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The Role of Women in Don Quixote

Cervantes Portrays Women as the Driving Forces Behind Men

Oct 24, 2008 Michelle Ward

In his novel, Don Quixote, Cervantes emphasizes the importance of women as motivators, but fails to characterize them as individuals.

In Cervantes’ novel, Don Quixote, male characters play the primary and celebrated roles, but women are the driving forces behind many of the men’s actions. Though the women of the novel play vital roles, their characters seem to lack development and exist as little more than names or extensions of their male counterparts. The women are not given the description or internal insight reserved for the men, but are idolized nonetheless, by the male characters in the novel.

Dulcinea del Toboso

The seemly central female character of the novel, Dulcinea del Toboso, lacks the most description of all the women in Cervantes’ work. Though the reader is told early in the novel that Don Quixote’s lady love is only a peasant girl, the knight sings of her as a peerless princess, whom none can rival. Don Quixote’s words and poetry create a veil of ideals, which shroud the peasant girl Dulcinea, who is blissfully unaware of her status as the love of a knight errant. He creates in Dulcinea, an image of the ideal woman, in correspondence with his books of chivalry.

The reader never meets Dulcinea del Toboso, though there are a couple close encounters. She remains a figment of Don Quixote’s imagination, driving him onward in his quests. Though the reader knows little about this woman, she is one of the single most important characters in the novel, because her image justifies and encourages many of Don Quixote’s actions.

The Niece and Housekeeper

Don Quixote’s niece and housekeeper, though two distinctly different women, play the same role in the novel and are given little individual characterization. Rarely mentioned by name, but rather by title and in unison, these women are the only family the knight has and are the fuel feeding the fire of sympathy in their village for the crazed knight. Though they are recorded as doing little more than cry and attend to Don Quixote when he is home, the women argue intelligently when given the opportunity to speak.

Teresa Panza

Though Teresa Panza plays an important role as a stereotype for a common housewife and serves as a motivator for her husband, Sancho, she is given even less characterization than the fictitious Dulcinea del Toboso. Teresa is possibly the most intelligent character in the novel, though she is given very little opportunity to speak. Her intelligence does shine through, however, in her conversations with her husband, even though he routinely ignores her opinions.

Cervantes’ seems to recognize the importance of women in a male dominated society, but he fails to emphasize their individuality and rather lumps them as simply sources of motivation and idolization for men.

The copyright of the article The Role of Women in Don Quixote in World Literatures is owned by Michelle Ward. Permission to republish The Role of Women in Don Quixote in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.