Byron’s Don Juan: Romantic Subversion

  1. George Gordon, Sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824)
    1. The Byronic Hero
    2. Trouble and Exile
  1. Satire in Ottava Rima: Don Juan
    1. How Don Juan Became Don Ju-an
    2. Meter, Rhyme, and Skill
    3. Scorn for His Rivals
  1. "I want a hero": Bad Marriages and Unhappy Childhood in Canto 1
    1. Portrait of a Marriage
    2. The Affair with Julia
    3. Blasphemy and Poetry
  1. Taboo and Human Nature: Cantos 2 and 3
    1. Shipwreck and Cannibalism
    2. Haidée and Primitive Humanity

But words are things, and a small drop of ink,

Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces

That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think;

‘Tis strange, the shortest letter which man uses

Instead of speech, may form a lasting link

Of ages; to what straits old Time reduces

Frail man, when paper—even a rag like this,

Survives himself, his tomb, and all that’s his. (639)