# Teresa Panza — Don Quixote character guide

> Teresa Panza in Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Teresa, Doña Teresa Panza

**First appearance:** 0076-part-ii-xvi

## Snapshot

Sancho's sun-browned, sharp-tongued wife, who spins flax in a grey petticoat and greets news of his governorship with equal parts pride and skepticism.

## Who they are

Teresa keeps the household running while Sancho rides off chasing islands, and she receives the duchess's coral beads and letters with a farmwife's mixture of delight and shrewdness. She cannot read, yet she reads people well, and her exchanges with the page and her daughter Sanchica reveal a woman who knows exactly what her husband is worth. She matters because her grounded voice keeps the novel's flights of fantasy tethered to the village life Sancho left behind.

## Relationships

### [Sancho Panza](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/characters/sancho_panza)

_family_

Teresa is Sancho's practical and long-suffering wife, who scolds him for his foolish adventures.

### [Sancho Panza](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/characters/sancho_panza)

_family_

Teresa is Sancho's practical and long-suffering wife, who scolds him for his foolish adventures.

### [Sancho Panza](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/characters/sancho_panza)

_family_

Teresa is Sancho's practical and long-suffering wife, who scolds him for his foolish adventures.

## In the story

### [II: About Cervantes and Don Quixote](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/ii-about-cervantes-and-don-quixote)

Listed among the characters that live and move and have their being, showing Cervantes' broad humanity.

### [Of the shrewd and droll conversation that passed between Sancho Panza and his wife Teresa Panza, and other matters worthy of being duly recorded](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-ii-v)

Teresa is practical and cautious, advocating for their daughter to marry an equal and warning against the dangers of social climbing.

### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-ii-vii)

Mentioned by Sancho as advising him to secure wages.

### [Chapter XXV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-ii-xxv)

Mentioned as being at home hackling flax and drinking wine from a jug with a broken spout.

### [Wherein is related the strange and undreamt-of adventure of the distressed Duenna, alias the countess Trifaldi, together with a letter which Sancho Panza wrote to his wife, Teresa Panza.](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-ii-xxxvi)

Mentioned as the recipient of Sancho's letter.

### [XLVII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-ii-xlvii)

Sancho's wife, to whom he wishes to send a letter and bundle.

### [Chapter L](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-ii-l)

Receives the page, letters, and coral beads; expresses joy and ambition for her husband's governorship.

### [Chapter LI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-ii-li)

Sancho's wife, recipient of a gift from the duchess.

### [Wherein is related the adventure of the second distressed or afflicted Duenna, otherwise called Doña Rodriguez](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-ii-lii)

Writes a letter to the duchess and to Sancho, describing village news and her desire to go to Court.

### [Chapter LIX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-ii-lix)

Mentioned as Sancho's wife; the false history incorrectly calls her Mari Gutierrez.

### [Of the omens Don Quixote had as he entered his own village, and other incidents that embellish and give a colour to this great history](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-ii-lxxiii)

Greets Sancho with concern about his appearance, but is reassured by the money he brings.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/characters/teresa_panza
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/characters