If you've heard the expression "He's a Don Juan" before, you know that a "Don Juan" is a guy who gets lots of sexual attention. Traditional stories tend to show the character of Don Juan as a middle-aged womanizer, but Byron turns the story on its head to show Don Juan as an innocent young man who has trouble fighting off the advances of women. That's Byron's sense of humor for you. In a time when men were clearly the sexual aggressors, Byron saw fit to make his main male character into the object of women's sexual desire. Don Juan can only resist for so long before he gives into some of these women. But who are we to judge him? Byron asks.
Questions About Sex
- Do you think Don Juan is just the object of women's desires, or is he responsible for most of his sexual encounters? Why?
- Do you think Byron is immoral for being so sexually explicit in this poem? Why or why not?
- Why does Byron spend so much time talking about his own sex life in this poem?
Chew on This
In Don Juan, we learn that sex is meaningless enjoyment that has nothing to do with love.
In Don Juan, the main character is a good person who's looking for love in all the wrong places. (Sing it, Johnny Lee.)