How does Byron present the lovers in this passage?

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Matthew Holland, College

Byron: Don Juan

Canto I Stanzas 104-117

How does Byron present the lovers in this passage?

Byron feels very strongly about love, believing it to be a very good thing, especially when found in the young. Thus he presents the two lovers as sweet and beautiful. A third adjective, innocent could be added to the list and in Juan’s case certainly should be-however, throughout the passage we find hints that it does not apply to Julia.

        In stanza 106 Byron says that “her creed in her own innocence” was “immense.”

So she believes forcefully that what she is doing is innocent and not wrong, and yet she knows it is: ‘….she inly swore…….she never would disgrace this ring she wore.’ However, Byron does not damn her for thinking of ‘Don Alfonso’s fifty years,’ instead he justifies this behaviour in the hole of stanza 108. This is most probably because of Byron’s own feelings on the matter of love – he would not have backed away from extra-marital or adulterous love, believing infidelity to be a social normality. He believed that no shackles should be placed on love; it should be natural, and indeed this is how, to some extent, he does portray the love which blossoms here, though not as much as Juan’s later relationship with Haideé, ‘unconsciously she leaned upon [Juan]…’

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        So, Byron shows us that Julia is aware of the wrongness of her impending deed, but he does not condemn her. Indeed it could be argued that Byron presents her infidelity as sweet and innocent in itself. The evidence for this can be found in the rhyming couplet at the end of stanza 105.

        ‘One hand on Juan’s was carelessly thrown,

        Quite by mistake – she thought it was her own.’

        

Clearly Julia knows the hand is Juan’s, but the lines are very tongue-in-cheek, and seem to be actually poking fun, very gently, at Julia’s pathetic attempts to ...

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