In five pages this poem is examined in an overview and then analyzed in terms of how it functions as social satire. One source is cited in the bibliography.
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away from the tongue in cheek romp through the life of a philanderer in Spain. However, it can be said that the ideal audience might never have caught its
message. Indeed the argument can be made for this having been written completely as a satirical comment on those who pretend to be more than they are. Don Juan opens
with the depiction of a very unscrupulous man who seduced the daughter of the commander in Seville, then, when called to task for his misdeeds has a duel with the
father in which he kills the father. In Byrons version of Don Juan, he asks for a hero, as if they are difficult to find. In stanzas 1-5 he states
that there are no more heroes. Then, Byrons Don Juan becomes almost a farce in comparison to the romantic bosom heaving man in the other variations of the story. Instead,
Don Juan is reactive rather than proactive. In fact, it would seem that Byron pokes fun at a good deal many people and institutions in this poem. For example,
Donna Inez is shown to be aggressive and domineering, not feminine at all, because she is educated and articulate. Of course, one has to take into account that Byron had
his own set of biases that he probably brought into the telling of the story, and it can be assumed that he did not have as good a time as
his Don Juan did on paper. In Stanza 40, Byron states that the Classics have been declared to be one of the most necessary of subjects in school, but
that when the discussion of the sexual references rises, they are removed from the text. Also, Donna Julia, one of the women in Don Juans life, is shown to be