Which character tricks Don Quixote into believing Dulcinea is enchanted?

Sancho Panza tricks Don Quixote into believing that Dulcinea is enchanted. On the road to El Toboso in Part Two, Sancho knows he has never actually met Dulcinea, so he points out three peasant women and falsely identifies one as Don Quixote’s beloved.

Because Don Quixote sees only an ordinary peasant girl, Sancho improvises an explanation: enchanters must have transformed Dulcinea’s beauty into ugliness. Don Quixote accepts this because enchantment already fits the logic of the chivalric romances that shape his imagination.

The joke later becomes a larger plot device. The Duke and Duchess exploit Don Quixote’s belief, staging further “enchantments” and claiming that Dulcinea can be released only if Sancho gives himself thousands of lashes. Sancho resists, but eventually pretends to perform the punishment.

A common mix-up is to credit the Duke and Duchess with the original deception. They intensify the story later, but Sancho creates the initial lie about Dulcinea’s supposed enchantment.