Who Dulcinea del Toboso is
Dulcinea del Toboso is the name Don Quixote gives to Aldonza Lorenzo, a farm girl from a nearby village. He decides that every knight needs a lady to serve, and chooses someone he barely knows. She never knows the honor he gives her, and she barely appears in the novel.
Dulcinea del Toboso and the others in the story
For Don Quixote, Dulcinea is an ideal of beauty and virtue rather than a woman he knows well. When merchants ask for her portrait, his demand that they praise her beauty turns into a quarrel.
He also copies the lovesick knights of his books by doing penance for her in the mountains. He sends Sancho Panza with a letter, bringing his squire into the story he builds around her.
Questions
Is Dulcinea del Toboso a real person?
Within the novel, Dulcinea is Don Quixote's invention, based on the farm girl Aldonza Lorenzo. The woman exists, but the ideal lady is his creation.
Does Dulcinea know Don Quixote serves her?
No, she does not know that he has chosen her as his lady.
Why does Don Quixote need Dulcinea?
He believes a knight must have a lady to serve. Dulcinea gives his adventures an ideal of beauty and virtue to honor.
