Lord Byron's Don Juan: From Womanizer to Victim

In the early nineteenth century famous poet Lord Byron embarked on a project that did the literary world a favor for centuries to follow. Don Juan had already become a famous character who provided readers from centuries passed tales of swashbuckling antics and manly triumphs of battle, travel, conquest, and of course women. First made famous, most likely, by a Spanish play in the 14th century; Don Juan's character is most often portrayed as a wealthy, hyper-sexual womanizer who goes through many situations involving women.

The impending conflicts with men such as the ladies' fathers and English Lords provide the literary opportunity for the authors to twist the tale as they please. Lord Byron's wonderful attempt at the tale of Don Juan took the form of a poem. Not just any poem, but an epic poem. Byron decided to take the character on a globe-trotting tour of Europe and Asia, and placed him in precarious situations as usual. He of course placed many women in the path of Don Juan.

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But Byron was not just going to write an epic poem, but a satirical epic, a comedy of Don Juan to be used as a vehicle to 'to be a little quietly facetious upon every thing,' as he told his friend Thomas Moore in 1818 (Boyd). The poem is written in iambic pentameter in a rhyme scheme known as ottava rima. The scheme was common in tragedies and comedies due to the use of rhymed endings that added dramatic effect. Readers and literary critics may consider that the overall theme and character of Don Juan differs in Byron's version, with Don Juan seemingly being more of the victim and less of a womanizer.

Through the 17 cantos that are written Don Juan can still be found to be a man who makes choices. The interesting thing to consider is what was left to be written, and what choices was Byron going to have Don Juan make that readers will never find out. This being because Byron's work was never finished. Boyd began the poem in 1818. Around six months after he began, the first two cantos were published. Following that, Byron continued his work at odd and uneven intervals, and the publication continued on the same path.

The third and fourth cantos were released nine months after the first two, and this unstructured production continued for five years. In 1823, Byron died while still writing the seventeenth canto, leaving the masterpiece unfinished. The poem begins spelling out the fortunate beginnings of Don Juan. He is born of nobility and possessing classic and obligatory Don Juan good looks. Almost immediately in the first canto the reader and Don Juan are introduced to his first female problem.

After his father Don Jose passes away, his mother Donna Inez educates him and introduces him to her friend and his first lady problem, Donna Julia. The wife of Don Alfonso, she is young beautiful, unhappily married, and of course attracted to Don Juan. Don Juan has his first chance to give in to his desires and obliges the readers, but out of his choice. After surviving and escaping the resulting conflict with Don Alfonso when caught in their bedroom, his mother sends him away for four years to travel and develop moral character.

She of course is starting the engine necessary to send Don Juan on seventeen plus cantos of adventure around the world. There are a couple of notable things that occur in this first canto. The situation with Donna Inez is clearly immoral. Don Juan is not portrayed as much as the womanizer from Don Juan's tales passed, but does very much give in to the ladies' pull. The naming convention used for the characters is a simple element that can set the tone for the comedy. Although sophmoric, the Dons and Donnas that the reader is introduced to can seem silly.

On a ship boarded for Italy, Don Juan encounters troubles at sea. These adventures include a shipwreck, eating shoe leather, and cannibalism. Don Juan's next lady in line is Haidee. She, along with her maid find and nurse back to health Don Juan, who is of course the sole survivor of the ordeal. Don Juan begins yet another forbidden love affair with her, this time her father being the obstacle. Once Haidee's father Lambro is believed to be dead, the couple begins a charming life in his residence in true Don Juan fashion. Lambro returns and surprises the young lovers. Haidee bears the runt of the resulting conflict and dies. Byron shows us a deeply affected Don Juan as a result of the loss of this love. This sets the scene for future female encounters. After the ordeal Don Juan is sent away to Constantinople for slavery. The next lady in line for Don Juan is Gulbeyaz, a sultana. This time Byron puts Don Juan back in front of a married woman, but in a much different circumstance. Now a slave, Don Juan is forced to cross dress and becomes Don Juanna. Gulbeyaz commands her new slave to make love to her. Byron keeps the story line of a very distraught Don Juan going.

He bursts into tears and refuses, his reason being his lost love Haidee. The reader may assume that a connection between the main character and the sultana is imminent when the sultan bursts into the room. Byron never allows the connection to happen. The approach by the sultana was wrong and our protagonist is still reeling from Haidee. Either way, Don Juan was not his womanizing self in this exchange. Byron takes Don Juan to Ishmael and delights readers with adventure and battle. Don Juan bounces back to his ways. His next woman in line is Catherine in St. Petersburg, Russia.

He also has a new type of female involved, the orphan Leila that he brought with him. As Don Juan brings his dispatches from the front to the Russian court, Catherine inevitably falls in love with the messenger. Don Juan makes the connection and Byron gives the readers a couple of cantos full of Don Juan glamor. After the cold climate forces Don Juan to England, Byron decides to put two women in his path. Firstly, in canto XII Don Juan solves the problem of what to do with Leila, the orphan. Next Lady Adeline and Lady Fitz-Fulke are his new female opportunities.

Byron has the narrator tell readers that both ladies may have their eyes on Don Juan. At the Abbey where Don Juan is staying there is rumored to be the ghost of a monk. On cue, Lady Fitz-Fulke appears to Don Juan like a ghost in the middle of the night. Unfortunately this brings readers to canto XVII and the abrupt, unfinished end of the poem. Byron's description of Don Juan's last female encounter tells readers that the next morning Don Juan was “wan and worn” and the lady 'had a sort of air rebuked — / Seemed pale and shivered . . ' (St. 14). Although suggestive that the connection was made between the two, Byron leaves readers unsure. This could have been a turn in the poem where Don Juan decides to make his moral leap. Turning down the advances of the ghostly duchess could be what has caused the remarked morning appearance of the two. Readers will never know where Lord Byron was going next. It is easy to make guesses. Don Juan may have turned down the lady and continued his adventure back to Seville to show his mother how he grew.

He very well may have turned to be the Don Juan of old and made a few more lady connections on the way. Lord Byron very well may have just been playing with the character and having fun using him as a vehicle to write satire and comedy about people and places. Up to the last words of Lord Byron's masterpiece, the continuing theme of the of this particular Don Juan was not clearly one of a womanizer, nor a man victimized by seductive women. He was clearly a very lucky (at times) and charmed man that was a victim of extraordinary circumstances.

Some choices where out of his hands. They were necessary plot twists that Byron used to guide him to adventure, battle, and female opportunities. In all of these encounters with the ladies, Don Juan was still able to make the choice of whether or not to engage.

Works Cited

Boyd, Elizabeth French. Byron's Don Juan: a critical study. Taylor ; Francis, 1958. Brownstein, Rachel Mayer. Brownstein, Rachel Mayer. 'Byron's Don Juan: Some Reasons for the Rhymes. ' Modern Language Quarterly 28. 2 (1967): 177-191. Byron, Lord. Don Juan. MobileReference, 2010.



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