Life Is A Dream - Themes and Motifs

Themes and Motifs

The concept of life as a dream is a very ancient one found in Hinduism and Platonism. It is seen in writers from Lope de Vega to Shakespeare.

The early part - i.e. a Prince who is prophesied at birth to be doomed to cause a disaster and his father the King attempting to avert that disaster - is a theme known akin (possibly deliberate) to Oedipus killing his own father. Calderón, like other educated Europeans of his time, is likely to have been familiar with major themes of Greek Mythology.

Key elements from the play may be derived from the Christian legend of Barlaam and Josaphat, which Lope de Vega had brought to the stage. This legend itself is a derivation of the story of the early years of Siddharta Gautama, which serves as the basis for the film Little Buddha that illustrates the Hindu-Buddhist concept of reality as illusion.

Another religious concept is that of free will versus predestination. Catholic Spain favored the Counter-reformation that defined the human will as able to choose the good (in cooperation with God's grace), against the Calvinist conception of the total depravity of the human will unless it is predestined by God to be renewed by grace. Segismundo chooses pardon against the oracle.

Catholicism is melded with "pagan" astrology in this play, as Segismundo's horoscope, as interpreted by Basilio, becomes the cause of his incarceration. Calderón would have known of the malefic qualities of Saturn, here associated with Basilio. He would have also known Lope de Vega's Lo que ha de ser (1624), a play that also includes the incarceration of a child and the importance of astrology.

One of the major conflicts of the play is the opposition between father and son, which may have biographical elements. This conflict is also modeled on classical mythology. It parallels the struggle of Uranus vs. Saturn or Saturn vs. Jupiter.

Many other motifs and themes derived from a number of traditions can be found in this rich and complex drama: the labyrinth, the monster, the four elements, notions of freedom vs. predestination, original sin, pride, disillusionment, the Oedipus myth, etc.