However, this emphasis on individuality over social conformity is juxtaposed by Byron’s reiteration of conventional gender stereotypes. He uses the ottava rima poetic form not only for comedic and satirical purposes, but also to convey his internal conflict on the double standards for men and women. The use of ottava rima allows Byron to highlight self-contradictions in his poem, not only between the short, eight-line stanzas, but within the stanzas themselves with the rhyming couplet at the end. It enables him to jump quickly from one sentiment to the next, destabilising his critique of societal gender norms and casting doubt on the protofeminist position he appears to hold. He ponders on the injustices women suffer, as “man, to man so oft unjust, / Is always so to women”, being objects of sexual desire to “thankless husband[s]” and “faithless lover[s]”. (2. 200) By conveying this idea through the narrator’s male voice, Byron expresses an understanding for the feminine condition, and lends male authority to the critical view of these double standards. However, he continues to reflect society’s conventional views of gender in the stanza right before that, claiming that women devote “all of theirs” to love, and without it “life hath no more to bring”. (2. 199) Despite his critique on societal double standards and their negative effect on women, he continues to objectify them as dependent beings whose sole purpose is to find love. Such a portrayal of the nature of women as devoted lovers and men as “faithless” ones serves to reinforce the idea that men and women are fundamentally different, thus undermining his reflections on the injustices of societal double standards by ascribing their source to innate characteristics present in the two genders. Hence, Byron takes advantage of the poetic form to provide a simultaneous critique and defense of societal double standards.
The instability created by the narrator’s rapid shifts in tone and sentiment not only conveys Byron’s internal conflict - it also reveals an underlying anxiousness about the consequences of reorganising the patriarchal society. This is especially evident in the portrayal of Donna Inez, with her masculinized mothering of Don Juan and focus on education. Juan is completely overpowered by his controlling mother, an inversion of social norms with a masculine woman in power and an effeminate man under control. Inez enforces a “strictly moral” education for Juan, omitting all textual and visual sexual references. (1. 39) This effectively feminizes his education, as virtue and morals are only used to describe the women in the poem. The effect of female masculinity is shown here to “destroy / [Juan’s] natural spirit” and prevent Juan from developing past adolescent innocence as he is sexually inexperienced. (1. 50) By preserving Juan’s childlike innocence and dependence on her, Inez is able to maintain her hierarchical position over Juan and thus wield power in their relationship. The narrator attempts to thwart Inez’s authority, and success in feminizing Juan, by mocking her education and rendering it a superficial, incompetent one. He says “Her thoughts were theorems, her words a problem, / As if she deem’d that mystery would ennoble ’em”, reducing her “thoughts” and “words” to illegible “mystery” and painting a caricature of an educated woman. (1. 13) In doing so, the narrator undermines this subversion of gender stereotypes with the portrayal of an intelligent woman, instead making a mockery of women who attempt to cross the boundaries of their gender’s role in society. Thus, he vilifies female intelligence as an emasculating force that causes men to be “hen-peck’d”, their male masculinity compromised. (1. 22)
Byron’s portrayal of the destruction of male masculinity is intensified through Juan’s relationships with Julia and Haidee. He starts to passively adopt a more feminine outward appearance to escape physical danger from other men in the story for his involvement with the masculinized women. His masculine appearance is first jeopardized when he escapes “naked” after his confrontation with Alfonso, then denied when he is dressed in what is presumably Haidee’s father’s clothes but “[o]mitting turban, slippers, pistols, dirk” and with “very spacious breeches”. (1. 188, 2. 160) The omission of distinguishing male articles of clothing such as the “turban” and “dirk” suggests Juan’s loss of male authority, the “very spacious breeches” emphasising this point by reminding readers of Juan’s adolescent, feminized appearance. He is sheltered by Julia and Haidee to conceal his identity from other male characters, resulting in his own masculinity being eroded due to his passive acceptance of the manipulations of the masculine female characters. The narrator uses masculine imagery to describe Julia, with “a brow / Bright with intelligence” and “stature tall”, and Haidee, with an aura that “bespoke command” and again with a “stature...of the highest for a female mould”. (1. 61, 2. 116) He juxtaposes these older, masculinized women with young, “boyish” Juan, who has a “slender frame” and later regresses into an infantilized, emasculated state on Haidee’s island. (2. 106,110) In doing so, Byron creates a society in which societal gender norms are broken, one that he associates with death and destruction as we see in the consequences faced by all three characters.
Essentially, while Byron’s Don Juan ventures to construct a societal model that challenges the conventional gender roles and boundaries, with its characters rampant transgressions of these conventions, it continues to perpetuate these stereotypes as innate characteristics of the male and female genders. By making a mockery of and punishing the women who attempt to cross these boundaries, Byron emphasises how these gender roles should not be abandoned. In fact, he reaffirms the existence of both gender roles and the hierarchy of the genders by constantly giving the female characters more permanent and severe punishments than Juan. Even when the poem does offer the possibility for both a male and female character to explore their individuality outside of their assigned gender roles in the case of Haidee and Juan, albeit on an idyllic island removed from civilization, it ultimately presents this exploration as something dangerous as Juan is put in increasingly dangerous situations as he internalizes more feminine characteristics. Thus, Byron reinforces the institution of gender roles as a necessary part of society that should not be sacrificed for individuality.
Word Count: 1496
Works Cited
Byron, Lord George Gordon. Don Juan. 1819. Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21700.
by
erinfinalfinalgmailcom (student)
