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"LIFE IS A DREAM" (PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA).
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Analyzes Spaniard's 17th Cent. philosophical drama. Illusion vs. reality, history, astrology, free will, symbolism.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Analyzes Spaniard's 17th Cent. philosophical drama. Illusion vs. reality, history, astrology, free will, symbolism.
Paper Introduction:
INTRODUCTION
One of the philosophical plays of Calderón de la Barca is Life Is a Dream, a play that mixes several different themes in a complex fashion shaped around the basic plot and interaction of the characters. Calderón expresses these themes in terms of imagery evoked either by the words of the characters or by the staging of the play itself. The essential conflict in the play is political--how can a ruler know that his successor is worthy and what can he do to assure a continuity of rule that will be of benefit to the kingdom? Patterns of imagery in the play contribute to this theme and to the other themes of import in the play--free will versus determinism, issues of deception, and the underlying concept that life is a dream. The basic contrast in the play that serves these different themes is that between
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Hesse believes that this tendency begins with the titleof the play itself: Some of the confusion arises from the several meanings of the play's title. Around this seemingly banal event, however, gathers a complex symbolic system, whose ramifications constitute an essential theme of the play. Freedom and free will are both addressed in the play, and each isassociated with the horoscope and with the fate that Basilio tries toescape. El significado de "La vida es sueno". He must gamble on the efficacy of eternal guidelines, which present themselves in the play as arbitrarily as Euripidean gods from the machine (Maraniss 82).Self-deception is one of the kinds of deception that is most strong, fromthe way Basilio deceives himself about his ability to control fate to thedeceptions by which Segismundo lives and from which he recovers. His deceitful intention is exposed when Estrella discovers that he is carrying another woman's (Rosaura's) picture (Hesse, Calderón 141).In the end, though, the deceptions are intended to be swept away asCalderón overwhelms the audience with grandeur and serenity and a glimpseof the eternal: In the tragedy of La vida es sueno, the prince must suffer an emotional death before he can begin to control himself. . This can be seen in Segismundo's imprisonment: Though at first not evil himself, he is a victim of evil and supreme injustice insofar as he is a man, born free, and yet enslaves. Calderón also applies the idea of death in life to Rosaura as well; her position is a variation upon this theme, involving her honor as well as he behavior (Maurin 139-14 ).The image of the sepulchre may be used to denote an event contrary tonature. DECEPTION Deception is an important component in the development of the plot ofthis play. Here and elsewhere Calderón has the protagonist confuse the idea of freedom with free will; or, to state it another way, he fails to distinguish between freedom and license (Hesse, Calderón 141).Another issue centered on this same thematic problem is the conflictbetween free will and predestination, as seen in the horoscope whichBasilio has cast for his son, a horoscope that predicts that the princewill be a tyrant and will conquer his father: The prophecy is fulfilled, but not completely, for Segismundo learns self-control and the meaning of the dignity of the individual. Woodbury, New York: Barron's Educational Series, 1958.Cilveti, Angel L. IMAGERY AND SYMBOLISM Calderón uses both horse and light imagery at key points in the play,usually in meetings between Rosaura and Segismundo, the two characters mostlinked by their situations, their background, and their fate (Williamsen22). It may carry its "face value" meaning that life is a dream, i.e., that life is only a figment of the imagination, a fiction, and that real life begins only after death in the next world. This theme begins before the play itself with Astolfo'sdeception of Rosaura, and before that with Clotaldo's seduction ofViolante. CONCLUSION Calderón has constructed a complex work that seems simple in someterms but which involves deeper philosophical and psychological insightwhich the audience must unscramble for a full understanding of the play.The primary characters deceive themselves and one another, and yet they doemerge from this deception and reveal truths to one another. Much about the story is familiar, telling as it doesthe story of how Segismundo evolves into the perfect prince. 117-131.Fox, Dian. 95-1 3.Magill, F.W. . The essentialconflict in the play is political--how can a ruler know that his successoris worthy and what can he do to assure a continuity of rule that will be ofbenefit to the kingdom? The political relationships in Life Is a Dream havebeen much discussed. Levy, J. "The Horoscope Motif in La vida es sueno." In Pedro Calderón de la Barca Comedias, Volume XIX, J.E. ASTROLOGY Consider the importance of astrology in the structure of the play, inthe theme of fate, and in the way Basilio in particular understands hisfate and foolishly tries to elude it only to run directly into it. He is aware from thefirst of what that fate will be because he has learned the details throughastrology. The king who governs absolutely, anticipating no resistance to his will, welcomes trouble to his realm (Fox 1 5).This is the sort of tyranny of which Basilio is guilty. Hesse refers to the structure of Life Is a Dream as astructure enmeshed with a thematic complex, a cluster of themes common tothe masterpieces of the Spanish baroque, themes which the audience mustsort out and examine carefully in order to come to a better understandingof the work: The themes are sometimes found in contrasting pairs and are interrelated: pride and humility, free-will and predestination, man and beast, freedom and imprisonment, love and hate, illusion and truth, life and death, honor and dishonor, light and darkness, and honesty and deception (Hesse, Calderón 14 ).Many of these pairings can be rearranged to complement other pairings. Heseems bewildered by the fact that he has lost this most cherishedpossession: He contrasts himself with a bird, a beast, a fish and a stream; he has less freedom than they although of superior intellect. The true significance of Rosaura's fall becomes evident when she discloses that she has journeyed to Poland in order to avenge her honor, and her accident thus becomes at once reality and symbol, concrete evidence of her moral "fall," symbolic representation of her dishonorable passion (Maurin 133).In depicting this event, Calderón combines symbolism of fantastic semi-mythical creatures and darkness, something he does often in creating asense of something outside nature, something monstrous that threatens themere mortals who are his characters. The style in which these themes arepresented is known as culteranismo, or the ostentation of "culture,"meaning an affected erudition intended to lend artificial brilliance toliterary style with excessive use of classical allusions and mythologicalreferences. Life Is a Dream. (Calderón 1).Rosaura here describes her horse was a combination of horse and giraffe.The fact that Rosaura has fallen at the beginning of the play has moresignificance than a mere accident: Rosaura's fall from her horse, which has just occurred as the play opens, would appear to be, at first sight, merely a dramatic device which results in the confrontation of the two protagonists. Life is like a dream also in the sense that it is so chaotic that it becomes almost impossible to distinguish between fact and fiction, dreaming and waking, and truth and a lie (Hesse, Labyrinth 95). . In this way, Basilio would have the best of both worlds: Amor proprio does its work in more ways than he admits; it not only makes him sure of the rightness of his forecast and at the same time confident of his ability to defeat it, but it also makes him choose to avoid the menace to the State (his State) and to himself, rather than do justly by his son (Dunn 121-122).The problem faced by Basilio is that he does not seem to understand thepassage of time and the nature of change. The horoscope becomes a symbolical representation of the whole courseof the relations between Basilio and Segismundo: The fulfillment of the prophecy cannot be regarded as if it were the result of a destiny which worked completely outside the nexus of human actions; the fulfillment is a natural effect of the inadequacy of action to situation, of Basilio's lack of prudence and foresight (Dunn 123).Basilio spends all his energy trying to control a fate that is outsidehimself and that he can still influence how that fate develops. . The former has showered all kinds of flattering epithets upon Estrella who reproves him for his vile action (the use of meaningless flattery), more worthy of a beast than of a human being. Basilio indeed is a character who wants to do things right, and hesees escaping his fate as accomplishing this task because he believes thatif he is overthrown as prophesied, the kingdom and its people will sufferunder the hands of a tyrant. Valencia, 1971.Colford, William E. They alsofight against their fate and in so doing often cause that fate to comeabout, precisely what they did not want. At the sametime, though, it is the story of the less-familiar changes in the King: It has become apparent that the virtuous ruler hides nothing from his subjects: the private and public personas of the monarch must be completely compatible. Patterns of imagery in the play contribute to thistheme and to the other themes of import in the play--free will versusdeterminism, issues of deception, and the underlying concept that life is adream. "The Monster, the Sepulchre and the Dark: Related Patters of Imagery in La vida es sueno." In Pedro Calderón de la Barca Comedias, Volume XIX, J.E. The primary theme in the play is reality versus illusion, a theme towhich Calderón returned in his works again and again. He learns to regard his erotic and self-expressive impulses and imaginings as so destructive that he must exchange them for the narrowest kind of orthodoxy in order to survive. ILLUSION VERSUS REALITY Everett W. Much of the deception in the playcontributes to this same sense of illusion and dream. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1973.Hesse, Everett W. But since in the life of Segismundo there is a definite causal sequence, and likewise in that of Basilio, it must follow that the horoscope has a place in the scheme, in such a way that it can have a different resolution for each character (Dunn 121). The dream-like nature of life ismade a central issue in the play, and the fantastic imagery and exaggeratedcharacters and situations contribute to the sense that this is a dream insome way never precisely defined. Calderónexpresses these themes in terms of imagery evoked either by the words ofthe characters or by the staging of the play itself. This deception parallels another as Segismundo does not learnuntil later that Basilio is his father as Clotaldo is Rosaura's: The theme of deceit is found in another aspect of the action between Adolfo and Estrella. In Approaches to the Theater of Calderón, M.D. The fantastic serves always as the source of ideas and actions inthis play, and the fantastic itself is evocative of a dream. . The basic contrast in the play that serves these different themesis that between reality and illusion, considering the difficulty in tellingone from the other with any certainty. Ara, and G. it can also mean that events, fortunate and unfortunate, pass rapidly as though in a dream and do not endure. London: Gress International, 1973. This is accounted for inthe fact that we can approach the horoscope through Basilio or throughSegismundo, and in either case it has a different aspect: An event has no meaning unless it is related to the lives of those who participate in it or are affected by it, and it will have as many "meanings" as there are lives for it to affect. Indeed, arguably in this case as wellBasilio has created his own monster by trying to avoid being confronted byone. . Good encounters evil in the battle oflight and dark, as when Rosaura peers into the prison and sees only inkyblackness. The play is set in Poland and is only tenuouslygrounded in history. Cilveti agrees with this assessment and finds that the tragedy of theplay is to be found in the fact that the characters are impotent todiscover ultimate reality without supernatural help, and so they finallysubmit to the influence of faith over reason (Cilveti 225-227). Thus free will triumphs over predestination (Hesse, Calderón 141). If Life Is a Dream deals with absolute reality at all, this reality is transcendent reality, not earthly reality. Forinstance, the contrast of illusion and truth is reflected in the contrastof honesty and deception, since deception is one of the means taken tocreate illusion and hide truth. he threatens to attack her. Inthe play, the efforts of Basilio to escape his fate actually create thecircumstances which make that fate come to pass. . Calderón de la Barca. The often fantastic imagery is usedto expand this idea into different areas and to emphasize traits andcharacteristics that might otherwise be missed in the characters and theirplight. INTRODUCTION One of the philosophical plays of Calderón de la Barca is Life Is aDream, a play that mixes several different themes in a complex fashionshaped around the basic plot and interaction of the characters. New York: Twayne, 1967.Hesse, Everett W. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1982. Human life, indeed, everything that man perceives through his senses, remains just as mysterious for the writer of Life Is a Dream as it does for men of our own age. Clotaldo continues to deceive his daughter after he knows whoshe is. "A Modern Operatic Version of La vida es sueno." In Calderón and the Baroque Tradition, K. The success or failure of a king in Calderón's historical playsare not governed by the laws of political science but by an unwavering setof moral principles. His pride is responsible first for thecertainty with which he believes in the truth of his own prediction and forthe equal certainty that he can defeat the working of what he regarded asfate. Moreover, when he is returned to his tower--which upon awakening he addresses as his "sepulcro"--he is himself responsible for being there and for its having become a sepulchre once more. Works CitedCalderón. Critical Survey of Drama. Hughes (eds.).Ontario, Canada: Wilfred Lauries University Press, 1985. "La vida es sueno and the Labyrinth of Illusion. . "Introduction." In Life Is a Dream, Calderón. Varey (ed.). Indeed, a belief in astrology presupposes a beliefin predestination, and so the human being who learns of his fate and triesto change it is challenging his own core beliefs: In the author's mind, the greatest illusion of which humans are capable is the belief that they may autonomously control their destiny (Magill 3 5). London: James, 1986.Gerstinger, Heinz. At the beginning of the play, Rosaura falls from her horse andcomments on that fact with a fantastic image: Wild hippogriff, that matched the wind in flight, Dark lightning, dull-plumed bird, unscaled fish, Brute beast that makes a mock of nature's laws, Now wherefore art thou come in headlong plunge Through twisting trails to reach this barren brink? Had he not killed the servant, tried to ravish Rosaura, and proved himself generally incapable of control over his emotions, his days of thralldom would have been at an end (Maurin 141). One of the illusions involved in this play is the illusion ofhistory. Woodbury, New York: Barron's Educational Series, 1958. Calderón's absolutes lie in the realm of faith, not in philosophy (Gerstinger 87).A.L. Englewood Press, New Jersey: Salem Press, 1986.Maraniss, James. One of the great illusions in the play is that human beings cantake such knowledge and make use of it, when in fact they do not have thepower to change fate. 133-149.Williamsen, Vern G. The Minor Dramatics of Seventeenth-Century Spain. For Calderón, thereis an almost inescapable human tendency to confuse truth and illusion. As Rosaura approaches the prison at the beginning of the play, sheoverhears Segismundo lamenting the fact that he has lost his freedom. Boston: Twayne, 1982.----------------------- 15 Basilio is considered first, and the trait we see in him first isself-esteem, for he is proud of his science and glories in theobsequiousness of his court. Calderón also contrasts imagery of death and the sepulchre, and thereare two related interpretations of this imagery: Superficially, the sepulchre and the idea of the living-dead denote the unnatural or abnormal quality of an event, either with reference to a particular character, or in more general terms. McGaha (ed.). The useof the horoscope in this play is not a simple matter, and the prophecy madeby horoscope is both fulfilled and not fulfilled. Calderón. When he spies Rosaura, he is chagrined that anyone should find him in his present plight, and . He has placed Segismundo inlimbo and apparently believes that the young man will remain the samealways, just as he believes that he (Basilio) faces the same world at alltimes. i-xviii.Dunn, Peter N. This blackness can represent something evil, but it can alsorepresent the blackness of the womb from which Segismundo will be reborn.Segismundo himself is portrayed as a child of nature who is bent onviolence when he is first released from prison, but he learns right fromwrong and so overcome the evil that seems to be his due (Hesse, Calderón145). A key issue faced by Calderón is the simple, basic struggle betweengood and evil, a struggle he dramatizes in a way that shows it is not easyto differentiate between the two. Kings in Calderó: A Study in Characterization and Political Theory. The style can be seen early in the play with the reference tothe "hippogriff," to be discussed below: It was, in effect, another manifestation of the aesthetic crisis of seventeenth-century Spain, the literary counterpart of the architectural and decorative extravagances of the baroque and the churrigueresque (Colford iii). Varey (ed.). When Basilio starts to question what he has done to Segismundo, itis too late to undo it--Segismundo is now an adult, and the damage is done. Only the power of love prevents him from doing her bodily harm. London: Gress International, 1973. . Basilio has a conscience that makes him reconsider the problem ofSegismundo, but he does not see that the problem is not the same as it wasbefore: He cannot, therefore, simply change his mind, switch to the other alternative (alternatives in a situation now non-existent) and invent safeguards in case the original decision was the right one (Dunn 122). Hesse notes the degree of confusion in the play brought about by itsemphasis on deception and illusion, producing a series of false impressionsas characters fail to see the reality of their situation or of theidentities of other characters, or perhaps they deceive themselves abouttheir own nature. In this opening sequences, thehippogriff is associated with Segismundo, who is himself associatedthroughout with the animals he grew up with, cut off as he has been formhuman contact and human society. . Basilio is making a basic error in that he istrying to avoid specific events and yet is doing so with reference toconsequences he cannot yet understand: The meaning of life lies in "doing right." But the meaning of life is not synonymous with the reality of life. 81- 86.Maurin, Margaret S.
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