Don Juan, Canto II, Stanzas 100-216

Emanuela Kucik on Don Juan

In stanzas 100-216 of Canto II of Lord Byron’s Don Juan, Don Juan is the sole survivor of the shipwreck in the preceding stanzas. Juan manages to swim to an island, where he is rescued by the mistress Haidee and her maid, Zoe. As time passes, Juan and Haidee fall in love, and the canto ends without assurance of what exactly their relationship will lead to. One of the most interesting aspects of stanzas 100-216 is Haidee’s love for, and borderline obsession with, Juan. Byron uses visual imagery to depict the extent of Haidee’s love for Juan, particularly in the scenes in which Juan is sleeping and Haidee is watching over him.
This use of visual imagery in the sleeping scenes is exemplified in stanza 168. In this stanza, Haidee’s habit of coming into the cave early “to see her bird reposing in his nest,” is clearly depicted. The visual imagery in this stanza shows Haidee gently playing with Juan’s hair, so as not to wake him. The stanza continues to show Haidee “breathing all gently o’er his cheek and mouth,” a line which creates visual imagery clearly associated with both love and obsession. Since Haidee does not truly know Juan yet, I feel this borders more on obsession.
Haidee’s observation of Juan continues in stanza 171, which states that Juan woke to “the finest eyes,” implying that Haidee still watches Juan while he sleeps. This depiction of observation creates a clear visual image of a beautiful maiden standing over a sleeping, shipwrecked but beautiful man with a mixture of curiosity, love, and hope that she may restore him.
Through the visual imagery depicted in the scenes describing Haidee’s observation of Juan as he slumbers, Byron begins Juan and Haidee’s love story. Although Juan is unaware of Haidee’s watchful eyes as he sleeps, he is enraptured by those same eyes when he wakes. However, without the visual imagery created by Haidee’s watchfulness in the sleeping scenes, the depth of her passions would not be as clearly presented, for it is one thing to gaze lovingly at someone while he is awake, but it is another thing entirely to gaze lovingly at that person while he sleeps.