Part One (See Q's for Cantos 2 & 3 ):
Editor's Preface:
727:

• What three historical  levels does Jerome McGann  identify in Don Juan?

• What are the characteristics of the traditional epic poem? To what degree does Byron employ them?  Explain.

• What is the main point of this Dedication?

• Is Don Juan portrayed in this Canto as the seducer or the seduced? Explain.

• Explain the autobiographical significance of stanzas 27 and 28.

• Explain the narrator's self-conscious remark in 1.440 (see also 1.671-72).

• Explain the discussion of sultry climate in 1.503-5.

• Explain Donna Julia's strategy for fighting her attraction to Juan.

• Does Julia really consent (1.935-36)? Explain.

• Why does Julia express such outrage?

• Describe the distinction between men and women's love made in stanza 194.

• How, according to the speaker, will this epic differ from traditional ones?

• Why is Byron parodying the Ten Commandments in stanzas 205-206?

• Explain the discussion of age in stanza 213.

• Explain the discussion of fame in stanzas 218 and 219.

727:

• Explain:  "He sought to treat public issues with the conversational fluency of a skeptical intelligence engaged with the ordinary materiality of the world" (667).

• What is ottava rima?
• Who is Bob Southey (1)?

• Who are Scott, Rogers, Campbell, Moore, and Crabbe?  Explain lines 55-56.

• Explain lines 135-36.
• Why is "Juan" anglicized?

• Why does Byron list so many "heroes" who are "not at all adapted to my rhymes" (1.24)?  Why aren't they?

• Explain his discussion of digression in l.51-52.

• How does the narrator characterize Donna Inez?

• Explain lines 1.111-13.

• Explain the discussion of "female errors" in 1.127-28.

• Explain the discussion of intellectual ladies in 1.175-76.

• Why would someone need to scale a nunnery (1.304)?

• Why does Donna Inez dread "the Mythology" (1.328).

• Explain the discussion of editions in stanza 44.

• Why does Donna Inez hire only old or ugly maids (1.381-83)?

• Explain the reference to the Virgin Mary in 1.599-600.

• How does solitude function for Juan in stanza 87?

• Explain Byron's references to Wordsworth and Coleridge in stanzas 90 and 91.

• Explain the description of Love in 1.843-48.

• Does Julia really think Juan's hand is hers (1.872)? Explain.

• Explain the description of the moon in stanzas 113 and 114.

• Explain the sense of chronology in stanza 121 (see also stanza 104).

• Explain the discussion of the sweetness of love in stanza 127.

• Explain the discussion of inventions in stanza 132.

• Why does Don Alonzo bring "half the city" to search his wife's bedroom  for her lover?

• Why does Antonia suggest Juan would have been a better choice for Julia if he were older?
• Explain the discussion of women's strategies in stanza 175.

• Why is Julia's heart "the victim" (1532)?

• Describe the discussion of future cantos in stanza 199.

• Explain:  "Oh! never more, my heart. / Canst thou be my sole world, my universe!" (1.1713-14).

• Why does Byron quote Southey at the end of the canto?

Canto Two:

• What other epics include shipwreck episodes?

• How does the tone in stanzas 27-32 and 45-54 differ, if at all, from that found in Canto One?

• Explain the description of dead Catholics in stanza 55.

• Describe the discussion of the desire for life in stanza 64.

• Is the decision to commit cannibalism portrayed sympathetically here? Explain.

• Explain the description of the kiss in stanza 186.

• Why do Haidee and Juan risk being "damn'd for ever" (2. 1540)?
• How does the beginning of their relationship compare with that between Aeneas and Dido in The Aeneid?

• Explain the significance of the first line.
• Explain the discussion of love in stanza 2.
• Explain the discussion of woman's love in stanza 3.
• Explain the discussion of love and marriage in stanza 5.

• Explain the discussion of love and marriage in lines 3.59-60.

• What function does the poet serve?

• Explain the discussion of writing in stanza 88.

• Explain the simile used in lines 2.414-16.

• Why do some of the "cannibals" go mad?

• Explain lines 2.661-64.

• Explain the description of Haidee's eyes in stanza 117.

• What is an "Eastern anti-jacobin" (3.627)?

• Explain the discussion of Greece in lines 703-706.
• Explain stanza 5 of the Greek song.

• Why does the speaker keep repeating the suggestion to drink Samian wine?