Article published in the «Bulletin of Hispanic Studies» — 1977 — 54 — pp. 203-14.
Valuable insights into Calderones drama may be obtained through the study of significant image patterns which not only serve to develop and present the play's theme, but frequently in Calderón relate the specific theme to the writer's broader moral preoccupations and to those of his society. The imagery, in so far as it is traditional and public (and most is), incarnates the unquestioned ethical and cosmological assumptions of the society and in effect provides a most accessible point through which to approach the ideological and axiological bases of the work. The metaphors and figurative language in general function as a running commentary upon the action by the poet, a commentary which Calderón was probably justified in expecting the educated in his audience to understand, since poet and audience shared a common ideological heritage. Even the reality of the actions performed upon the stage in this period lay mainly in their symbolic implications, and in those of the metaphors used to communicate them. Not only the Bible, but all literature, all words, all letters, and all things in the book of nature had a symbolic moral import which could prove a significant aid in man's quest for salvation, and which it was therefore man's dutv to discover. There is of course more to a play than its imagery, but to ignore Calderones images is not to be able adequately to comprehend his plays.
