainties in the bottom of the sea".<ref name=Eis>{{cite book
|first=Daniel
|last=Eisenberg
|title=A Study of "Don Quixote"
|publisher=[[Juan de la Cuesta]]
|year=1987
|isbn=1588710017
|page=121}}</ref>

Dulcinea is based on the Spanish word ''dulce'' (sweet), and suggests an overly elegant "sweetness". To this day, a reference to someone as one's "Dulcinea" implies idealistic devotion and love for her.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095734178|title=Dulcinea|website=oxfordreference.com|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|url-access=subscription|access-date=2020-04-22}}</ref>

[[Image:El_Toboso_Monumento_a_D._Quijote_y_Dulcinea.jpg|thumb|Monument to Don Quixote and Dulcinea, [[Castilla-La Mancha]], Spain.]]

==Spurious Part II of the work==
An unidentified writer using the pseudonym [[Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda]] in 1614 published a Part II of ''Don Quijote''.

Although support for Avellaneda's view of Dulcinea is found in Part I of ''Don Quixote'', he has little interest in the glorious, imaginary Dulcinea. Scholars commonly say that because of this and many similar misreadings by Avellaneda, which Cervantes found offensive, he was motivated to complete his own unfinished Part II, which was published the following year.  ("...especially my lady the princess Dulcinea, who staggers one's senses."  "...who went skipping and capering like goats over the pleasant fields there...")

==Opera==
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.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

==In popular culture==
* A prostitute named Aldonza is the female lead and identified as "Dulcinea" in ''[[Man of La Mancha]]'', an adaptation of the Quixote story, and its subsequent [[Man of La Mancha (film)|movie adaptation]].
* The French composer [[Maurice Ravel]] composed ''[[Don Quichotte à Dulcinée]]'' (1932–33), a cycle of three songs for baritone voice and accompaniment.
*Dulcinea is the female lead in the TV series ''[[The Adventures of Puss in Boots]]''.
*Dulcinea appears in the Japanese series ''[[Mutsumi Inomata|Zukkoke Knight]] – Don De La Mancha''. Her real name is Fedora (in the English dub). She is the daughter of the bandit king Poormouth. Her role is to help her bankrupt father by stealing, but she fails almost every time. She fools Don Quixote into helping her. She is voiced by [[Mami Koyama]].{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}
*"Dulcinea" is the title of the first episode of the [[Syfy]] television show ''[[The Expanse (TV series)|The Expanse]]''.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3982200/?ref_=ttep_ep1 ''The Expanse'' (2015), Episode 1], imdb.com; accessed 1 March 2016.</ref>
*Dulcinea Septimus is the name of the heir to the Seventh House in [[The Locked Tomb]] series of novels, and her relationship to Palamedes Sextus follows the format of a beautiful lady out of reach.
*Dulcinea (Don Quixote With A Guitar) is a cowpunk song by musician Peter Ray. The lyrics are about a man infatuated with a beautiful woman. The man is likened to “Don Quixote With A Guitar,” his “head full of dreams, and a heart full of pain. Strumming life away, as he slowly goes insane.” The song ends mimicking the man singing of his beloved, referring to her as, “Dulcinea, woah-oh-oh-oh-oh.”
*In Canto VII of the South Korean video game ''[[Limbus Company]]'', Dulcinea is one of the "kindreds" of the video game's interpretation of [[Alonso Quijano]]. Dulcinea is also the leader of the parade of "[[La Mancha]] land" and serves as the second boss of the act who resides in the third area of the Canto.

==See also==
*[[List of Don Quixote characters]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite journal| first= Howard |last= Mancing| title= Dulcinea Del Toboso: On the Occasion of Her Four-Hundredth Birthday| journal= Hispania| volume= 88| number= 1 |date= March 2005| pages= 53–63 |doi= 10.2307/20063075| jstor= 20063075 }}

{{Don Quixote}}
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[[Category:Don Quixote characters]]
[[Category:Unseen characters]]
[[Category:Fictional Spanish people]]
[[Category:Literary characters introduced in 1605]]
[[Category:Female characters in literature]]
[[Category:Fictional farmers]]