Don Juan - The Don Juan legend, Other Don Juan literature

A legendary figure probably derived from Spanish literature sources. He is a philanderer who has no heart, and whose career is terminated by divine intervention. This comes in the shape of a stone statue, who insists on being Juan's guest and who carries him off to Hell. Mozart's opera Don Giovanni keeps to the traditional story, but more recently Spanish authors have offered psychological explanations of Juan's behaviour.

The Don Juan legend

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The legend says that Don Juan seduced a young girl of noble family, and killed her father.

Most authorities agree that the first recorded tale of Don Juan is El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra (The Trickster of Seville and Stone Guest) by Tirso de Molina.

Depending upon the particular rendition of the legend, Don Juan's character may be presented in one of two perspectives, or somewhere in between: According to some, Don Juan was a simple, lustful womanizer, a cruel seducer who simply gets sex wherever he can. Others, however, see Don Juan as a man who genuinely loves every woman he seduces, and it is his gift to see the true beauty and intrinsic value which exist within every woman.

Other Don Juan literature

Another more recent version of the legend of Don Juan is that presented in José Zorilla's (1817-1893) "Don Juan Tenorio" (1844). The version is formatted as a play in which Don Juan is depicted quite villainously. Outdone, Don Luis replies that his friend has never had a woman pure of soul, planting in Don Juan a new tantalizing desire to sleep with a woman of God. Don Juan manages to seduce both his friend's wife and Doña Ines. Incensed, Doña Ines's father and Don Luis come to try and avenge their lost pride, but Don Juan kills them both, though Don Juan begs them not to attack, for he claims that Doña Ines has shown him the true way. Don Juan gets a little nervous when he is visited by the ghosts of Doña Ines and her father, and the book concludes with a very interesting scene of a veritable tug of war between Doña Ines and her father, with the daughter eventually winning and pulling Don Juan up into Heaven.

In the novella "La Gitanilla" (The Little Gypsy Girl) by Miguel de Cervantes, the character who falls in love with the Gitanilla is named Don Juan de Cárcamo, possibly related with the popular legend.

A play called Don Juan (Don Giovanni Tenorio, ossia Il Disoluto) was written in 1736 by Carlo Goldoni, famous Italian comic playwright.

In the novel The Phantom of the Opera, the name of the opera written by the Phantom is "Don Juan Triumphant."

The famous Romantic Lord Byron wrote an epic version of Don Juan that is considered to be his masterpiece.

Other works derived from the story of Don Juan

1630: Tirso de Molina's play El burlador de Sevilla y Convidado de piedra 1665: Molière's comedy Dom Juan ou Le festin de pierre 1676: Thomas Shadwell's play The Libertine Antonio de Zamora's play No hay plazo que no se cumpla ni deuda que no se pague o convidado de piedra 1736: Carlo Goldoni's play Don Giovanni Tenorio o sia Il dissoluto 1787: Mozart's opera Don Giovanni 1821: Byron's epic poem Don Juan 1829: Christian Dietrich Grabbe's play Don Juan and Faust 1830: Pushkin's play Kamenny Gost' (The Stone Guest) 1831: Alexandre Dumas' play Don Juan de Maraña 1834: Prosper Mérimée's novella Les âmes du Purgatoire 1840: José de Espronceda's El estudiante de Salamanca 1841: Franz Liszt's Réminiscences de Don Juan on themes from the Mozart opera 1844: José Zorrilla's play Don Juan Tenorio 1878: The Finding of Don Juan by Haidee, painting by Ford Madox Brown 1889: Richard Strauss' symphonic poem Don Juan 1903: George Bernard Shaw's play Man and Superman 1902-5 Ramón del Valle-Inclán's Las sonatas 1906 : Ruperto Chapí's opera Margarita la tornera, based on José Zorrilla's dramatic poem. 1910: Gaston Leroux's novel Phantom of the Opera, which includes an opera called Don Juan Triumphant. 1942: Paul Goodman's novel Don Juan or, The Continuum of the Libido, edited by Taylor Stoehr, 1979. Max Frisch's Don Juan oder die Liebe zur Geometrie 1934: The Private Life of Don Juan - Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.'s last film 1936: Ödön von Horváth's Don Juan kommt aus dem Krieg 1949: Adventures of Don Juan starring Errol Flynn 1973: Don Juan ou Si Don Juan était une femme... 1995: Don Juan DeMarco starring Johnny Depp in the role of Don Juan, and also starring Marlon Brando. 1997: David Ives comedy Don Juan in Chicago 2004: Peter Handke's "Don Juan (erzählt von ihm selbst)". 2005: Jim Jarmusch's film Broken Flowers 2006: Andrzej Bart's novel Don Juan raz jeszcze (Don Juan: once again)

Both the Flynn and Fairbanks versions turn Don Juan into a likeable rogue, rather than the heartless seducer that he is usually presented as being.