Johannes

Since The Seducer's Diary represents - to an extent - the real-life relationship between Soren Kierkegaard and Regine Olsen, Kierkegaard represents himself as Johannes, a dashing, young seducer bent on making Cordelia his own. Johannes, like Kierkegaard, is a well-to-do bachelor from a rich family in Copenhagen, Denmark who has heretofore remained single. When he meets Cordelia he immediately falls in love and decides quickly to embark on a long, extended plot to win Cordelia's love and hand in marriage.

Johannes is the protagonist of The Seducer's Diary, as well as the Seducer of The Seducer's Diary. As such, all the diary entries are his. Rarely does anyone else even have speaking lines. Instead, Johannes almost exclusively portrays his comings and goings alongside his observations and thoughts rather than the actual conversation that transpires.

The first part of Johannes's plot is to discover how Cordelia lives and what...