Don Juan Tenorio

Don Juan Tenorio owes a great deal to this earlier version, as recognized by Zorrilla himself in 1880 in his Recuerdos del tiempo viejo (Memories of the Old Times), although the author confuses de Molina with another writer of the same era, Agustín Moreto.

People in the crowd ask him if he is not afraid that someday there will be consequences for his actions, but Don Juan replies that he only thinks about the present.

In following scenes, Don Juan manages, through charisma, luck and bribery, to fulfill both terms of the bet in less than one night.

As he prays, the statue of doña Inés comes to life and tells him that he only has one day to live, in which he must decide what his fate will be.

Inés is speaking from Purgatory, having made a deal with God to offer her own blameless soul on behalf of don Juan's.

God therefore agreed that their two souls would be bound together eternally, so don Juan must choose either salvation or damnation for both himself and doña Inés.

In order to prove his bravado, he heretically invites don Gonzalo's statue to dinner that evening.

When Avellaneda and Centellas wake up, don Juan accuses them of having contrived this show to make fun of him.

This carefree character is much more conflicted than Molina's original and highlights the manner in which the values of the myth can be reinterpreted.

Zorrilla's play (and don Juan's final repentance) is often understood as an assertion of the author's conservativism[citation needed] and Catholic faith.

Later, he wrote biting criticisms of the work in an apparent attempt to get it discontinued long enough for him to revise it and market the second version himself.