Adventures recounted by an “innocent” footman

Abstract

This article analyzes the figure of Don Juan’s servant—Catalinón, Sganarelle, and Marco Ciutti—as a key character in the literary tradition of the Don Juan myth, drawing on The Trickster of Seville by Tirso de Molina, Don Juan or The Stone Guest by Molière, and Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla. Through a narrative-essayistic first-person approach, the author reconstructs the servant’s adventures, presenting him as an “innocent” yet active accomplice in Don Juan’s deceptions and transgressions. The study highlights the servant’s moral function as a critical conscience, articulating theological and ethical warnings that Don Juan persistently disregards, as well as his ambivalent position between loyalty and covert criticism. The article examines how each rewriting of the myth reshapes the servant’s character: Catalinón as a morally fearful voice aware of divine punishment, Sganarelle as an opportunistic and cowardly figure driven by material interest, and Marco Ciutti as a witty servant adapted to nineteenth-century Romanticism. The study argues that the servant serves as a thread of continuity within the myth, revealing tensions between free will, moral responsibility, and social determinism. It concludes that this secondary character is essential for understanding the ethical, theatrical, and symbolic dimensions of the Don Juan myth and its enduring presence in Western literature.