Canto II

In Don Juan, Canto II, there is initially a shipwreck in which Don Juan is the only sole survivor. When Don Juan realizes that all of his ship mates have passed and died, he begins to have visions of death. This is apparent in stanzas 108 to 113.

At the beginning of stanza 108, Don Juan is trying to hold on for dear life but is being thrown around because of the treacherous waves of the ocean. The vocabulary that Lord Byron uses to describe what Don Juan is going through at this time is used to set a sad, depressing mood in which the reader may believe Don Juan will not survive. For instance, “There breathless, with his digging nails he clung Fast to the sand, lest the returning wave…”, this quote is the first line of 108 and sets the mood for the stanzas to follow. When I read this line, it was as though I was there seeing him hold on in order to survive.

There came a point in stanza 110, where I felt as though Don Juan was going to give up because of all the negative things that were occurring around him. He saw his ship mates’ body on the sand and he was continuing to sink. In reality, many people would be considering giving up since it seems as though there was nothing he could do. This is supposed to be an epic poem, but giving up is not what heroes in epic poems would do. There is no heroic deed done by Don Juan, except for the human’s instinct to give up when things seem to be going wrong.

This poem continues to show negative signs of this being an epic poem. In stanza 112 Don Juan seems to have truly given up by closing his eyes and hoping for death. It is not until a “lovely female face of seventeen” happens to swim by that he gains hope for life and forgets about the thoughts of death. If this is supposed to be an epic poem and Don Juan is supposed to be a heroic figure, then why is it that a seventeen year old female with a pretty face had to give him hope for survival?