SOURCE: “Tirso's Don Juan and the Opposing Self,” in Bulletin of the Comediantes, Vol. 33, No. 1, Spring, 1981, pp. 3-7.

In the following essay, Hesse examines the possibility that the characters Don Juan and Catalinon in de Molina's El burlador de Sevilla may represent a single psychological entity.

Some years ago Otto Rank studied the psychological interdependence of master and servant in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni.¹ He views the Don and his servant Leporello as a single psychological entity. In his role as confidant, companion and servant, Leporello makes all kinds of admonitions which Don Giovanni permits because he has need of him. What Rank has done for an understanding of the relationship between Don Giovanni and Leporello has prompted me to investigate whether a similar relationship exists between Don Juan and Catalinón in Tirso's El burlador de Sevilla.

Don Juan and Catalinón may be regarded as characters...