Don Juan Tenorio

“I should like to see without them seeing me or being recognized.” 

This quote is from Don Gonzalo. Gonzalo is the father of Don Juan's intended bride. He decides that he wants to know what kind of man Don Juan is and sneaks into the place where the two Dons will discuss their bet after a year. He listens and is horrified to learn what kind of man Don Juan really is.

“Bah. I’ll satisfy you doubly, since I tell you that, just for fun, I’ll add a friend’s lady to the novice nun whom he’s about to marry.” 

Even after he's won the bet, Don Juan decides he doesn't want to have an incomplete list of the types of women he's slept will. Don Luis tells him he needs a novice from a convent. He adds in a friend's lady, which leads to him seducing Don Luis's fiancée.

“Don’t think now of Dona Ines. For rather than consent that she marry you, by God, I swear it’s true, I’d make sure to the grave she went.” 

Don Gonzalo foreshadows the death of Dona Ines when he says this. If he agreed to let her marry Don Juan, everyone might have lived. However, his refusal results in his death, Don Juan's exile, and Dona Ines's death as well.

“I don’t know what strange foreboding, what disastrous change my afflicted soul is fearing. By God, I never really thought I would love Ana so or feel for anyone though what I feel for her.” 

Here, Don Luis realizes too late that he loves his fiancée. If he had realized it before, he might not have made the bet with Don Juan.

“Oh! Sleep in peace, Don Luis his audacity and prudence will never succeed with me, for I’ve settled on you, you see, the glory of my existence.” 

Here, Dona Ana reaffirms that she loves Don Luis and has no intention of sleeping with Don Juan. Of course, she can't know then that he's willing to trick her to win the bet.

“I spoke to her of love, of the world of pleasures, the court, how gallant you are, how prodigious a talent you possess with women. I told her you were the man chosen for her by her father, and I have painted you rather as dying for her love…” 

This quote is from Brigida. Don Juan enlists the help of Brigida, Dona Ines's servant, to help him appear in a good light to her. She primes Dona Ines to fall in love with Don Juan. Dona Ines has spent her entire life in a convent and is completely unaware of her potential fiancé’s real character.

“It’s an undertaking fit only for such a man. But, devil take it, it’s as if fortune is always with him, chained at his feet while chance sleeps in submission.” 

This quote is from Marcos Ciutti, Don Juan's servant. Ciutti sees him as he is for the first time as they work out the plan for Don Juan to sleep with Dona Ana and kidnap Dona Ines. He explains Don Juan's character: he’s lucky enough to get away with things that other people would be in trouble for.

“Let’s leave here…I can go to my father’s house.” 

Here, Dona Ines showcases her virtue when, waking in the home of the man she loves, she immediately wants to go to her father's house. Of course, her servant convinces her that she can't go.

“I have never left the cloister, but I’m noble, Brigida: I have honor and I know, by every creed, that Don Juan’s house for me is no good place to be.” 

Dona Ines is innocent but she's also self-aware. She has the innate feeling that the house she's in isn't right for her. It foreshadows what happens later, when her father comes to take her back.

“Mejia, please tell me how I can satisfy your honor. I won the wager fairly but if it has pained you so, if there’s some answer you know, I’ll apply the remedy.” 

Don Juan apologizes and tries to make amends for his past actions. He recognizes that he hurt his friend—a person he might actually care about.

“You’re not the winner Don Juan, since you acted as me in the game.” 

Don Juan pretended to be Don Luis to sleep with Dona Ana. Don Luis makes the point that he had to be himself to win and, thus, lost. This can be seen as a nod toward the fact that Don Juan must ultimately own his actions and will be judged by them, eternally, should he not repent. 

“Comendador, I idolize Dona Ines, persuaded that Heaven intended to grant her to me, to lead my steps along the true path.” 

Don Juan still wants to change. He offers to live with Don Gonzalo and do everything he says to prove that he's a good man. He also offers to let Don Gonzalo monitor his estate and fortune. Once Don Gonzalo is convinced, he'll marry Dona Ines.

“Never. You her husband? Never! I’ll kill her first. Hand her over to me immediately or, unable to control myself, I’ll strike you dead in that vile pose.” 

Don Gonzalo refuses to accept Don Juan as his future son-in-law, and once again foreshadows Dona Ines's death. He says he'll kill her before allowing her to marry Don Juan and the events that follow do lead to her death.

“Consider well, Don Gonzalo, that you, perhaps, will make me lose my own salvation.” 

Don Juan sees Dona Ines as his salvation. He loves her and believes that love can change him into being a man worthy of God's grace. Here, we see, at once, the folly and the truth of patriarchy: Don Juan needs a female to save him, and, at the same time, objectifies the female via this need for salvation. 

“And you, man without grace, who call me a vile thief, too, let this speak to show it’s true, I’ll destroy you face to face.” 

Don Juan kills both Don Luis and Don Gonzalo when the men refuse to forgive him. He shoots Don Gonzalo and stabs Don Luis rather than accepting the consequences of his prior actions. These actions would seem to reinforce the idea that men cannot seek to learn from other men; rather, they can only be saved by women. 

“Justice for Dona Ines.” -Todos “But not against Don Juan.” -Dona Ines 

Even after he's killed her father, Dona Ines doesn't want Don Juan hurt. This foreshadows her eventual bargain to save his soul, which would seem to reinforce the notion of female purity. 

“I should explain, for years now I’ve been gone from Spain, and it shocked me, as I passed, as I reached these gates today to find this distinct, strange, entirely different, changes from when I went away.”

When Don Juan returns to his family estate in Part II of the play, he finds a place where all his victims were buried. He is shocked to see that his father did such a thing with his inheritance. While Don Juan will begin to take more ownership of his actions, at the beginning of Part II, he is still surprised that his actions have consequences. 

“He left his entire property to the one who would fashion a wonderful pantheon to astound posterity. He made one condition that they should bury here those who died, in fear, at the cruel hand of his son.” 

Here, the sculptor explains to Don Juan what happened to his estate. It's another reminder to Don Juan of the awful things he did, and the way those things affected other people.

“Don Juan’s only yearning was for Joy with Dona Ines, now, seeking her loveliness wretched Don Juan returns: see with what pain he burns, finding her tomb, his distress.” 

Even after five years, Don Juan still yearns for Dona Ines. This shows that the love he felt for her wasn't something he faked to seduce her and trick her father.

“I offered my soul to God, the fee for your impure soul, and yes, God, on seeing the tenderness with which I loved a man, said, ‘Wait then for Don Juan in your grave’s loneliness. And since you want to be loyal to the love of a son of Satan, you’ll be saved with Don Juan or be lost with him.’” 

Dona Ines has bargained with God so that Don Juan can be saved. Either he goes to Heaven with her or they're both damned to Hell. Even though she appears to him, he doesn't believe that she's real at first and puts himself in danger of damnation.

“But her statue was here to see. Yes, I saw it and touched it: even gave a trifling fee to the sculptor who carved it. Now there’s only the pedestal and the urn from her funeral.” 

Don Juan tries to convince himself that what he saw wasn't real. He doesn't believe that her spirit appeared, but it still haunts him when he goes to spend time with his friends. Even the statue disappearing doesn't convince him the apparition was real.

“God, in his holy mercy, still grants you time, I say Don Juan, till the new day to set your conscience free.” 

Don Gonzalo also appears to Don Juan. He tells him that he has only the night to unburden himself to God and ask for forgiveness. Even when he walks through a wall, Don Juan has a hard time accepting that the situation is real. This continued disbelief in the apparitions of those trying to save him can be perceived as symbolizing the forcefulness of the male ego. 

“Holy God, I believe in You: may it be though my sins are mighty, I admit, that your mercy indeed in infinite…Lord, have mercy on me.” 

Don Juan is dying and being dragged to Hell and he recognizes that he can ask for forgiveness. Even with a minute of life left, he can ask to be forgiven and find salvation.