Lord Byron's Don Juan
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. 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
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. 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
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.