During this time, he has been portrayed as everything from a callous rapist and murderer to an incurable romantic, incorporating all points in between.
Usually remembered nowadays as a lovable rogue, whose only flaw was an insatiable passion for women, the ‘original’ Don Juan was a vastly different character. He made his debut in a play, set in the 14th century and written by Tirso de Molino in 1630, under the translated title of ‘The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest’. In this, Don Juan was presented as a scheming womaniser with no scruples and scant regard for human life. It has been rumoured that Tirso’s character was loosely based on a well-known ‘high-living’ noble family, but according to history, this has never been confirmed.
Since this early beginning, the Don Juan character has been the subject of more than 40 plays, including George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman; six operas, of which Mozart’s Don Giovanni is probably the most famous, plus many poems, novels and essays. He is also the central character in four major films, where the title role was variously taken by John Barrymore, Douglas Fairbanks Snr, Errol Flynn and Johnny Depp. Don Juan has even featured in songs by Buddy Holly, Joni Mitchell, The Pet Shop Boys and They Might Be Giants. A commemorative statue takes pride of place in the Plaza de Refinadores in Seville, his fictional birthplace.
But just how did the legend begin?
In the original play, the story opened in Naples with Don Juan and the Duchess Isabella, who had just enjoyed a night together in a darkened room in her palace. However, when Isabella wanted to light a lamp, Don Juan forbade it and she suddenly realised that he was not her lover, the Duke Octavio.
She screamed for help and Don Juan’s uncle, Don Pedro, came to arrest the offender. But Don Juan cleverly revealed his identity as his nephew, and Don Pedro assisted him in making his escape just in time. Pedro then claimed to the King that the unknown man was Duke Octavio. The King ordered Octavio and Isabella to be married at once, with both of them to be held in prison until the wedding.
When Don Pedro arrived to arrest Octavio for allegedly sleeping with Isabella, Octavio realised that she must have been unfaithful to him, as of course he knew that he had not been in her bedroom that night. Although deeply in love with her, but feeling betrayed, he fled from Don Pedro, planning to leave the country.
Meanwhile, Don Juan – who had wisely left the area – and his faithful servant, Catalinon, were discovered by a peasant girl, Tisbea, apparently washed up on a seashore at Tarragona. Tisbea tried to revive Don Juan, who woke and immediately declared his love for her. Tisbea took him back to her house, intending only to nurse him back to health and mend his clothes, but Don Juan wasted no time in seducing her and, having had his way, he and Catalinon fled.
Tisbea caught up with the two men, and Don Juan assured her that he intended to marry her, but retracted his promise just before he rode off. Tisbea was immediately overcome with shame at the undoing of her honour and flung herself into the ocean, meaning to drown herself.
Back in Seville, Don Juan’s fortunes were changing almost by the hour: the King had spoken to Don Gonzalo, a nobleman and military commander, about arranging a marriage between Don Juan and Gonzalo’s daughter, Doña Ana, and Gonzalo had approved.
However, Don Juan’s father, Don Diego, thinking that his son might just learn a lesson, told the king the true identity of the man who had seduced the Duchess Isabella, and produced a letter from Don Pedro as proof.
The King declared Don Juan banished from Seville and retracted his plans to have him marry Doña Ana, allowing her father to make arrangements for her to wed another suitor. Just then, Octavio arrived, begging the king’s forgiveness for having fled earlier. The King granted it, and allowed him to stay as a guest in the palace.
Shortly afterwards, Don Juan and Catalinón arrived and talked to the Marquis de la Mota, who was almost as bad a womaniser as Don Juan. The Marquis confessed, however, that he was actually in love with his cousin Doña Ana, but lamented that she was due to marry someone else. The very fact that Dona Ana was promised elsewhere seemed to fire Don Juan’s nefarious ambitions, and when a servant of Ana’s, who had seen him talking to the Marquis, entrusted him with a letter from Ana to Mota, the die was cast for another deception.
In the letter, Ana asked Mota to visit her during the night, at 11 o’clock sharp, since it would be their one and only chance to be together. However, Don Juan told Mota that Ana had asked for him to go to her at midnight; he even persuaded Mota to lend him his cape.
That night, Ana was heard screaming that someone was trying to dishonour her, and her father, Don Gonzalo, rushed to her aid with his sword drawn. However Don Juan drew his own sword and killed Don Gonzalo who, with his final breath, swore to haunt the seducer for ever.
Don Juan left the house just in time to find Mota and give him his cape back; then he fled. Mota was immediately spotted wearing the same cloak as the man who murdered Don Gonzalo, and he was arrested.
Completely unchastened, Don Juan happened upon a peasant wedding the next day and took a particular interest in the bride, Aminta. The groom, Batricio, was perturbed by the presence of a nobleman at his wedding, but was powerless to do anything.
Determined to seduce her, Don Juan then pretended to have known Aminta long ago and deflowered her already. By the law of the times, they were obliged to marry and he convinced her that this wedding would take place at once. The two of them went off together to consummate the union, with Don Juan having convinced Aminta that it would be the surest way to nullify her now-disgraced marriage to Batricio, and allow their own wedding to be celebrated. Needless to say, he reneged on this promise as soon as the conquest was complete and fled once again.
Elsewhere, Isabella and her servant, Fabio, were looking for Don Juan whom she had now been instructed to marry, since he had been unmasked as her seducer. She was not happy about this arrangement and declared that she still loved Octavio. While travelling, they happened upon Tisbea, whose suicide attempt had been unsuccessful. When Isabella asked Tisbea why she was so sad, Tisbea told the story of how Don Juan had seduced her. Isabella then asked Tisbea to accompany her.
Don Juan and Catalinón had made their way back to Seville, and while passing by a churchyard, saw the tomb of Don Gonzalo. Don Juan jokingly invited the statue on the tomb to have dinner with him; he also laughed that the hauntings and promised vengeance had not yet materialised.
That same night, as Don Juan sat down for dinner at his home, his servants became frightened and ran away. Don Juan sent Catalinón to investigate, and he returned, horrified, followed by the ghost of Gonzalo in the form of the statue on his tomb – the ‘stone guest’ of the play’s title. Don Juan was initially frightened but quickly regained control of himself and calmly sat down to dine while his servants cowered around him. Gonzalo invited Juan to dine again in the churchyard with him, and he promised to come.
At the Alcazar, the King and Don Diego, Don Juan’s father, were discussing the seducer’s impending marriage to Isabella, as well as the newly-arranged betrothal of Duke Octavio to Doña Ana. Octavio then arrived and asked the King for permission to duel with Don Juan, whom he held responsible for losing the chance to marry Isabella, his true love. He also told Don Diego the truth of what had happened to Isabella; until now, Don Diego had been unaware of this particular misdeed by his son. The King and Don Diego left, and Aminta appeared, also looking for Don Juan since she believed he was now her husband. Octavio took her to the King so that she could tell him her story.
In the churchyard, Don Juan was boasting to Catalinón about how lovely Isabella was looking and how they were to be married in a few hours’ time. The ghost of Gonzalo appeared again, and set out a table on the cover of a tomb. He served a meal of snakes, fingernails and tarantulas, which Juan bravely ate. However, at the end of the meal, Gonzalo grabbed him by the wrist, striking him dead. In a clap of thunder, the ghost, the tomb, and Don Juan disappeared, leaving only Catalinón, who ran away in terror.
There was already pandemonium at the Alcazar, where every character who had been wronged by Don Juan was complaining to the King, when Catalinón entered and announced the strange story of Don Juan’s death. All the women who, through having been seduced, had been required to regard Don Juan as their husband were declared widows, and Catalinón admitted that Ana had escaped from Don Juan before he had carried out his full intention.
Mota planned to marry Ana, Octavio was to marry Isabella, Tisbea was free to marry again if she chose, and Batricio and Aminta went back home, their marriage declared valid.
In Jose Zorilla’s 19th century play, Don Juan was initially portrayed as a cheat and a murderer as well as a serial seducer with more than a thousand conquests to his name. In this version of the legend, Don Juan took on – and won -- a bet to seduce a nun, and also the future wife of his best friend, Don Luis.
When the girl’s father and Don Luis attempted to avenge the dishonour, Don Juan killed them both and it was their ghosts who invited him to dine in the graveyard. Although he met his end in a similar way – the ghosts came to life and struck him dead – the nun, who had died of a broken heart after the seduction, successfully pleaded his case and he actually went to Heaven instead of Hell.
At the other end of the scale, the romantic poet Lord Byron wrote an epic version of the story which portrayed Don Juan as the innocent victim of a repressive Catholic upbringing who unwittingly stumbled upon -- and into – love, time and again. For example, in one section, he was shipwrecked and washed ashore on an island, from where he was rescued by the beautiful daughter of a Greek pirate, who nursed him to health: a loving relationship developed. When her pirate father returned from his journey, however, he was angry and sold Don Juan into slavery, where, in turn, a Sultan’s wife bought him for her pleasure. Lord Byron’s Don Juan was less a heartless seducer than a victim of unfortunate circumstances and womens’ desire.
Both the Flynn and Fairbanks film versions turn Don Juan into a likeable rogue, rather than a callous womaniser.
The Flynn movie even has him successfully foiling a treasonous plot in the Spanish royal court. Shaw’s play portrays him as a philosophical character who enjoys contemplating the purpose of life.
So Don Juan remains an enigma. With no ‘true’ version of the tale, since he never actually existed, the character can be interpreted as we choose. And, despite his undoubted ‘un-political correctness,’ he remains one of Seville’s most famous ‘sons.’ Hero or villain, the story will be re-told many more times before being finally laid to rest.
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