A close reading of Life is a dream by Pedro Calderon De La Barca. What Essay

A close reading of Life is a dream by Pedro Calderon De La Barca. What does this tell you about the nature of Spanish society, about its values, social mores, expectations, political culture - Essay Example jailer of Segismund said in the play, â€Å"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. 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. The Spanish people also believed very much in destiny (â€Å"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, 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. Spanish social mores in the Golden Age were very strict. That is why the King warned Segismund once he approached the kingdom with