Sobre el autor/dramaturgo y
la obra
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Spain,
1579-1648
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Baroque dramatist, poet, and Roman Catholic
monk/priest
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This play was first published in Spain around
1630, though it may have been performed as early as 1616. Set in the 14th
century, the play is the earliest fully developed dramatization of the Don Juan
legend.
Main Characters
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Don Juan – protagonist (a young noble);
relentlessly seduces all women possible by promising them marriage; receives
deserved punishment at end
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Isabela – Duchess that Don Juan seduces; she was
going to marry Duke Octavio
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Don Gonzalo – nobleman and military commander,
Doña Ana’s father
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Doña Ana – noble woman and don Gonzalo’s
daugther; is engaged to Don Juan for a time (but the engagement is broken off);
is in love with her cousin the Marquis de la Mota
Secondary Characters
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Octavio – Duke, Isabela’s lover
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Don Pedro – Don Juan’s sympathetic uncle
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Tisbea – peasant girl seduced by Don Juan
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Catalinón – Don Juan’s servant
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King
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Don Diego – Don Juan’s father
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Marquis de la Mota – another womanizer, who is
in love with Doña Ana
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Aminta – another peasant girl seduced by don
Juan
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Batricio – peasant man who is newly married to
Aminta
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Fabio – Isabela’s servant
Themes
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Gender roles
o
Women are often powerless and
seduced/manipulated by men like Don Juan
o
Don Juan is a “manly man” due to his powers of
seduction
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Honor – Women are dishonored by having sex
without getting married.
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Element of fantasy – Don Gonzalo’s statue/ghost
comes to life
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Religious message – against behavior such as don
Juan’s
Summary
Act
One
The play begins in Naples with Don Juan and the Duchess
Isabela, who alone in her palace room, have just enjoyed a night of love
together. However, when Isabella wants to light a lamp Don Juan threatens to
kill it. She suddenly realizes that he is not her lover, the Duke Octavio, and
screams for help. Don Juan's uncle, Don Pedro, comes to arrest the offender.
But Don Juan cleverly reveals his identity as his nephew and Don Pedro assists
him in making his escape just in time. Pedro then claims to the King that the
unknown man was Duke Octavio. The King orders Octavio and Isabela to be married
at once, with both of them to be held in prison until the wedding.
At home, after Octavio speaks of his love for Isabela, Don
Pedro comes to arrest him, claiming that Octavio had violated Isabela the
previous night. Octavio, of course, had done no such thing, and starts to
believe that Isabela has been unfaithful to him. He flees from Don Pedro,
planning to leave the country.
By the seashore of Tarragona, a peasant girl named Tisbea
happens to find Don Juan and his servant, Catalinón, apparently washed up from
a shipwreck. She tries to revive Don Juan, who wakes and immediately declares
his love for her. Tisbea takes Juan back to her house, intending to nurse him
back to health and mend his clothes.
Back in Seville, the King speaks to Don Gonzalo, a nobleman
and military commander, about arranging a marriage between Don Juan and
Gonzalo's daughter, Doña Ana. Gonzalo likes the idea and goes to discuss it
with his daughter.
Back at the seashore, Don Juan and Catalinón flee,
apparently after Don Juan has already seduced Tisbea. Catalinón scolds him, but
Don Juan reminds him that this is not his first seduction, and jokes that he
has a medical condition in which he must seduce. Catalinón says that he is a
plague for women. Tisbea catches up with the two men, and Don Juan assures her
that he intends to marry her. Tisbea is so overcome with grief and anger over
what happened that she exclaims "fuego, fuego" meaning that she is
burning up with hate and a desire for revenge. She is also overcome with shame
at the undoing of her honor and flings herself into the ocean, however, she
doesn't die and we see her again in the third act.
Act
Two
In Seville, Don Diego, Don Juan's father, tells the king
that the man who seduced the Duchess Isabela was not Octavio, but Don Juan, and
shows a letter from Don Pedro as proof. The King declares Don Juan banished
from Seville and retracts his plans to have him marry Doña Ana. Just then,
Octavio arrives, begging the king's forgiveness for having fled earlier. The King
grants it, and allows him to stay as a guest in the palace. Next, Don Juan and
Catalinón arrive and talk to the Marquis de la Mota, who is a womanizer nearly
as bad as Don Juan. The Marquis confesses, however, that he is actually in love
with his cousin Doña Ana, but laments that she is arranged to marry someone
else. Mota says he is going to visit Ana, and Don Juan sends Catalinón to
follow him in secret. Don Juan's plans are also helped along when a servant of
Ana's, having just seen Don Juan talking to Mota, asks that he give to Mota a
letter from Ana. In the letter, Ana asks Mota to visit her during the night, at
11 o'clock sharp, since it will be their one and only chance to ever be
together. Mota comes back again, apparently not having found Ana at home, and
Don Juan says he received instructions from Ana that Mota should come to the
house at midnight. Mota lends Don Juan his cape at the end of the scene.
That night at Don Gonzalo's home, Ana is heard screaming
that someone has dishonored her, and her father, Don Gonzalo, rushes to her aid
with his sword drawn. Don Juan draws his own sword and kills Don Gonzalo. With
his final breath, Don Gonzalo swears to haunt Don Juan. Don Juan leaves the
house just in time to find Mota and give him his cape back and flees. Mota is
immediately seen wearing the same cloak as the man who murdered Don Gonzalo and
is arrested.
The next day, near Dos Hermanas, Don Juan happens upon a
peasant wedding and takes a particular interest in the bride, Aminta. The
groom, Batricio, is perturbed by the presence of a nobleman at his wedding but
is powerless to do anything.
Act
Three
Don Juan pretends to have known Aminta long ago and
deflowered her already, and by law she must now marry him. He goes to enjoy
Aminta for the first time and convinces her that he means to marry her at once.
The two of them go off together to consummate the union, with Juan having
convinced Aminta that it is the surest way to nullify her last marriage.
Elsewhere Isabela and her servant, Fabio, are travelling,
looking for Don Juan, whom she has now been instructed to marry. She complains
of this arrangement and declares that she still loves Octavio. While
travelling, they happen upon Tisbea, whose suicide attempt was unsuccessful.
When Isabela asks Tisbea why she is so sad, Tisbea tells the story of how Don
Juan seduced her. Isabela then asks Tisbea to accompany her.
Don Juan and Catalinón are back in Seville, passing by a
churchyard. They see the tomb of Don Gonzalo, and Don Juan jokingly invites the
statue on the tomb to have dinner with him and laughs about how the hauntings
and promised vengeance have not yet come.
That same night, as Don Juan sits down for dinner at his
home, his servants become frightened and run away. Don Juan sends Catalinón to
investigate, and he returns, horrified, followed by the ghost of Gonzalo in the
form of the statue on his tomb. Don Juan is initially frightened but quickly
regains control of himself and calmly sits to dine while his servants cower
around him. Gonzalo invites Juan to dine again in the churchyard with him, and
he promises to come.
At the Alcazar, the King and Don Diego, Don Juan's father,
discuss the impending marriage to Isabela, as well as the newly arranged
marriage between Mota and Doña Ana. Octavio then arrives and asks the King for
permission to duel with Don Juan, and tells the truth of what has happened to
Isabela to Diego, who was until now unaware of this particular misdeed of his
son. The King and Diego leave, and Aminta appears, looking for Don Juan since
she thinks he is now her husband. Octavio takes her to the king so that she can
tell him her story.
In the churchyard, Don Juan tells Catalinón about how lovely
Isabela looks and how they are to be married in a few hours. The ghost of
Gonzalo appears again, and he sets out a table on the cover of a tomb. He
serves a meal of vipers and scorpions, which Juan bravely eats. At the end of
the meal, Gonzalo grabs Don Juan by the wrist, striking him dead. In a clap of
thunder, the ghost, the tomb, and Don Juan disappear, leaving only Catalinón,
who runs away in terror.
At the Alcazar, every single character who has been wronged
by Don Juan is complaining to the King, when Catalinón enters and announces the
strange story of Don Juan's death. All the women who have claim to Don Juan as
their husband are declared widows, and Catalinón admits that Ana escaped from
Juan before he could dishonor her. Mota plans to marry Ana, Octavio to marry
Isabela, Tisbea is free to marry again if she chooses, and Batricio and Aminta
go back home.
