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Albert Camus
Don Juan is Albert Camus’ first example of an “absurd man” (found in the chapter of the same name), by which he means someone who successfully lives with the absurd in full view (though any notion of success is ultimately meaningless because of the inevitability of death). Don Juan is a character that appears in numerous works of literature and art (e.g. opera) and is best known for his unrivalled powers of seduction. He moves from woman to woman without hesitation, living a “quantitative” life that Camus sees as befitting someone who is aware of the absurd.
Don Juan Quotes in The Myth of Sisyphus
The The Myth of Sisyphus quotes below are all either spoken by Don Juan or refer to Don Juan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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6. Don Juanism Quotes
If it were sufficient to love, things would be too easy. The more one loves, the stronger the absurd grows. It is not through lack of love that Don Juan goes from woman to woman. It is ridiculous to represent him as a mystic in quest of total love. But it is indeed because he loves them with the same passion and each time with his whole self that he must repeat his gift and his profound quest. Whence each woman hopes to give him what no one has ever given him. Each time they are utterly wrong and merely manage to make him feel the need of that repetition. “At last,” exclaims one of them, “I have given you love.” Can we be surprised that Don Juan laughs at this? “At last? No,” he says, “but once more.” Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to love much?
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This quote comes as Camus gives his first example of an “absurd man,” by which he means someone who lives with total awareness of the absurd. Don Juan is a character who appears in numerous works of literature and art (like opera), and represents the male seducer in his “greatest” form. Essentially, Don Juan lives a life in which he jumps from one lover to the next, fitting in as many as he possibly can into his short life and thereby adhering to Camus’ suggestion that the absurd life should be governed by quantity and not quality. There are numerous Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti n
8. Conquest Quotes
Let me repeat that these images do not propose moral codes and involve no judgments: they are sketches. They merely represent a style of life. The lover, the actor, or the adventurer plays the absurd. But equally well, if he wishes, the chaste man, the civil servant, or the president of the Republic. It is enough to know and to mask nothing.
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This quote comes at the end of the “Absurd Man” section. It represents something of a get-out clause for Camus; if the reader doesn’t agree with his examples of absurd lives, then any other will do fine as an illustrative example. There is no doubt that Camus’ choices of Don Juan, the actor, and the conqueror as “sketches” of absurd lives have involved “judgments”—these are the types of lives that he deems to be genuine responses to the absurd. Camus, here, adds the paradoxical claim that remaining aware of the absurd—“It is enough to know and to mask nothing”—is sufficient Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occae
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Don Juan Character Timeline in The Myth of Sisyphus
The timeline below shows where the character Don Juan appears in The Myth of Sisyphus. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
6. The Absurd Man: Don Juanism
Camus’ first example of the absurd man is Don Juan , an infamous seducer of women. For Camus, Don Juan rejects any notion of “total...
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Some people think Don Juan is a melancholy character, but Camus disagrees. There are two reasons people are melancholy: “they...
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Camus dismisses criticisms of Don Juan that he uses the same “speeches” on “all women.” What matters for anyone seeking “quantity...
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Camus admits that there is something “selfish” about Don Juan , but rejects that this is a problem. He claims that Don Juan can actually...
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Though there are people that would like to punish Don Juan for his behavior, Camus insists that Don Juan simply lives outside of society’s normal moral...
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8. The Absurd Man: Conquest
Camus concludes this section by reminding the reader that Don Juan , the actor and the conqueror are just sketches of a “style of life” that...
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