Story summary
Samenvatting van Don Juan, of Het stenen gastmaal
- 8 min. leestijd
- 10 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A seducer invites a stone statue to dinner, and the statue accepts, in Molière's Sicily.
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Don Juan, of Het stenen gastmaal in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 1 h 20 min1 h 5 min fast, 1 h 35 min slow
- Lengte
- 19.100 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1682by Molière
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Don Juan, of Het stenen gastmaal in short
The play follows a nobleman who treats every promise as a game. Over five acts, Don Juan leaves a wife who followed him, courts two village women with the same vow, and talks a creditor out of his money without a coin changing hands. At his side, Sganarelle watches, complains, flatters, and trembles.
What Don Juan, of Het stenen gastmaal is about
A servant holds a snuffbox and tells a squire that his master is the worst scoundrel the earth has ever borne. A moment later the master walks in and explains, cheerfully, why no one woman can ever hold him. That is how Don Juan, or the Stone Feast begins.
Molière wrote this five act comedy in prose, and he played the servant Sganarelle himself. Don Juan marries women only to leave them, laughs at heaven, and has killed a nobleman called the Commander six months before the play opens. You get the play act by act, with the ideas it plays with: desire, belief, honor, money, and smooth talk.
Voor wie is het?. You will enjoy this if you like sharp stage comedy, rogues who talk their way out of anything, and ghost stories with a moral edge.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A servant paints his master as a villain
The play opens with Sganarelle telling Gusman, the squire of Doña Elvira, what his master is. Gusman cannot believe a nobleman would betray a wife he won from a convent. Sganarelle knows better. He calls his master devilish and heretical, a man who would wed anyone, even a cat or a dog.
Then Don Juan speaks for himself. Faithfulness, he says, is fit only for fools. The pleasure of love lies in change. He compares himself to Alexander the Great, a conqueror who wishes for more worlds.
Sganarelle is dazzled and confused. He says the speech sounds like a book, and he cannot answer it even though he knows it is wrong. Don Juan wins with fine words, while the servant has only a shaky sense that something is off.
A man who treats pleasure as his only law can make even cruelty sound like a philosophy.
- 2Begin gratis met lezen
Elvira meets a husband who has found scruples
Don Juan sees Elvira herself, still in her traveling clothes.
- 3Begin gratis met lezen
A shipwreck brings Charlotte into his reach
Act Two moves to a village by the sea.
- 4Begin gratis met lezen
Two promises at once, and a quick escape
Just as Don Juan thinks he has won Charlotte, another village woman, Mathurine, arrives.
- 5Begin gratis met lezen
A doctor's coat and a debate about belief
In Act Three the pair are in a forest, and Sganarelle now wears an old doctor's coat.
- 6Begin gratis met lezen
A debt of honor between enemies
In the forest, Don Juan sees a man attacked by three robbers and runs to help.
- 7Begin gratis met lezen
A visit to the tomb ends with a nod
Walking on, Don Juan notices a magnificent building among the trees.
- 8Begin gratis met lezen
Creditors, fathers, and a visitor in the night
Act Four begins with a creditor, Monsieur Dimanche.
- 9Begin gratis met lezen
Words as weapons, and a world that cannot refuse
Looking back, what stands out is how Don Juan uses language.
- 10Begin gratis met lezen
A comedy that mixes farce, argument, and fear
The play moves between several kinds of theater.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Don Juan A Sicilian nobleman who marries women to abandon them, mocks heaven and honor, and answers every warning with a quick joke.
- Sganarelle Don Juan's servant, who sees his master's faults clearly, fears him, flatters him, and never leaves his side.
- Doña Elvira Don Juan's wife, taken from a convent, who follows him to Sicily and wants an honest answer for his sudden departure.
- Don Carlos Elvira's brother, a careful man of honor who insists on repaying a debt of gratitude before seeking revenge.
- Don Alonse Elvira's other brother, quick to anger, who wants to avenge the family's honor at once.
- Don Louis Don Juan's father, who grieves over his son's scandals and demands that he live up to his noble birth.
- Charlotte A village girl engaged to Pierrot, who is tempted by Don Juan's promise to make her a lady.
- The Commander's Statue A marble figure on a tomb, built for the man Don Juan killed, which answers an absurd invitation.
How it ends (spoiler)
Don Juan agrees to honor his promise to the Commander, and he does not repent when the specter warns him. He gives his hand to the statue, which tells him that persisting in sin leads to a dreadful death. Sganarelle, left alone, cries out for his unpaid wages, since everyone else is satisfied.
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What is Don Juan, or the Stone Feast about?
It follows a Sicilian nobleman who seduces and abandons women, mocks religion, and ignores every warning. His frightened servant Sganarelle watches, and a talking statue of a man Don Juan killed enters the plot.
Who is Sganarelle in Don Juan?
He is Don Juan's servant, a comic figure who describes his master as a villain, flatters him out of fear, and tries clumsy arguments about God. The playwright Molière played the part himself.
Who is the Commander in the play?
He is a nobleman Don Juan killed six months before the play opens. His tomb and marble statue stand in the countryside, and Don Juan foolishly invites the statue to dinner.
When was Don Juan, or the Stone Feast written?
Molière wrote it in the 1660s and first staged it in Paris in 1665. It is a fictional comedy in five acts, set in Sicily, based on an older legend of a seducer.
Is Don Juan easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that it is built from short scenes with lively dialogue, clear comic set pieces, and a servant who comments on the action. The jokes about doctors, debts, and ribbons are easy to follow.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Molière. Don Juan, or the Stone Feast. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/don-juan-or-the-stone-feast.
Molière. (2026). Don Juan, or the stone feast. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/don-juan-or-the-stone-feast (Original work published 1682)
Molière. Don Juan, or the Stone Feast. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/don-juan-or-the-stone-feast.
@book{moliere2026don,
author = {Molière},
title = {Don Juan, or the Stone Feast},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/don-juan-or-the-stone-feast},
note = {First published 1682}
}
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