Abstract
Byron has said that “Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart, ‘Tis woman’s whole existence.” It is clear that Byron’s love affairs preoccupied most of his daily life; moreover, such a personal history of love inspires him to create a variety of works in which women play a crucial role. Don Juan not only includes colorful romances but also reveals women’s desires and sexuality in a positive way. This thesis is a representation of how women become more individualized and sophisticated through their active pursuit of love in Don Juan. Meanwhile, the inherent tensions of the satiric tones are the narrator’s rhetorical means of compelling the reader to see reality from different perspectives. Within a larger framework of satire, the issue of female sexuality and the concept of love are easily assumed a darker color. In fact, Byron’s usage of a comic tone does not satirize women; instead, he describes how wonderful love is in the world through images of women in love and the emotions that are the original libido desires of human beings. Love is the spiritual enrichment of one’s daily lives and a kind of symbol of energy and happiness. In addition, the author presents women’s gradual getting rid of social constraints and developing their confidence. Their experience of love offers unlimited possibilities for shaping their own identities and results in a kind of spiritual transcendence from which the new thinking and meanings of life are generated. What Byron would like to show in Don Juan is the exploration of human feelings, especially human passion, and the nature of love. In the context of Byron’s arguments against despotism, he thinks that one’s sexuality and desire about love must be free. Traditionally, women’s connection with love is conservative and supposed to be passive. Women become a target for men to choose as part of their lives. However, Byron transforms such a fixed stereotype and depicts female’s active performance in the quest for love. Through the use of satire, Byron presents more accurate concepts of love, human beings, and true freedom. Implicit in the poem is that the nature of love is a kind of desire which exists in everyone’s hearts. Based on Byron’s devotion to liberty, female sexuality is worth admiring and should not be regulated by external limits from society, politics, and morality. Under such a revolutionary intention, the spirit of “carpe diem” is also revised and given a new meaning: it not only includes the hedonic aspect of life but also the extreme effort to change one’s condition. There is no hierarchy in the world of love; women also can dominate men for the sake of true love and happiness they want. Time and physical beauty are fleeting, so making the most present pleasure and fulfillment is very important. Thus, Byron’s revolutionary and rebellious spirit is quite obvious here: he adopts ironic tone to criticize orthodox ideas. He portrays an ideal equality between men and women. This thesis is divided into four chapters. In Chapter One, I outline the background of the study by clarifying the main argument and terminologies, surveying the previous scholarships, justifying my area of study, and laying the foundation for the whole thesis. Chapter Two scrutinizes Byron’s intention by focusing on female characters in his Don Juan. My concern here is to illustrate the positive aspect of female’s active pursuit of love and show their desire, thoughts, personal will and action. Besides, Byron arranges two reversals of gender roles: Juan as a woman in the Turkish episode, and Fitz-Fulke dressed as a ghost to pretend being a friar. The cross-dressing and reversals of both sexes symbolizes a departure from the traditional binary opposition of male/ female. Thus, women are not always seen as subordinate in the gender relation. Chapter Three examines the relation between sexuality and traveling in terms of Julia Kristeva’s discussion of strangers and love in Strangers to Ourselves. For these female figures depicted in the poem, Juan becomes a foreigner for them with whom they can recognize themselves. The women-Juan affairs actually can be seen as a mother-son relationship which Kristeva defines as “chora” whereby women gradually reveal their subversive power to counter patriarchal regulation. In this point of view, the female figures’ aspiration of love in Don Juan can be considered rational and admired in a positive way. Even though women encounter obstacles in the pursuit of love, they still develop their own individualities more and more. In Chapter Four, through Byron’s depiction of amorous atmosphere in this poem, we can understand a kind of life permeated with love is not a waste for a healthy human being. Byron tries to tell the readers that seizing the time to love is very important. Especially as a woman, she should bravely chase her happiness regardless of gender, class, race, and other oppressive elements because love is a kind of strong feeling which happens in a sudden moment without reasons or explanations. At last, Byron’s attitude toward love echoes the typical thinking of Romanticism—“Sentimental emotion is over everything”—an extreme value of love whose strength can save both men and women. Therefore, true freedom and fulfillment for women do contribute to equality between both men and women.