Don Juan · Chapter
Canto XVII explained
The narrator reflects on the nature of orphans, both literal and metaphorical, and the flaws in education and society.
What happens
The narrator reflects on the nature of orphans, both literal and metaphorical, and the flaws in education and society. He then returns to the story, finding Juan and the Duchess looking pale and shaken after a mysterious night, possibly involving a ghost. The chapter also includes a digression on intellectual persecution and the slow acceptance of new ideas.
Themes in this chapter
Satire of Society
Byron satirizes societal attitudes toward orphans, education, and the slow acceptance of new ideas, mocking the hypocrisy of those who resist change.
Illusion and Reality
The chapter blurs the line between ghostly encounter and mundane reality, as Juan and the Duchess appear shaken but the truth remains ambiguous.
Characters to notice
- Don Juan
Juan appears wan and worn, with eyes that hardly brooked the light, suggesting he had a troubling encounter during the night.
- Lady Adeline Amundeville
The hostess, assembled with the company for breakfast.
- Lord Henry Amundeville
The host, present with the company at breakfast.
Key passages
“The world is full of orphans: firstly, those / Who are so in the strict sense of the phrase; / But many a lonely tree the loftier grows / Than others crowded in the Forest’s maze— / The next are such as are not doomed to lose / Their tender parents, in their budding days, / But, merely, their parental tenderness, / Which leaves them orphans of the heart no less.”
There are many kinds of orphans: those who have lost their parents, and those who have lost their parents' love, which can be just as damaging.
Byron expands the definition of orphanhood to include emotional neglect.
“What was a paradox becomes a truth or / A something like it—witness Luther!”
Ideas that once seemed contradictory can later be accepted as true, as shown by Martin Luther's reforms.
Byron uses Luther as an example of how revolutionary ideas eventually become accepted.
“Great Galileo was debarred the Sun, / Because he fixed it; and, to stop his talking, / How Earth could round the solar orbit run, / Found his own legs embargoed from mere walking:”
Galileo was punished for claiming the Earth orbits the Sun, and was placed under house arrest to silence him.
Byron highlights the persecution of scientific truth by authority.