SOURCE: Blackstone, Bernard. “Don Juan.” In Byron: A Survey, pp. 287-347. London: Longman Group, 1975.

In the following excerpt, Blackstone examines various themes of Don Juan, including femininity and masculinity, sexuality, love, and power.

‘the Sexual Garments Sweet’

Don Juan is outstanding among English longer poems for the great gallery of women characters which it exhibits; here the only possible comparison is with Shakespeare in his total oeuvre. Each is minutely and sympathetically displayed and discriminated with all the adroitness of a man who (as Byron said in riposte to a Blackwood's accusation of ‘treating women harshly’ in the poem) could honestly affirm: ‘It may be so, but I have been their martyr. My whole life has been sacrificed to them and by them.’ Thus the element of autobiography enters strongly into Byron's presentation: he is remembering his wife as he paints the portrait of Donna Inez, and the...