ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Don Juan is not an epic poem. It is a mock-epic poem. It is a mock-epic poem because the hero is not a model man or endowed with great attributes. Instead, he is a gullible, innocent man who constantly yields to temptation, and rather than seeking adventure he accidentally encounters it.

Detailed explanation-2: -Fuess defines Don Juan as a satire and his concern in his study is to prove that the poem is not an epic and he does this by maintaining that: it lacks the sustained positive purpose of an epic; it develops no great epic action; it presents no true epic hero; and it expresses no positive phlosophicai view-point.

Detailed explanation-3: -Dedication to Robert Southey Lord Byron dedicated Don Juan (1819–1824) to Robert Southey, his artistic rival and the Poet Laureate of Britain (1813–1843).

Detailed explanation-4: -The Don Juan legend Traditionally Don Juan is depicted as an arrogant and aggressive libertine who is, ultimately, damned. In Byron’s version the portrayal is very different: his Don Juan (pronounced Joo-ann) is a naïve, passive young man. He is seduced, rather than being a seducer.