Don Juan · Chapter
Canto II explained
Don Juan embarks from Cadiz for Italy, suffering severe seasickness and pining for Julia, before a shipwreck leads to a desperate survival at sea.
What happens
Don Juan embarks from Cadiz for Italy, suffering severe seasickness and pining for Julia, before a shipwreck leads to a desperate survival at sea. He eventually washes ashore on a Greek island, where he is discovered by Haidée, and they fall deeply in love, pledging themselves in a natural, solitary wedding.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Marriage
Juan and Haidée's natural, solitary wedding contrasts with societal marriage, which Byron critiques as a bond of treachery and thanklessness.
Satire of Society
Byron satirizes education, marriage, and social hypocrisy, mocking the ineffectiveness of Juan's upbringing and the constraints on women.
Mortality and Transience
The shipwreck and survival at sea highlight human fragility, while the fleeting nature of love and life is underscored.
Characters to notice
- Don Juan
Departs Spain, suffers seasickness, survives shipwreck, and begins a love affair with Haidée.
- Donna Inez
Sends Juan to Cadiz for embarkation and starts a Sunday school after his departure.
- Donna Julia
Remembered by Juan as he reads her letter and vows constancy before seasickness overwhelms him.
- Pedrillo
Juan's tutor, who accompanies him on the voyage and is later killed during the shipwreck survival.
- Haidée
Introduced as Nature's bride and Passion's child; she finds Juan on the shore and they become lovers.
Key passages
“Haidée was Nature’s bride, and knew not this; Haidée was Passion’s child, born where the Sun Showers triple light”
Haidée is innocent of societal conventions, driven purely by natural passion and the warmth of her homeland.
Highlights Haidée's untamed, natural character in contrast to corrupt society.
“And now ’twas done—on the lone shore were plighted Their hearts; the stars, their nuptial torches, shed Beauty upon the beautiful they lighted: Ocean their witness, and the cave their bed, By their own feelings hallowed and united, Their priest was Solitude, and they were wed”
Juan and Haidée exchange vows in a private ceremony on the shore, with nature as their witness and priest.
Describes their idyllic, unsanctioned union as pure and sacred.
“So Juan wept, as wept the captive Jews By Babel’s waters, still remembering Zion”
Juan cries for his lost homeland like the exiled Jews in Babylon.
Biblical allusion emphasizing Juan's sorrow at leaving Spain.