Life Is a Dream

play by Calderón

Also known as: “La vida es sueño”

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June 30, 2026

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Life Is a Dream (La vida es sueño) is a 1635 play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, a prominent Spanish Golden Age dramatist. The play explores philosophical themes of determinism versus free will and the nature of reality.12

It tells the story of Segismundo, a prince imprisoned from birth due to a prophecy that he would be a tyrannical ruler. He is briefly released to see if he can overcome his fate, but his violent behavior leads to his re-imprisonment, with his captors convincing him the experience was merely a dream. This raises questions about what is real and what is illusion, and whether one's destiny can be changed. The play is considered a masterpiece for its complex dramatic patterns and exploration of human existence.12

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comedy
Divine comedies in the West and East
…Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s Life Is a Dream (1635) is an example; on the operatic stage, so is Mozart’s Magic Flute (1791), in spirit and form so like Shakespeare’s Tempest, to which it has often been compared. In later drama, Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf (1894) and August Strindberg’s To…
Read More
…Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s Life Is a Dream (1635) is an example; on the operatic stage, so is Mozart’s Magic Flute (1791), in spirit and form so like Shakespeare’s Tempest, to which it has often been compared. In later drama, Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf (1894) and August Strindberg’s To…
Read More