Lord George Gordon Byron: Don Juan, Canto I

Kevin Yee
Discussion 1B

George Gordon Lord Byron retells a famous legend of a Spanish libertine hero, Don Juan, through a long, satirical poem penned in 1817. It’s a poem, a long and satirical one at that. We were assigned to read the first Canto, found on pages 670-697 (Romantic Period), which introduces Don Juan through his family history, childhood, and early life experience with his first encounter with seduction. Byron’s version of Don Juan is different than the rest; it is an ironic revaluation of the traditional story, casting Don Juan as more of an innocent victim than the promiscuous womanizer he was conjured up to be. In the first Canto, Don Juan is approached by his mother’s friend, Donna Julia.

Byron’s story is found under the theme of “Love, Sex, and Marriage”. Byron’s retelling is a reversal of legend of Don Juan, whose name would be used as synonymous with a promiscuous womanizer. In Byron’s version however, he is portrayed as innocent and naïve. He is not the one pursuing Donna Julia, rather he is noticed by her and seduced. The Norton introduction illuminates how Byron’s version diverges from other writings about Don Juan: “Throughout Byron’s version the unspoken but persistent joke is that this archetypal lady-killer of European legend is in fact more acted upon than active…Unfailingly amiable and well-intentioned, he is guilty largely of youth, charm, and a courteous and compliant spirit. The women do all the rest.” (Norton, 669).

This can also be viewed in the context of “Race and Empire”, appealing to “Orientalism”. Byron’s manipulation of Spanish pronunciation in this poem reveals how this legend is filtered through the lense of a decidedly English perspective. In the first official stanza, in lines 4-6, Byron forces the reader to conform the reading of the last name “Juan” to “Ju-an”. Byron forces this two-syllabled pronunciation through his rhyme scheme – rhyming the name “Ju-an” (line 6) with the preceding phrase “true one” (line 4). Similarly, in lines 1519-1520, Byron alters the pronunciation of the Spanish city “Cadiz” by forcing it to rhyme with the previous word “ladies”. This English-influenced inflection upon the rhymes forces incorrect pronunciation of Spanish names. This satirical turn reveals the ethnocentric mindset renders all in relationship to the central focus of England. In addition, as the TA guest lecturer pointed out, Byron correlates England with forward progressive thinking, exploration, and pioneering, as well as importance. He does so in the with the listing “North, forth, worth”, which strings together England (“North”) with progress and value – “forth” and “worth”, respectively.