SOURCE: “The ‘Burlador’ and the ‘Burlados’: A Sinister Connection,” in Bulletin of the Comediantes, Vol. 42, No. 1, Summer, 1990, pp. 5-22.

In the following essay, Conlon examines the role of Don Juan in de Molina's El burlador de Sevilla suggesting that Don Juan's lack of motive or purpose in his cruelty towards women indicates that he symbolizes all male characters.

El burlador de Sevilla begins with an error or, more precisely, a misidentification. In a darkened passageway of the palace of the king of Naples, Lady Isabela, who has just become Don Juan's first conquest in the play addresses the Burlador as “Duque Octavio.” Isabela is not alone in identifying Don Juan as Octavio: Viewers seeing the play for the first time would make the same mistake. They would have no reason to doubt that the man on stage is Octavio, and would continue to believe him to be the...