Dream and destiny in the Duke of Rivas' El desengaño en un sueño

Abstract

In this article, two main issues of the Duke of Rivas’s El desengaño en un sueño
are studied. Firstly, it presents the thematic of dream in a panoramic revision including its ancient values as prognosis and its topic disposition in the probable sources used by Rivas. The proposed reading displays the significant and metatheatrical dimension of dream emphasizing its relevance to Romantic literature and exposing some specific symbols employed by the poet. Secondly, intermixed with the dream, the polemical matter of «fatalism» is analyzed under the light of ancient theories on the predetermined individual character and it is contextualized within the «Romantic pessimism», developed in philosophy by Schopenhauer. In this way, the critical approach attempts to comprehend this Rivas’s «favorite» work relating it to the aesthetic and historic streams to which it belongs, ascetic-pessimistic idealism and transcendental Romantic oneirism, stressing its importance for the Spanish theatre as a fantastic drama.