Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño, usually referred to as Pedro Calderón de la Barca was born in Madrid, Spain in 1600 and became on the most important poets in European history and a key leader in Spain’s Golden Age of theatre. His most famous work, Life is a Dream, first published in 1635, is still widely read, performed and studied.
Calderón was born just as the Golden Age of Spanish theatre was dawning, largely as the result of the work of Lope de Vega.  Calderón developed Spanish baroque further, and by the time Lope de Vega died in 1635, Calderón was recognized as the foremost Spanish dramatist of the era. Calderón became a court favourite, and Phillip IV made Calderón a knight of the order of Santiago and commissioned to write a series of plays for the royal theatre.
Calderón’s mother was of Flemish descent and his father, a hidalgo, was secretary to the treasury. Both died while Calderón was young and he was packed off to the Jesuit College in Madrid, the Colegio Imperial, with a view to entering the clergy.  Calderón discovered an aptitude for the law, however, and left to study law at the University of Alcalá and then the University of Salamanca.
Calderón also discovered an aptitude for writing poetry and won a number of prestigious contents in his early 20s. He also presented his first play, Amor, honor y poder, in 1623. He also published two other plays that year: La selva confusa and Los Macabeos. Their relative success meant Calderón could leave law school and entered the court of the Constable of Castille, Don Bernardino Fernández de Velasco and began writing plays for the court.
Over the next three decades Calderón wrote more than 70 plays and cemented his reputation the foremost playwright in Spain. His plays of honor and revenge were hugely popular. These plays include The Mayor of Zalamea, The Physician of his Honour, Secret Insult, Secret Vengeance, and The Painter of his Own Dishonour.
In 1640, Calderón joined a cavalry regiment and took part in a campaign against the Catalans and distinguished himself at the battle of Tarragona. He retired from the army shortly thereafter. Calderón finally returned to the church in 1651 and took holy orders, but continued to write plays as the court dramatist for Philip IV.
In his later works, he explored mythological themes that were of great interest to the Spanish Court. He died in Madrid on May 25, 1681. Of his 120 surviving works, approximately 80 are autos sacramentales, morality plays celebrating the mystery of the Eucharist on Corpus Christi day.

Life is a Dream

Life Is a Dream, explores the conflict between free will and predestination. In this most famous of Calderón’s plays, the King of Poland imprisons his son, Segismundo, in a tower from birth after astrologers predict the boy will take his father's throne. After a number of years, the King orders that his son be drugged and brought to the palace for a trial. Segismundo behaves badly, however, and the King banishes him back to his prison. Waking up in the tower, the son is convinced that he never his cell and that the entire trial was just a dream. A peasant uprising liberates Segismundo and he is placed on the throne, fulfilling the prophecy. But the new king is afraid he is again dreaming and will again wake up in the tower, and so this time conducts himself with decorum and grace.

The idea that life is a dream or an illusion and reality something to be discovered and is common to Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Another religious concept is that of free will against predestination. It pits Catholic ideas that human will is able to choose good versus the Calvinist concept that humans will is incapable of choosing good unless it is predestined by God to be renewed by grace.
In addition to the importance of astrology, a number of other Pagan ideas are common throughout the play. Many aspects of classical Greek mythology appear in the play, including the imprisonment of the son by the father, which is lifted from both the Oedipus and Perseus myths.