The two women have barely enough time to throw the bedclothes in a heap when Don Alfonso enters the room. Her maid Antonia warns her that Don Alfonso is coming up the stairs with half the city at his back. 117).Īs Julia lies in her bed one November night, there arises a tremendous clatter. Julia strives with herself a little, 'And whispering 'I will ne'er consent'-consented' (St. When the sun sets and the moon rises, Juan's arm finds its way around Julia's waist. One of Julia's hands happens to fall on one of Juan's. One June evening Julia and Juan happen to be in a bower together. Juan meantime cannot understand why he is pensive and inclined to seek solitude. She then convinces herself that her love is only Platonic and persuades herself that it will remain that way. She resolves to fight her growing love and never to see Juan again but the next day finds a reason for visiting his mother.

Juan does not understand the change that is taking place in him, but the more sophisticated Julia realizes that she is falling in love with Juan. Donna Julia has always been fond of Juan, but when he becomes a young man of sixteen, her feelings toward him change and become a source of embarrassment to both of them. It is rumored that Donna Inez and Don Alfonso had once been lovers and that she cultivated the friendship of Donna Julia to maintain the association with the husband. She is married to Don Alfonso, a jealous man more than twice her age. In short, his mother sees to it that he receives an education calculated to repress all his natural instincts and keeps the facts of life from him.Īmong Donna Inez's friends is Donna Julia, a beautiful, intelligent young woman with Moorish blood in her veins.

His education is to a certain degree impractical, for he is taught nothing about life and studies the classics from expurgated editions. He is taught riding, fencing, gunnery, how to scale a fortress, languages, sciences, and arts.

But before the situation can reach a critical point, Don Jose dies.ĭonna Inez makes herself responsible for the supervision of Don Juan's education. Their friends and relatives try to no avail to bring about a reconciliation their lawyers recommend a divorce. She also keeps a diary in which she notes all his faults and even searches through his trunks of books and letters looking for evidence to use against him. Donna Inez, with the help of druggists and doctors, tries to prove that her husband is mad. Consequently, there are quarrels between the two. As his wife is rigidly virtuous and as he is incautious by nature, he is forever getting into scrapes. Don José has no love for learning or the learned and has a roving eye. She has a smattering of Greek, Latin, French, English, and Hebrew. Donna Inez is learned and has a good memory. The author begins by saying that since his own age cannot supply a suitable hero for his poem, he will use an old friend, Don Juan.

The lessons of don juan