Writer’s intro:
George Gordon Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), often known as Lord Byron, was an English poet, nobleman, and politician who joined the Greek War of Independence as a rebel. He is regarded as one of the historically pivotal leaders of his time’s Romantic movement. For the students of English literature, we’ve written the Don Juan Canto I Summary.
Character lists of Don Juan Canto I Summary
Don Juan is the son of a laid-back dad and a strict mom, who is spoiled by both of them. At age 16, he has a relationship with Donna Julia.
Don José Juan’s father cheats on his wife and doesn’t care about his reputation.
Donna Inez Juan’s mother was a smart woman whose marriage was ruined by her husband’s cheating. Her son’s education is one of the most important things to her.
The Narrator is a friend of the family of Don Juan In the first canto, he is taken out of the story, and his place is taken by the author, who knows everything.
Donna Julia is the wife of Don Alfonso and a friend of the family of Don Juan. She is 23 and has been married for three years.
Don Alfonso The man who married Donna Julia is fifty, and his wife doesn’t get the love she wants from him.
Antonia The maid who works for Donna Julia and helps her plot with Don Juan.
Don Juan Canto I Summary
The author starts by stating that since he is too young to serve as the poem’s protagonist, he would instead utilize an old buddy named Don Juan. He was created in Seville, Spain. His parents are Donna Inez and Don José. Donna Inez is extremely intelligent and has an excellent memory. Her favorite scientific topic is math. She has a basic understanding of Greek, Latin, French, English, and some Hebrew. Don José doesn’t enjoy learning new things or being among others who do. He also has a roving eye.
He usually gets into difficulty because his wife is excellent and he never takes care of himself. They clash with one another as a result. With the aid of pharmacists and physicians, Donna Inez seeks to show that her husband is insane. She also keeps a journal in which she lists all of his flaws. She even searches through his trunk of books and letters in search of anything she may use against him. They try to reconcile, but their friends and family are unsuccessful. Their attorneys advise them to file for divorce. However, Don Jose passes away before things can get very terrible.
Donna Inez decides to oversee Don Juan’s schooling. He gains knowledge of languages, science, the arts, fighting techniques, fortification scaling, and horseback riding. Because he doesn’t learn anything about life and only reads the classics in condensed form, his education isn’t particularly beneficial. In other words, his mother ensures that he receives an education that will cause him to lose all of his innate instincts and conceal the realities of life from him.
Part Two of Don Juan Canto I Summary
One of Donna Inez’s pals is Donna Julia, a stunning, intelligent young woman with Moorish blood in her veins. She is married to Don Alfonso, who is incredibly envious and over twice her age. Their union is devoid of affection. There is a myth that Donna Inez and Don Alfonso were formerly romantically involved and that she became friends with Donna Julia to maintain her relationship with her husband.
Although Donna Julia has always admired Juan, her feelings for him begin to change when he turns sixteen, which causes the two of them to feel uncomfortable. Although Julia becomes older and wiser, she begins to see that she is falling in love with Juan. Juan doesn’t understand why he is changing. She chooses to suppress her increasing feelings for Juan and cut off all contact with him. But the next day, she uncovers a justification for seeing his mother. She then successfully persuades herself that her love is spiritual and will remain so. Juan is baffled by his thoughtfulness and needs for solitude.
On a June evening, Julia and Juan were in the same den. Juan’s hand accidentally touches one of Julia’s. As the sun sets and the moon rises, Juan has Julia’s waist in his arm. Julia struggles with specific internal issues.
The third part of Don Juan Canto I Summary
Julia is in her bed one November night when a major altercation starts. Her servant, Antonia, alerts her that Don Alfonso is ascending the steps, followed by the majority of the city. Just as the two women are setting the bedsheets on the floor, Don Alfonso enters the room. In a fit of rage, Julia queries Alfonso as to whether or not she has transgressed. She also wants him to do a room search. While doing this, Alfonso and his group come up empty-handed.
Donna Julia protests her innocence vehemently and persuasively throughout the hunt. She attacks her poor spouse while citing several instances of her goodness. When Don Alfonso can’t find a lover, he attempts to justify his behavior, but all he succeeds in accomplishing is making his wife sob and lose her mind. After being humiliated, Alfonso and his supporters depart, and Julia and Antonia lock their bedroom door.
Juan comes out from under the pile of bedsheets where he had been hiding as soon as Alfonso leaves. Julia and Antonia tell Juan to go into a closet because they know Alfonso will return soon. Alfonso comes back just as Juan is getting settled in his new hiding place. Alfonso gives Julia different reasons why he did what he did and asks for her forgiveness, which she gives and takes away.
The 4th part of the Don Juan Canto I Summary
If Alfonso hadn’t found a pair of men’s shoes, that might have been the end of it. He grabs his sword right away. Julia tells Juan to leave the room and use the key she gives him to leave through the garden gate. On his way out, he runs into Alfonso and knocks him to the ground. During the fight, Juan loses the only thing he was wearing, so he runs away into the night naked.
Alfonso wants to end his marriage. Juan’s mother decides that Juan should leave Seville and spend four years traveling around Europe. Julia is put in a monastery, where she writes to Juan about how much she loves him and how she doesn’t feel bad about it.
Before ending Canto I, Byron adds twenty-two stanzas in which he amuses himself by making a mocking statement about what he wants to do with Don Juan, teases his contemporaries Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey defends the morality of his story, admits that at thirty his hair is gray. His heart is no longer young, talks about how fame is fleeting, and says goodbye to his readers.
The fifth part of Don Juan Canto I Summary
Alfonso, who is fifty years old, is married to Julia, who is 23 and very pretty. Because he is old, her husband can’t meet her physical needs. Thieves fifty years old can still do their jobs, but a fifty-year-old man can’t meet the needs of a twenty-three-year-old woman. So she falls for Juan, who is only sixteen years old.
Julia gets involved in this forbidden relationship only to get sensual pleasure from Juan’s youth. Juan is too bad to pass up the chance to sleep with someone. So, Juan helps Byron be a satirist by saying that a marriage between two people of different ages and different minds can’t bring them peace. Here, Byron makes a lot of fun of arranged marriages between people of different ages.
The theme of Lord Byron’s summary: The terrible consequence of mismatched marriage.
Husband and wife with a huge gap cannot bring any conjugal peace.
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