Doña Ana's Seduction in El burlador de Sevilla: A Reconsideration

DOÑA ANA'S SEDUCTION IN EL BURLADOR DE SEVILLA: A RECONSIDERATION Luis González-del-Valle, University of Nebraska, Lincoln For a number of years there has been a controversy concerning Doña Ana's seduction by Don Juan in Tirso de Molina's El Burlador de Sevilla. Among those critics who do not think Don Juan was successful in the consummation of the sexual act with Doña Ana are M. L. Radoff and W. C. Salley,(l) Juan Villegas Morales,(2) Bruce W. Wardropper,(3) Francisco FernándezTurienzo ,(4) and Joaquin Casalduero.(5) The opposite view is held by such scholars as A. A. Parker,(6) Duncan Moir,(7) and Vicente Cabrera.(8) In this essay I will reexamine Doña Ana's disputed seduction and attempt to arrive at conclusions true to the play, conclusions not founded upon preconceptions as to what El Burlador de Sevilla should mean. To determine if Doña Ana was seduced by Don Juan, one must study the two passages that are directly concerned with this matter in the play: Ana:¡Falso! no eres el Marqués, Que me has engañado. D. Juan: Digo Que Io soy. Ana: IFiero enemigo, Mientes, mientes! Sale Don Gonzalo con la espada desnuda. D. Gon.:» La voz es De Doña Ana la que siento. Ana:¿No hay quien mate este traidor, Homicida de mi honor? (verses 1562-68)(9) D. Juan: -A tu hija no ofendí; Que vio mis engaños antes, (verses 2762-63) In the first quotation Ana declares Don Juan the killer of her honor and states that he has deceived her. These statements tend to support the interpretation of Parker, Moir and Cabrera, even though they lack precision (after all, Don Juan was deceiving Doña Ana by simply making her believe that he was 42 El Marqués de la Mota; her honor, by the same token, was placed in jeopardy by Don Juan's presence in her home during the night). However, the second speech contradicts their interpretation and the apparent meaning of the first example as Don Juan tells Don Gonzalo of Doña Ana's purity before his death at the hands of the Comendador. The contradiction I am speaking of is studied by Professor Cabrera, who concludes that «it is necessary to understand exactly how Don Juan, in vain, seeks a way to triumph or at least to escape» (p. 50) in his final confrontation with Don Gonzalo. To Cabrera, one should not use Don Juan's affirmation of Doña Ana's unblemished condition (as did Radoff, Salley and Wardropper), for these were the words of a desperate man seeking mercy at the hands of an enemy, a man whose basic characteristic has been treachery and who would be expected (to maintain the consistency of his personality and behavior) to lie and deceive once again. Precisely because of the moral nature of this scene, Tirso wants Don Juan to rely blindly on his habitual tendency to lie so that his fall will loom larger and have more moral impact. Besides, Don Juan, in this scene, is still so confident in the success of his ability to lie that he thinks Don Gonzalo will let it pass unchallenged. Don Juan is, then, the victim of his own overconfidence in his deceiving nature. This overconfidence blinds him and prevents him from seeing that he cannot lie to Don Gonzalo. In this respect Don Juan may be seen entering death through the gate of engaño, the same gate through which he entered his successful career as a lover and sinner (pp. 50-51). Professor Cabrera's views attempt to make Don Juan's final words comply with the overall moral meaning of the play by showing him a deceiver to the last instant. However, this interpretation fails to consider fundamental aspects of El Burlador de Sevilla and could lead us to a misconception about Tirso's moral commitment. As A. A. Parker has indicated, throughout the play we have seen Don Juan disrupting social order not only with his seduction but with those«hideous» deeds that aggravate them, namely, his treachery toward Octavio and Mota...