ABSTRACT
The idealization of Don Juan was bound to provoke a reaction, for the works which view him from this perspective still either show him performing wicked deeds or take such deeds for granted as the shared foreknowledge of author and reader. So Juan continues to act like a blackguard, but is motivated in terms which encourage the reader to admire him. Roujon has taken up the traditional idea of Don Juan’s role-playing and made it central to his plot and to his conception of the two main characters. To escape into a more permanently stimulating world of intellectual satisfaction, Don Juan fakes his own death and descent into Hell, retreating into a secret and cosy imprisonment as husband of the Herzogin von Ronda.
