The play centers around Don Juan, a manipulating womanizer, and his servant, Sganarelle. Don Juan is a hedonistic atheist, seducing women into “marriage” and abandoning them after he gets bored. Sganarelle secretly does not approve of his master’s lifestyle, and tries to get him to change his ways several times, but to no avail. Sganarelle eventually foresees the demise of Don Juan, but refusing to listen, Don Juan dies horribly and is dragged to Hell for his misdeeds.
Moliere’s play clearly has a serious meaning: we must be moral, pious, God-fearing people, or else we will face punishment and damnation. Don Juan is the ultimate sinner. He breaks laws, ruins women, destroys marriages, and tears families apart. Towards the end of the play, he also adopts a false “religious” front, so he can continue his immoral ways behind a facade. Therefore, he is also a hypocrite, which, perhaps, in Moliere’s opinion, is his greatest sin. Sganarelle is like Don Juan’s faulty conscience. He vehemently opposes Don Juan’s blasphemous ways, but does not have the courage to actually confront him about it.
Written during the seventeenth century, a time when religion practically governed society, the play would seem to be a work that many would appreciate, since Don Juan does “get what he deserves” in the end. However, many were shocked at the boldness with which Moliere treated the subject, and the play was pulled off the stage for being “offensive towards religion.” Despite this, Don Juan teaches a message of morality and faithfulness in religion. The beauty of Moliere’s play is that this strong message is craftily stated in a comedic, clever drama.
