


Unfortunately, Byron died shortly after the publication of the last cantos and was therefore unable to complete the entire mock-epic.Īs with Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, the protagonist, Don Juan, is often more a plot device than a character, as the narrator is subsumed into Byron himself. The dedication, sixteen cantos, and fragmentary seventeenth can make up the poem, which Byron insisted were unfinished. Don Juan Analysisĭon Juan is written in groups of eight lines of iambic pentameter that follow an ABABABCC rhyme scheme, which is known as ottava rima. Thus begin a series of shorter adventures among the British aristocracy. There he finds a governess for the girl Leila. Don Juan so impresses the Czarina that she invites him to join her court.ĭon Juan then becomes ill and is sent to England as an ambassador from Russia. Petersburg, where Don Juan and his captive are presented to Catherine the Great. Don Juan almost immediately insults Gulbayaz by bedding one of her courtesans Gulbayaz threatens to have both offenders killed, but Don Juan manages to escape.ĭon Juan then joins the Russian army in its assault on Ismail there he proves himself an able warrior and rescues the Muslim girl Leila. She has him disguised as a girl and smuggled into her chambers. The lovely Gulbayaz, the member of the Sultan’s harem, arranges for Don Juan’s purchase.
