Casanova is not Dom Juan. This is a fact but it has to be said and written. It is the only way to understand the necessity of donjuanism. Casanova lived in a world of desires and necessities. While the world of Dom Juan is another. There are no desires but a passion. There are no necessities but a single one. Without God or master in the hierarchical sense, Dom Juan is only meaningful free. It is therein that his character is a free thinker beyond his time and it is for the same reason that he represents a role model. Casanova on the other hand belongs to his time and seeks through pleasure a degenerate form of carpe diem in a world gone absurd and meaningless. He represents an archetype in a bourgeois society yet even his existence does not call into question the decisions of a system already largely anchored in his mental inertia. It is for this reason that Casanova claims nothing on this plan but he satisfies himself with sentimental conquests.

And the pleasure in the sexual act represents a form of achievement in an ephemeral opus that cannot have tomorrow. This tendency is not expressed likewise in Dom Juan. The latter truly loves humanity in the promethean sense of the term. He is a man who loves justice and who does not hesitate no way to help his prosecutors in an uneven fight. He does not fear society for he does not belong in it. It leaves him totally indifferent. Dom Juan has eyes only for humanity. So his love for women is nothing but the realization of his passion for humanity. Besides, he seeks no way to make them happy, he doesn’t know except very well that this is meaningless. Towards them his single purpose is the offering of joy. For this joy exists indeed and it has nothing to do with the fallacious quest for happiness, advocated by a society that has nothing else to propose to individuals who have neither past nor future. And even the existence of Dom Juan represents an act of resistance forbidden by the bourgeoisie of a society without nobility.

As for the confrontation with the father, it must not be interpreted as an oedipean act but a promethean one. It is therefore an intermediate step opposite the ultimate transgression with the commander. Here is why Dom Juan is self made man. And if he constitutes a form of first man, in the sense of Albert Camus, it is not out of necessity like the latter, but out of choice and by being aware that this choice represents a deprivation. Only for him, it is the only way to reach freedom. Since inside solitude, equality and brotherhood have no meaning, while freedom is the humanization of the individual in a world without god. Dom Juan does not oppose himself against God but against every form of hierarchy that hinders freedom. His revolution is not only a revolt neither a hopeless act. It is humane, without doubt very humane, and it is without any doubt that Molière considers himself obliged to give him such an end. The theater does not have the potency except its company but the text remains and belongs henceforth to humanity out of need.