A Close Reading of Life is a Dream by Pedro Caldern De La Barca - Essay Example

A Close Reading of “Life is a Dream” by Pedro Calderón De La Barca Word Count: 1250 What does a close reading of Pedro Calderón De La Barca’s playLife is a Dream tell you about the nature of Spanish society, about its values, social mores, expectations, political culture? I. Introduction Life is a Dream constantly challenges the gray matter that lies between the black and white of reality and illusion. Pedro Calderón De La Barca—in this play—demonstrates several elements about the nature of Spanish society, Spanish values, Spanish social mores, Spanish expectations, and the reigning Spanish political culture. II. Spanish Society Spanish society, in the Golden Age, was concerned about what was real and what was false. At a time when politics were unstable in Spain, De La Barca sought to capitalize on this national anomaly of sorts. As Clotaldo, the jailer of Segismund said in the play, “Dreams are rough copies of the waking soul.”1 Therefore, what people dreamed about was not necessarily in vain. They were having dreams for a reason. With the idea that life was a dream, De La Barca was playing with notions of whether the consciousness present in life actually existed in Golden Age Spain. De La Barca, in his play, predicted that Segismund would one day grow up to revolt against his father the King. In chaining Segismund to the floor in a prison, he thought that he could keep his son sequestered, far enough away so that he could not hurt the King. However, this sense of fatalism that the King had felt in terms of his son growing up in the future to one day kill him, scared the King so much that he decided to do something about it (by chaining up his son). However, as one shall see, the idea of fatalism is a key Spanish value that we shall examine in the next portion which we will be reading. III. Spanish Values Spanish values included an unshakeable sense of fatalism, as Segismund speaks about the illusion and reality present in life—a dualism, if one will. He also speaks of the inevitable end of the world with precocious wit, intimating with a fatalistic sense that his suffering is only temporary. “Whether wake or dreaming, this I know, How dream-wise human glories come and go; Whose momentary tenure not to break, Walking as one who knows he soon may wake, fairly carry the full cup, so well Disorderd insolence and passion quell, That there be nothing after to upbraid Dreamer or doer in the part he playd, Whether To-morrows dawn shall break the spell, Or the Last Trumpet of the eternal Day, When Dreaming with the Night shall pass away.”2 The Spanish people also believed very much in destiny (“el destino”) and how it related to their outlooks on life. Believing in destiny, many people in Spanish culture had the specific idea that one was supposed to be somewhere at a specific time in order to fulfill their destinies. As Segismund describes in this soliloquy, “Once more, you savage heavens, I ask of you— I, looking up to those relentless eyes That, now the greater lamp is gone below, Begin to muster in the listening skies; In all the shining circuits you have gone About this theatre of human woe, What greater sorrow have you gazed upon Than down this narrow chink you witness still; And which, did you yourselves not fore-devise, You registered for others to fulfil!”3 With the idea that values were important in Golden Age Spain—as well can one imagine—also important was the idea of having social mores. These were prescriptive ideals which were vanguards of the values of the people, which will now be discussed at length. IV. Spanish Social Mores Spanish social mores in the Golden Age were very strict. That is why the King warned Segismund once he approached the kingdom with rage and anger after having been chained up for so many years: “Beware! Beware! Subdue the kindled Tiger in your eye!”4 The Golden Age was an era of restriction and prudence. If ladies wanted to visit with their beaus, they had to be accompanied by chaperones—even if it was for a short walk to the village square. Additionally, in the Golden Age, women were given in marriage by way of arranged marriages, so many women—especially of the upper class—were betrothed to their spouse, not their beloved. As such, to have a lover on the side was considered taboo, and there were serious consequences for breaking these rules. During the Golden Age, women were oppressed. VI. Spanish Expectations Speaking of expectations, women were expected to marry whomever they were told to marry. Estrella was supposed to have an arranged marriage with Astolfo by order of King Basilio. Rosaura was Astolfo’s true love, however. Rosaura fears that the way towards which she directed her desires was something she was angry at because she had no control over the situation. Indeed, Rosaura says, “Thus then what I for misadventure blamed, Directly draws me where my wishes aimd.”5 The expectation of one’s life in Golden Age Spain was different for men and women. For men, it meant acquiring wealth and being able to have an heir to the family fortune; for women, it meant depending on one’s husband for provisions and providing an heir in the form of a child for her master. Clotaldo describes all of waking life as a dream, until we get to heaven, where we are then engrossed in a sort of dreamland. Clotaldo says, “And yet, and yet, in these our ghostly lives, Half night, half day, half sleeping, half awake, How if our waking life, like that of sleep, Be all a dream in that eternal life To which we wake not till we sleep in death?”6 Indeed, expectations in Spanish society were high for nobility and the rich; the lower-class had little room for any kind of upward mobility. VI. The Reigning Spanish Political Culture (215) The reigning Spanish political culture of the Golden Age was dictated by a series of kings who had morality issues. There was a lot of corruption. This is what the King refers to when he talks about how so few people had found out who was going to heaven and who was not, based upon whether their names were written in the Book of Life: “You and the world who have surnamed me ‘Sage’ Know that I owe that title, if my due, To my long meditation on the book Which ever lying open overhead—The book of heaven, I mean—so few have read.”7 The King himself directly made morality a flashpoint in this play when he decided to sequester his son in a prison because he was so afraid that the astrologer, at the boy’s birth, was right in suggesting that someday his son would take over the kingdom by killing the King. Many times in Spain, countless times—there had been coups within the royal family that lent to infighting amongst family members for power. This decision of the king was evocative of that kind of pervasive fear that the Spanish royalty had when it came to succession of the throne. Spanish political culture, then, influenced De La Barca in writing this. VII. Conclusion Pedro Calderón De La Barca’s play Life is a Dream, illustrates various ideas that were key linchpins of Spanish culture. In his play Life is a Dream, De La Barca delineates several various small details which are revealing about the nature of Spanish society, Spanish values, Spanish social mores, Spanish expectations, and the reigning Spanish political culture. These elements all contribute to a greater understanding of how Spanish culture proliferated in the Golden age and beyond. De La Barca gives us an intimate look at the mindset of the average Golden Age Spaniard in his work Life is a Dream. WORKS CITED Bergh, Albert Ellery. Classic Drama Plays by Greek, Spanish, French, German and English Dramatists Part One. US: Kessinger Publishing, 2004. Pp. 219, 246. Corneille, Pierre et al. Continental Drama. New York, NY: Cosimo Inc., 2010. Pp. 68. Corneille, Pierre et al. Continental Drama: The Five Foot Shelf Of Classics, Vol. XXVI (in 51 Volumes). New York, NY: Cosimo, Inc., 2010. Pp. 21. De La Barca, Pedro Calderón. Life is a Dream. US: Hayes Barton Press, 1994. Pp. 10. Fitzgerald, Edward, et al. Eight Dramas of Calderón. US: University of Illinois Press, 2000. Pp. 421-22. Read More