SEXUALITY IN THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY:

”DON GIOVANNI”

A social analysis

Mozart’s opera ”Don Giovanni” has not without reason occupied the minds since its first performance in Prague 1787. In this opera, psychologists too have found good subject matters to write about, but here we shall only take an interest in the social aspects.

The main conflict of this opera is of course the one between Don Giovanni himself and the commander, the commendatore, who is killed by Don Juan already in the first scene. This conflictive relationship is the basis of the following, and is bending a dramatic bow to the avenging return of the commendatore as the stone guest in the last but one scene of the opera.

Who is this commendatore, then, and what does he represent quite socially – just that is at issue here. He is thoroughly the man of the “old” society, clearly representing its patriarchal structure. This is first and foremost expressed through the sad fate of his daughter Donna Anna, who will here stay pent-up, simply because there is no immediate solution. She simply is her father’s daughter; and until she can be married, he, as head of the family, controls her sexuality, whereupon it will be handed over to the spouse. Her sexuality has surely already been grossly challenged by Don Giovanni as well as more considerate by her fiancée Don Ottavio, but that doesn’t change her status here and now. She is still simply her father’s daughter whose sexuality that, due to the much too early death of her father, had not legally been transferred to the spouse. But what does Donna Anna think herself? Well, as for her part also the thought of breaking the “law” is surely not quite unknown. In fact she thought it was Don Ottavio who came to her - she maybe even wanted and hoped for it, and therefore she embraced him with desire and pleasure – but only too late to realize the mistake. Too late! A fallen woman! The only one in the very setting of the opera, who maybe really was allowed to experience the bliss of the moment – but now after the death of her father completely without any possibility of rehabilitation  through blessing of the marriage.

We really have to view women sexuality to be the object of a legal right administered by the man who, so to say, has the deed of it. Consequently, the woman living such a patriarchal life is deprived of any control of herself, in this case rather personally without any legal rights. Surely, Ottavio tries, true enough, of pure love, I think, to make good this deficiency. He really wants to “give” her back her own sexuality, that is to acknowledge her personal control of it – but just that he in spite of his good intentions is not capable of. He himself is the prisoner of the legal system, in which they both live and are children of, and which he personally is unable to settle with. He is not here through any matrimonial contract or in any other way entitled to have the disposal of anything at all, so the only thing Donna Anna in the last scene of the opera has to do, is to ask for another year to think it over before giving him her definitive Yes. And then – will he get it? No one knows, and in this connection, it doesn’t matter.

So we also have the key to Don Ottavio’s own ”psychology” as a very week person. For Donna Anna’s sake, he will even take on the task to revenge the death of her father, but – of course – he lacks the necessary strength and vigour to do so. Good intentions are not enough in life – especially not when social possibilities exclude their very idea. You can simply not revenge the loss of something you have never had. As long as he never legally has taken over the role of the commendatore as regarding Donna Anna’s sexuality, so long will he forever be a stranger who “can’t”, lacks the strength to – just being too week to – defend or even confirm Donna Anna as a woman. If once she will be able to ”present” it, I consider rather doubtful.

Of course in this social consideration, we notice which of the persons are ”Don”, respectively ”Donna”, and who is not. Already these titles show in themselves the status of these persons – so different they might be – assume in this society with its specific laws and rules. Whether they will follow them or even consciously break them is a quite different matter – just the “matter” to our main character.

Seen in that light, Don Juan is naturally the direct adversary of the commendatore. He belongs insofar to the same “old” society with its deeds and ideas of honour and uses them eagerly with clear deceitful intentions – presumably in contradiction to the commendatore himself (at least in his own self-knowledge). The status he has as a nobleman gives him the possibilities to show off for easier to succeed. Nevertheless, he has disregarded all the social bindings this status enjoins him to obey, so that he contrarily to the above-mentioned might operate in a quite egoistical, individualistic way. Also regarding Donna Elvira. And that is thus her problem.

And what is her status in the story? It is the generally accepted view that she is a rather hysteric person, a very troublesome termagant, who cannot make anything out. But what is the background for her to be – just having to be – the way she is? In our perspective, what is the specific status of her sexuality in relation to Don Giovanni, then?

We are told that she has once been married to Don Giovanni, who, however, is merely trying to get rid of her now. It happened to her, what Donna Anna never succeeded in in her relation to Don Giovanni, the parking of her sexuality with a legal spouse, that is, Don Giovanni. But it is exactly this legality Don Giovanni will resign – so to say throw away his deed to. How he personally succeeded in releasing himself from this patriarchal principle has not been brought to light. Anyway, it goes way back in history, because he in the past had rather many erotic affairs, alone in Spain one thousand and three. That he succeeded that well does only prove a certain personal strength, even emphasizes a nobleman’s old (patriarchal) lusts and codes of honour, among others also courage and fearlessness, which he also fully demonstrates to the stone guest.

Exactly all this Donna Elvira in fact admires, which only makes the matter even more complicated. What she wants from him is perhaps merely a little loyalty. Possibly a “reasonable” demand – but not a demand involved in any patriarchal ethics! Therefore you will see her personal, “psychological” staggering between the two equally reasonable feelings, the feeling of admiration and the feeling of insult. And how solve this problem? By the damnation of Don Giovanni and his fall to the underworld, he has really still with him in his luggage the deed of her sexuality, which he has not even taken the trouble to get annulled. And so it ends in the same underworld as he himself, and in this way will be lost to her forever. Therefore she also lastly takes the consequence: She goes into a convent[1] – hardly because of religiosity but simply because she only there will not be confronted with such “underworldly” problems as sexuality! Here she will possibly find peace in mind (and you don’t have to be very Freudian to be able to construct an exiting psychological story based on the female taboo followed by just this anthropological case).

Then we have the couple Zerlina and Masetto. What to tell about them? Firstly, we note that they are neither “Don” nor “Donna”. The way they are represented in the opera, they are clearly nothing – as married they will merely be Mrs. and Mr. “Nobody”! This, of course, is a dangerous abstraction – such humans do not really exist! We only don’t know – that is, they have not been explicitly characterized by – their social stand. Presumably they come from some village in the neighbourhood; in that case, however, they are not even really “free”, but just bound up by the common feudal structures of the agrarian society and, consequently, dependent on landowner or nobleman (possibly even with his right on the first night, cf. “The Marriage of Figaro” where the count has yet renounced this right. All that is ignored here. The young couple is merely brought to the stage (of life) as “themselves” and so with their sexualities being left with themselves, not foreign determined as was the case with Donna Anna’s because of her father and Donna Elvira’s because of Don Giovanni. They can dispose of it as they want – and do so. At least hypothetically!

Here, however, Zerlina as a woman has the best possibilities. Masetto certainly is a man and as such of course infected with traditional ”Alleinvertretungsrecht”, the demand of a man’s only right to dispose of the sexual activities of his wife. We know that from most historical epochs and even among animals – but they’re quite without the glazing of the nobleman’s elegance and courteousness. In brief, he shows himself as the rather stupid example of the masculine gender he really is.

Zerlina has not even like Donna Elvira been challenged in the question of masculine loyalty. Her independent and free sexuality is the only real characteristic in the opera. And she knows how to use it. She is not even quite proof against Don Giovanni’s furious love making to her (which, however, can be a little too fast!), does she finally have to get out of the situation with far too many reproaches or must she even console her Masetto again, her gender is again the panacea. Therefore she and her Masetto have the absolute best prospects for the future – although he will be busy taking care of Zerlina, then at least they have themselves and each other, when it is all over!

But Leporello, Don Giovanni’s servant, has not even been mentioned yet. What stand does he have, especially, of course, related to sexuality? He is so to say a kind of low-status Don Giovanni, has also certain abilities in the art of seduction – but as his master’s servant, he is compelled to offer these alone for his master. Surely, he is cross because of his unpleasant role as a servant, but too week to settle with it – nevertheless, also eating out of the hand you may eat quite well. In this way, he is merely the shadow of Don Giovanni, but mostly being a comical character he has, on one hand, the dramatic function in the opera to throw a poor light on the tremendous dealings of his master (e.g. in the “Leporello” on the other hand to accentuate the aristocratic “deeds” of his master just by lacking them all himself. His only hope after the end of Don Giovanni’s life on earth therefore is to seek a new service, where the situation hopefully is a little better.

In short, after the catastrophe, the couple Zerlina and Masetto seems to have the brightest future – but still under condition of their claimed independence in social respect. Believe it or not. That is not our problem here, where a solely anthropological analysis of the socially determined sexuality is at issue. That this will be realized in quite different ways, on the basis of the different personal relationships, is another matter – just that of Mozart! He shows us the sexual displays in the forms of erotically dreaming, protective desire, jealousy, personal insults, or vindictiveness. This is the psychological aspect of the matter. At issue here is the quite abstract analysis of human existence, explicitly at the end of the eighteenth century.

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 Then, what kind of social relationships throw such a remarkable light over this seemingly eternal story? When still moving us each time we hear Mozart’s music, the same relationships must seemingly still be in force even today, also without the same norms and factors, which should rather have been annulled long ago – and no one, I think, would today ascribe the scene with the stone guest to any sense of reality.

The historical era, formed by the basic to this story – having rather been characterized as a myth – is the end of the feudal period where the patriarchal organized aristocracies, especially on the country, still constituted the backbone of the society, but, anyway, was slowly disintegrating. Nevertheless, on the basis of such legal frames, persons always existed, who quite consciously – like simple thieves, and also ”woman-chasers” broke these frames, just like Don Giovanni here. But just this patriarchal organisation is here questioned by Donna Elvira’s unhappiness and Don Ottavio’s more “modern” form of love for Donna Anna. He at least has the wish to transcend this historically conditioned limitation. Leporello, in this connection, has nothing to offer the posterity; only Zerlina remains with all her strength as a woman – in spite of Masetto’s expected efforts.

Then, is she the heroine of this story? Barely. Certainly she “is” just the person she is, but not through any personal victory over given preconditions (as for instance Fiordiligi in “Cosi van tutte”), but merely because the rest of us have chosen to ignore these conditions as a peasant girl from the neighbourhood. In this way, she is the only one in the whole opera, whose gender was concretised sheer erotically as in the duet  “Your hand in mine, my dearest” together with Don Giovanni.

Therefore this duet has been made the whole opera’s trademark, rather than the highly dramatic scene with the stone guest. Today, we rather believe in Zerlina than in the commendatore. This duet stands as a free and pure unblemished emotional life, to each single individual the most wonderful dream in the world – contrary to all the other’s painful conflicts. These will always make good copies to psychologists, but are also just those, who characterise the era of a structure of society in dissolution – where it is still unsolved (as to Don Ottavio) what shall be put instead. No one knows exactly what maybe already today might evolve, but first at a later time will be strong enough to make the basis to a new and better society.

Besides Zerlina, the ”eternal” person in this respect seems to be Masetto, this stupid example of the male sex – hardly a man, but rather a relic from the pecking order of the animal kingdom. In the opera, however, he lacks the social legalisation, which surely the commendatore has enjoyed in similar situations – which also Don Ottavio’s own sexuality would have acquired if his project with Donna Anna had succeeded. The opera shows us a society in progress, but without clearly defining the germ to the new one. Mozart nevertheless tried in other operas, as for instance in “Cosi van tutte”, (which in spite of its surely unmoral plot and its claimed reconciliation at least finally shows us a Fiordiligi, who in deep internal fight decides to break the personal limitations set up by the society and in “The magic Flute” where Pamina goes through a personal development, through which she in more phases becomes a woman and, at the same time, recaptures her personal right to her own sexuality, and lastly as a quite equalized and “free” woman with the strength of twosomeness, participates in Pamino’s ordeal. We follow her development from a young girl’s duet with Papageno who not at all claims her sexuality, which still belongs to her mother and father – but in quite contradicting ways, challenged, however, by the negro Monastrotos, who is on her mother – Queen of the Night’s – side; from there through deep sorrow because of Tamino’s silence during his second trial where she really sees her sexuality offended, not only from without but also from within, deserted as her personal love – until she finally as mature woman understands the power of true love. That she and Tamino together finally get the leadership of the Temple of Wisdom, dominated by men, handed over by her father Sarastro, I think, in itself a most clear picture of future possibilities where, however, the other side of woman sexuality, exactly the mother aspect, is treated very cruel. And exactly this part of the female gender is not at all represented in the opera Don Giovanni. I really see a social problem in this purely phallic culture from the late Age of Enlightenment where this rather essential feminine function, the motherhood, quite generally is still oppressed.

Positively viewed we are confronted with the question about individual freedom in society to fully control one’s own personality and sexual functions. Here we do not talk about “humans” in general. This would be an empty abstraction. Such beings do not exist. Humans are sexual beings and as such have different functions in society; the women-men interplay being the precondition for generations to be able to follow generations in forming the society – besides just the objective conditions that this society has now been subject to. Here it is not only men’s appetite for young women and the hope for a “happy end” (and just not more than that), which counts. In the matter of generations following generations, you cannot abstract from the importance of motherhood – and also motherhood demands its social representation, which cannot be of less importance than that of the fatherhood.[2]

Yet you will instinctively ask: Where are the men in this matter? Their problem, perhaps, is even bigger than that of the women’s. The men had parked their personal sexuality and rights, so now the women will have to recapture it all, which might be difficult enough after more than 3000 years with the men’s exclusive rights over the families. Men always saw these rights as “natural”, the “nature” just always is at disposal. Now also they have to learn to look at these matters as common rights - regardless of sex. This project, a Don Giovanni would surely to his quite individual purpose loudly proclaim his consent, Don Ottavio could surely also accept, but would certainly be far away from Masetto’s and many other men’s narrow horizon.

But in this way, all problems would certainly not have been solved, not even with socially accepted motherhood. On one hand, this would mean a certain mutual acknowledgement of humans as sexual beings with their different functions in social life. But humans are not merely sexual but even social beings. Society as such will still exist through the interplay between men and women, fathers and mothers, no matter how this interplay for that matter is organised. And, conversely, you can neither get around the fact, that the “society” as such has to change itself relatively to the individuals including also their sexuality’s ethic and legal possibilities of developing. Humans are just sexual as well as social beings, and for the sake of the community, all sides of the material existence – not only that of the generations but also the ongoing daily as well as yearly production of all necessities – must continue in change of times, even if much too common sense and unromantic problem not at all are to be voiced in popular operas. That theme was not made topical until in the following century during the emerged social and property relationship.[3] But like the paternal right is entitled to only a part of society, the property rights of the production is only entitled to an – even very little – part of this. But both matters are historically determined and both relate to the very most basic possibility of making a living as humans. Therefore both must also be socially controlled by means of generally valid rules and laws, which further will be supported by means of ideology, ethics, religion etc. – not to mention the military. Much personal sorrow and misfortune will still come to humanity, as Mozart so wisely has demonstrated in his own way, before the worst excesses of individualism and egoism in social magnitude will be defeated – possibly even in open fight both as gender struggle and class struggle, where the parties separately will focus merely on their own aspects of the conflict of interests. Separately these aspects will even be seen as “holy”, and thus be supported by “fundamentalists”. But in fact they will relate to the same essential social problems about sexuality and property relationship, and will therefore be strongly tabooed. And this will not make the problems easier to solve…