Don Juan
Lord Byron’s Don Juan is a satirical poem that offers a seemingly comical and serious outlook of sexuality. In three different sexual relations in three different places, the events that surround Don Juan are both laughable and questionable. From an early affair with Donna Julia, to an innocently, beautiful engagement with Haidee and finally an unfulfilled and avoided relation with the Sultana Gulbeyaz, Don Juan escapes through the clutches of love with shattered innocence, a broken heart and near fatal eroticism. “As Byron’s satiric genius developed, it tended to employ less and less of the traditional axe-swinging of the neoclassic satirists and to approach more and more the mocking and ironic manner of the Italian burlesque poets...Finally, when his satiric genius had fully ripened, Byron found complete expression in serious and social satire” (Trueblood, 19). From an early age, Don Juan was destined to wander through a maze of sexuality. One can see this unfolding by merely looking at his parent’s marriage.
Let us first look at Don Juan’s parents, Don Jose and Donna Inez. Byron presents the couple ironically and comically. Donna Inez, “morality’s prim personification ...perfect past all parallel” (Byron, I, 16-17), still is not good enough for Don Jose. A man with a greater concern for women than knowledge, Don Jose is not a particularly admirable father figure. He lacks respect for his wife, and “like a lineal son of Eve, /Went plucking various fruits without her leave” (Byron, I, 18). This allusion to Don Jose being a son of Eve is somewhat accurate and satirical. Like Eve, he is careless and unaware of the consequences of his actions. However, as Eve’s son, the offspring of God’s beautiful creation, Don Jose is given holy qualities. He cannot be blamed for his actions, and for a long time, Donna Inez blinds herself from his wrongdoings and maintains their marital status. Their relationship is practically pointless; a mother and father that wished each
Let us first look at Don Juan’s parents, Don Jose and Donna Inez. Byron presents the couple ironically and comically. Donna Inez, “morality’s prim personification ...perfect past all parallel” (Byron, I, 16-17), still is not good enough for Don Jose. A man with a greater concern for women than knowledge, Don Jose is not a particularly admirable father figure. He lacks respect for his wife, and “like a lineal son of Eve, /Went plucking various fruits without her leave” (Byron, I, 18). This allusion to Don Jose being a son of Eve is somewhat accurate and satirical. Like Eve, he is careless and unaware of the consequences of his actions. However, as Eve’s son, the offspring of God’s beautiful creation, Don Jose is given holy qualities. He cannot be blamed for his actions, and for a long time, Donna Inez blinds herself from his wrongdoings and maintains their marital status. Their relationship is practically pointless; a mother and father that wished each