Religious Motifs In The Works Of Pedro Calderón De La Barca

Spanish societal interest in the visual arts led to notable increase in the production of live theater throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This time period, now referred to as the Spanish Golden Age of Drama, saw the rise of both secular and sacramental works in the country, and Golden Age playwrights often aimed to analyze religious motifs through a philosophical lens in their works. Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s 1635 work, Life is a Dream, attempts this merger of Christian and secular themes by equating Segismundo’s literal imprisonment with the original sin of man, a controversial tenet of Protestant sects that Calderón himself, an ordained Catholic priest, would have rejected. Calderón’s use and justification for punishment
Segismundo, lamenting his tortured and lonely life, declares “Ah, woe is me! Ah, how wretched I am! Heaven, I seek to inquire - since you treat me this way - what crime I committed against you when I was born; though that seeing that I was born, I already realize what crime I committed” (Calderón de la Barca 4). This is a clear reference to the heredity of original sin, and the Catholic audience, who likely would have struggled to justify the hand-me-down nature of original sin, would have been reminded of their stance against the Protestant belief. Calderón continues his reference original sin as Segismundo proceeds to compare his human judgment with that of the animals, stating “the fish is born, an abortion of algae and slime, and no sooner does it find itself on the waves, like a boat of scales, than it turns in every direction, measuring the immensity of all space that it’s cold element gives it. And I, with more free will, have less liberty” (Calderón de la Barca 5). This passage mirrors two other Catholic arguments against the existence of original sin: the divine image of man, and the existence of free will. Catholics sentiment favored the belief that all humans born in God’s image, following the death of Christ, would be conceived free of sin, and therefore Segismundo’s passage questions as to how the human suffer such punishment from birth when the fish, an abortion of algae
Basilio’s prophecy begins
“Segismundo was born, giving an indication of his nature, because he killed his mother. By this cruelty he was saying ‘I am a man, since I am already beginning to repay kindness with evil.’ I, referring to my books, found in them, and in all things, that Segismundo would be the most insolent man, the most cruel prince, and the most impious monarch”(Calderón de la Barca 19).
Repaying the kindness of birth with the cruelty of betrayal is a major theme in Genesis, the Old-Testament book containing both the fall of man and the Cain’s betrayal of Able. Just as the gift of Adams conception led to the defiance of the lord, so too has Segismundo birth lead to the death of his mother, and Basilio therefore concludes that Segismundo’s birth must have been in itself some sin. Ironically, the only sin which Segismundo has committed is causing the pain of childbirth, which is explained in the bible to be the direct result of the fall of man and the manifestation of modern day original sin. In Genesis, God punishes Eve for eating fruit from the tree of knowledge proclaiming “... I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children…” (King James Bible, Gen. 3:16). The pain of childbirth was one