CMLIT 153

Reading Questions

Calderón: Life is a Dream

Act Two

1. How does the king's plan unfold the next day?

2. What does he mean by "Everyone who lives is dreaming" (32)?

3. How does Segismundo behave when he awakens and learns he is a prince?

How does he test his new reality?

4. Why does Rosaura now dress as a woman? What does she seek from Astolfo? How does she manage to complicate his wooing of Estrella?

5. What happens when Segismundo "wakes up" the second time? How does he come to process his experience? What has he learned about life and dreaming?

6. Explain Segismundo's final line at the close of the act:

"For the whole of life is just a dream

And dreams... dreams are only dreams" (66).

7. Is Rosaura's story just a subplot to round out the play or does it have a connection to the Segismundo-dream plot?