Don Juan's Libertinism in Molière's Play: Self and Damnation

Introduction: Defining Don Juan's Libertinism

In Molière'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!" (Act 1, Sc. 1, p. 14). In this declaration, Don Juan emphasizes his libertine desire to pursue multiple sexual partners rather than settle for one. 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 Don Juan, bearing out the fact that his character resents any concept of morality that places self-denial at the core of its system.

Don Juan demonstrates his libertinism of manners and ideas through his unconventional approach to women and sexual satisfaction, which he places above the conventional ideal — sex between married persons as an act of procreation — promoted by the culture and heritage of Spanish custom at that time. He celebrates his conquests and pursues pleasure without restraint. The greatest good he seeks is sensual pleasure: the thrill of the chase, the consummation, the pledging of oaths of love and fidelity — all of which he immediately discards. He is the archetypal rake, the man who scorns social custom as nothing more than an obstacle to his own will. Indeed, he takes pleasure in assaulting and violating the customs of the land, as doing so adds to the thrill and ribaldry of his actions, furthering his own sense of grandeur and self-aggrandizement.

Sexual Conquest and the Rejection of Social Custom

He perpetuates his own myth and legend through his sidekick Sganarelle, who knows full well that his master is a mischievous man who does not abide by the manners of polite society — or, if he does, it is only so that he may subvert them later as part of a plan of seduction. When Sganarelle declares at the outset of the play that "Don Juan, my master, is the greatest scoundrel who walked the face of the earth," the character of Don Juan is colorfully depicted in all his anti-heroic glory. As a literary rake, he is able to seduce, charm, and win the affection of the audience even as his behavior despicably casts him in a villainous light the further he drifts from any sense of honor or respect for custom. By the end of the play, when he is dragged to Hell as a result of his obstinacy, the audience's guilty pleasure gives way to a sense of fear, shame, sympathy, and justice. Don Juan's libertinism is punished by the supernatural — which is the only force capable of reaching him, as he himself states just moments before his descent into perdition: "Hah! Nothing on earth can terrify me…" (Act 5, Sc. 5, p. 144). In this sense, his libertinism is condemned not only 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 unrepentant at the end of the play.

Conclusion: The Wages of Unrepentant Pride

Don Juan's libertinism is represented throughout the play in the manner, ideas, and actions of Don Juan himself, as well as those around him. It is seen in the words of Sganarelle, who speaks of his master's sinful and self-serving manner; in the pleadings of Elvira, who attempts to remind Don Juan of his duty to her while he sees only his duty to his own selfish desires; in the ruination of the women he seduces; and in his contempt for the law of matrimony and the ideal of monogamy. He is sexually promiscuous, actively pursues affairs, delights in seducing women and cuckolding men, and regards his conquests as something worth bragging about openly. He cares nothing for the supernatural order that governs the world and refuses to acknowledge it — until it literally acknowledges him and takes him to Hell.