Student Question

Is Don Juan seen as a moral or an immoral poem?

Quick answer:

Don Juan comes across as an immoral poem to many readers but not to all. How the poem is seen in terms of morality depends upon the reader's own worldview.

Expert Answers

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Don Juan is a fantastic poem. You would be hard pressed not to find it included in a British literature anthology textbook. It is exceedingly clever, it is exceptionally well written, and the satire is fantastic; however, your question asks about the poem from a moral perspective. The answer to whether or not the poem is a moral or immoral poem is much more open to an individual reader's opinion. While readers could delve into various moments in the poem that deal with morality in different ways, most readers are likely to tackle the morality question by analyzing Don Juan and his sexual conquests. Depending on a person's own worldview, they may see Don Juan's actions and the poem as a whole a very immoral poem because of Don Juan's sexual immorality; however, Don Juan's actions are only immoral if the reader believes that premarital sex, sex with multiple partners, and/or sex with another person's spouse is a moral violation. This is where the morality discussion of the poem can become wide and varied because many of today's readers are not likely to have a problem with Don Juan having multiple partners. Modern audiences are likely to see this as heroic, and James Bond would wholeheartedly agree. I'm somewhat certain that the hippie free love culture would not see the poem or the character as immoral either; however, many devout Christians would likely lean toward saying the poem is an immoral poem because of the scriptural rules about sex, adultery, marriage, and so on.

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