Don Juan y el paganismo. Un estudio sobre Don Juan o el amor a la geometría de Max Frisch y Don Juan de Leopoldo Marechal

Abstract

There are many versions of El Burlador de Sevilla or El Convidado de piedra by Tirso de Molina. Besides, as George Steiner argues as regards the “Antigones”, there is no certainty whether the origin of the plot belongs to only one author, or it was the storyline that transcended the most. Elizabeth Frenzel defines plot as one “storyline” that comes to the author as a way of experience, report or tradition through myth and religion, or as a historical event. This is different from “theme”, which is more abstract, and, to a certain extent, it is deprived of a plot. This paper will analyze the theme of paganism in Don Juan or the geometry of the Swiss author Max Frisch and the Don Juan of the Argentine Leopoldo Marechal. Departing from there, other issues or framing motifs (bearing in mind that they contemplate central motifs such as the licentious man, man and nature, and the man between two women) such as nature, the relationship with women and the myth configuration will also be discussed. Both authors, from different styles and cultures, work with the vulnerability of the character who can hesitate, be moved and cry. Love is mainly related to Don Juan Tenorio de Zorrilla, as Inés does not appear in El Burlador. As regards the myth, Steiner resorts to Jung who affirms that the human psyche generates mythic configurations and characters when trying to achieve integration with some aspects of its primary mode of being. Don Juan is one of those.