Don Juan is Byron's masterpiece and a poetic novel. Although this long poem has only completed fifteen chapters, and only part of the sixteenth chapter has been written, it is the author's most mature work in thought and art. By describing the life experience of the protagonist Don Juan in Spain, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Britain and other different countries, the author shows the real life in Europe at the beginning of the19th century, satirizing and criticizing the "Holy Alliance" and the reactionary forces in Europe. In addition, the poem shows Don Juan's kindness and justice, and describes various figures, famous mountains and rivers and social customs in European society through his various romantic adventures. The picture is broad and the content is rich.
In addition, Byron's view of love in Don Juan has also become the focus of many scholars. From this point of view, this paper discusses the attitude and belief of Don Juan, the hero, towards love, so as to further understand Byron's views on love and life.
Betrayal of love
Don Juan, the hero of Don Juan, is a legendary figure in Spain and a recognized playboy who plays with women and has no moral concept. But in Byron's works, this character appears as a seduced character in most cases. Accurately speaking, Don Juan is a "Byronic hero" deliberately created by the author, so there is no lack of autobiographical elements of the poet. Don Juan said that "love is more important than bread and breath, and single-minded love is cruel to other women". [1] This shows that there is betrayal when there is love. As we think in real life, love is selfish. If you love someone deeply, you will betray the person who loves you or others who may love you. Nowadays, love and being loved have always been regarded by young people as the best example of contradiction in philosophy. Think about it carefully, and I have to nod. When a person chooses a spouse, it is also a process of betrayal. Every time he excludes an object that is not suitable for him, it may be a process of betraying himself and others.
Don Juan is passionate, brave and unyielding. Most of his love stories satirize the hypocrisy of the upper class, while his experience with pirate daughter Heidi is full of poetry and romance. For example, in the fourth song of Don Juan, when writing about the quiet and happy love between Don Juan and Heidi on the island, there is a paragraph that reads:
"If I smile at human things,
This is to stop me from crying; If I cry,
This is because our nature can't always let ourselves
Indifference is the last thing we want to see.
Before we go to bed, we must first
Let our hearts keep deep silence in the forgotten river ... "
Then, when only Don Juan and Heidi were left on the desolate beach, Byron sighed again:
"... a young man who died for someone God loved,
They thus avoided many deaths:
The death of a friend, a man who killed more-
Friendship, love, youth and all kinds of death,
In addition to pure life; Since you took the other side of the deposit,
Finally, I have to wait for the longest escape.
The old archer's sharp arrow man, maybe
A painful death will save people when they want to. "[ 1]
From Byron's poems, we can also see that since Heidi, the love between Don Juan and the women he met is decreasing, while the desire is increasing. In Gulpeixiazi and Russian Queen Catherine, Don Juan almost appears as a "fool" who entertains others full-time. Pure love is a distant memory. [5] The forgetting mentioned by Don Juan in the above poem is exactly the betrayal I emphasize here. When a person tries to forget the past, it is betraying himself. Don Juan can only enjoy this romantic pastoral love with Heidi if he forgets his love with the aristocratic young woman. Later, he was favored by Queen yekaterina and became a favorite concubine, which was his betrayal of Heidi. In Don Juan's love tragedy, we see his betrayal of love again and again, which may reveal Byron's view of love. Where there is love, there will be betrayal.
Byron's Don Juan is different because he is Byron's personal book and a book of the soul written by Byron as a poet. Don Juan, the hero of this book, is regarded by most scholars as Byron's re-characterization of himself. Byron's Don Juan, though he has experienced a lot of love, is still portrayed as an elegant, innocent and innocent teenager. Because in Byron's poems, every time love comes, Don Juan will devote himself wholeheartedly, which has a great influence on him. This also reflects Byron's own attitude towards love. Although he has experienced love several times in his life, he still thinks he is loyal to love, because there is betrayal when there is love. This is his love creed.
Loyalty of love
The most touching thing in this long poem is not only Don Juan's romantic adventure and love experience, but also a lot of wonderful metaphors about love are still the favorite of young lovers, and some even become famous sayings describing love. For example:
"I will never change.
Unless blue water turns into gas.
Unless the land becomes an ocean, the seas run dry and the rocks crumble "[1].
Sea water will not turn into gas, land will not turn into sea, sea will not dry up, and rocks will not rot. Using this oath to compare love shows Don Juan's determination never to betray love. "The seas run dry and the rocks crumble" is a popular word to describe love loyalty nowadays. Don Juan has been in love many times, but he is single-minded every time. Although there is no good result every time, at least he is devoted in the process of love.
"Love really has a strange and unpredictable power.
He can withstand the high fever caused by himself "[1]
The word "high fever" here is used to describe the burning pain when love comes. Don Juan is full of passion and passion for love. Byron believes that love makes people burn, love makes people unyielding and loyal to love. Just like some people think that once "love" comes, both the loved and the loved will feel the pressure of "freedom", but love itself gives people the courage to bear this pressure.
"A child is nursing in its mother's arms.
A baby looks at the light from infancy.
The miser kept his treasure in a box.
A believer saw angels flying in the air.
An Arab received a guest from the other side.
A sailor won the prize in the duel.
You will feel ecstatic, but that kind of joy is not comparable.
A lover watches his beloved fall asleep "[1].
This passage uses the method of contrast, comparing the children's breastfeeding, the babies' seeing the light, the miser's making a fortune, the believers' seeing the angels, the Arabs' receiving guests, the sailors' winning prizes and watching their lovers sleep, which sets off the great happiness brought by love. The happiness of these six people with different identities far exceeds the joy brought by love. It can be seen from this that the author still treats love with sacred eyes, and love is always beyond all emotions.
"Lust is a very unstable stock.
When you meet a buyer, you will get a big discount.
I'll take my hand off you "[1]
Here, the unstable stock market is used to describe the love that is only based on lust, and the buyer is what we now call an intervener. Love based on lust is like a rose without roots, which can only last for a limited period of time, not to mention eternity.
"Spiritual life and material life are the same.
And breathing and sucking.
A soul always absorbs.
The feeling of another soul
To enrich yourself.
And then with more emotion
Send it back and forth to others
If between people,
Without this beautiful relationship.
The soul can't have life.
It will lack air!
Will suffer!
It will wither.