John Tucker,The Present Day Don Juan
As I was reading this play, it instantly reminded me of a fairly modern (2006) movie titled “John Tucker Must Die.” Both Don Juan and John Tucker are womanizers in their own respective stories. Don Juan treats women like objects. He makes them fall in love with him for self-pleasure. Once he is done with them he leaves them and to go find another “wife.” John Tucker uses his charm and dates several girls at once; breaking up with them once he gets bored. I found Don Juan’s ability to convince both peasants, Charolotte and Mathurine, that he will marry them very amazing yet funny. He was able to pull it off with both girls right in front of him. Similarly John Tucker is able to hold on to multiple relationships with girls in the same school with his sly ability to talk. However, all good things must come to an end. Both characters’ plans backfire. Eventually Elvire, Don Juan’s wife, finds out and her brother is out for revenge. In John Tucker’s case his multiple girlfriends devise a plan to ruin his social life. In the end, the characters’ own downfall is due to their desire for lust.
I thought this was an apt comparison. I can definitely see the parallel to “John Tucker Must Die,” though with a little less teenage drama. I found a moment in the play similar to the scene between Charlotte and Mathurine present in the scene between Don Juan and his creditor, Mr. Dimanche. Equally as tactful, Don Juan convinces this man to whom he owes money to leave without collecting . He brags of his ability to do this to his valet, Sganarelle. Similarly, John Tucker brags to the boys in the locker room of his ability to “play” a number of different girls.
I never really analogized Don Juan to a modern day character, but I have to say, I completely agree with you. Although I never saw the movie, I have seen its trailer, and therefore know what the movie is about. Although the two characters live in two completely different times, their motives are not very different, as they seek women for mere pleasure.
I agree with you guys that Don Juan is similar to John Tucker. Fortunately for Tucker, he suffers heartbreak for about one minute and learns not to go behind his girlfriend’s back. His “true” girlfriend, Kate, made John truly fall in love with her, but broke his heart during this birthday. Tucker, in a way, gets a second chance in the end to redeem himself. He does not get killed, or becomes disabled, but begin to tell his girlfriends that he has multiple girlfriends. On the contrary, in “Don Juan,” Don Juan has no second chances and falls victim to his own deeds. But very similar to “John Tucker Must Die,” is that with each obstacle, Don Juan overcomes it, through his mastery of words. Tucker, the school’s basketball star, has a conflict in where he gets set up to scale a building to go visit his girlfriend in a thong. He wants to see his girlfriend but he is unable to go the girl’s side of the hotel rooms. Instead he ends up in a female teacher’s room. He is taken outside in the hallway, where everyone is taking pictures of him in a thong. The next day in school he goes from the school’s most popular jock to a pansy. But by convincing his teammates to wear thongs so they can play basketball better, he once again continues his reign as the heroic smooth talking star athlete.
I also want to note that in “John Tucker Must Die,” a lesson is learned but there is no death, or bad events happening to the characters in the end. While in, “Don Juan,” Don Juan miserably dies, and his servant is left without a job to earn a living. The endings are different probably because during different times, audiences were different, and back then, there were most likely very little second chances, if one did something to stir the wrath of the Gods.