In Pursuit of the Stony Guest: Byron’s Don Juan and the Modern Concept of Revenge

Abstract

This essay argues that Byron is not only on the look-out for a suitable hero for his narrative poem, but also for an impersonation of the avenger at the end of the story. With Don Juan transferred into the modern age, the ontological category of hell has become as outdated as the threat of a stony guest appearing at a banquet and dragging the over-reacher down into hell. While the idea of eating and feasting pervades the entire poem, the avenger is camouflaged behind different masks and disguises: apparently a convivial Spanish gentleman and banqueter, the narrator dexterously transforms himself into a roguish Yorick, or Mephistopheles exposing their victims to their painful pranks; in the ‘England’ Cantos, he eventually shows Don Juan on the brink of falling into the misogynist inferno of a gynocratic marriage, with Juan curiously petrified and the (female) avenger dressed up as a Gothic friar.