¶ … Juan's Libertinism In Moliere's Don Juan, both Sganarelle and Don Juan himself discuss the title character in a manner that is consistent with the concept of libertinism. For Sganarelle, his master is one who rejects the social mores of his day for the pleasure of his own conquests (no matter who or what is hurt in the process); for Don Juan, his adventures are rationalized in a diatribe against conventional morality that pits his own desires as the arbiter of what is good (for himself) regardless of what has been said in the past about the concept of virtue: "How absurd to make a specious virtue of fidelity, and bury oneself forever in a single passion, and be dead from youth onward to all the other beauties by whom one might be dazzled!" says Don Juan, emphasizing his libertine desire to have multiple sexual partners and not settle for just one (Act 1, Sc. 1, p. 14). Indeed, his squire comments that "to love in all directions" as Don Juan does is to act shamefully (Act 1, Sc. 1, p. 14) -- a reproach that merely elicits scorn from Sganarelle's master, bearing out the fact that Don Juan's character resents the any concept of morality that puts self-denial at the core of its system. This paper will discuss aspects of Don Juan's behavior that demonstrate his libertinism of manners and ideas in terms of these expressions meaning the assertion of self.

Don Juan demonstrates his libertinism of manners and ideas in his unconventional approach towards women, sexual satisfaction (which he places above the conventional/traditional sex-between-married-persons-as-an-act-of-procreation promoted by the culture and heritage of the Spanish custom at that time), and his celebration of his own conquests and unabashed pursuit of pleasure. The greatest good that he seeks is sensual pleasure -- the pleasure of the chase and of the consummation, and of pledges and oaths of love and fidelity thereafter, he has no care. He is the representation of the rake -- the man who scorns social custom as he views it as nothing more than an obstacle to his own will. In fact, he takes pleasure in assaulting and violating the customs of the land, as it adds to the thrill and ribaldry of his actions, furthering his own sense of grandeur and self-aggrandizement. He perpetuates he is own myth, legend and stature/status via his sidekick Sganarelle, who knows full well that his master is a mischievous man in the sense that he does not abide by the manners of polite society (or, if he does, it is only so that he may subvert them later on -- i.e., it is all a part of his plan of seduction). When Sganarelle declares, "Don Juan, my master, is the greatest scoundrel who walked the face of the earth" at the outset of the play, the character of Don Juan is colorfully depicted in all its anti-heroic glory. As...

By the end of the play, when he is dragged to Hell as a result of his obstinacy, the audience's own guilty pleasure is moved towards a sense of fear, shame, sympathy and justice: Don Juan's libertinism is punished by the supernatural -- which is the only way for him, as he himself states just moments before his entry into perdition: "Hah! Nothing on earth can terrify me ... " (Act 5, Sc. 5, p. 144). In this sense, the libertinism of Don Juan is not just condemned by the orthodoxy of his times but also by the eternal, unchanging law of the supernatural order, which is why he is taken to perdition at the end of play: his libertinism is a sin for which he dies unrepentant.
Thus, while Don Juan's character is depicted in a manner that is fun and enjoyable for the audience, which can delight in the humorous ironies that the Don tosses out (the concept of monogamy being like slavery, for instance, and an unrealistic pursuit for any man who has eyes in his head to see that the world is full of beautiful women), the fact remains in spite of his charm and ability to draw laughs from the crowd, Juan remains a kind of predator, as Sganarelle is constantly pointing out. For example, in Act 2, Sc. 2, Don Juan sees Charlotte and is entranced by the country maid's beauty: he sees her as another opportunity -- an object of sexual adventure; Sganarelle sees her as "one more victim" -- an aside that he makes to the knowing audience, who is in the easy position of delighting in Don Juan's madcap conquests even as it relishes in the assurance of his future damnation (Act 2, Sc. 2, p. 39). Don Juan's attempted debauchery of Charlotte, his use of Elvira (his wife whom he has discarded, but who, unlike him, remains faithful and committed to bringing him back from the brink of his own self-destruction), and his long list of other women whom he has ruined in his past, all point to a track record that is leading him to his own ruination.

For this reason, Don Juan's character is an expression of libertine manners in the sense that libertinism -- or the assertion of self -- is the same as the destruction of self. The play points to the idea that the denial of self, in terms of the moral code and traditions of the time, is what leads to the salvation of self, while the pursuit of selfish pleasures leads only to self-destruction, which is what happens to Don Juan at the end, as he is literally forced from the earthly paradise he has constructed for himself and taken to a world of unearthly suffering. The manners of libertinism acts as a gateway to Hell, in other words, and Don Juan's…