Life Is a Dream

Rossaura is the daughter of Clothold. She is dressed as a man at the start of the play, which enables her to travel on horseback accompanied only by her servant, Bugle. She travels in search of Aistulf, the Duke of Muscovy, who has dishonored her and betrayed their love affair by courting Stella, his cousin and fellow heir to King Vasily’s throne. Rossaura discovers the tower in which Sigismund is imprisoned, and when she in turn is discovered by Clothold, she and Bugle are taken to King Vasily’s palace, where they are pardoned for their crime of trespassing. While at court, Rossaura reverts to dressing as a woman and becomes a lady-in-waiting for Stella, calling herself Astraea in order to position herself nearer to Aistulf and the revenge she desires. 

Clothold is Rossaura’s father, though Rossaura does not know this fact about her parentage until the end of the play. He is Sigismund’s jailer and mentor, as well as a loyal servant of King Vasily. Upon meeting Rossaura for the first time, he recognizes her sword and thinks at first that he has a son; later, his promises to help Rossaura avenge her dishonor inspire Rossaura to return to womanly clothes. He admits his paternity at the end of the play in order to reassure Aistulf that Rossaura is indeed eligible and worthy of marrying, as she is his daughter and therefore noble. 

King Vasily is the ruler of Poland and father to Sigismund. He leads by superstition and astrology, allowing the stars to determine his fate and the fates of others. Because his son Sigismund was born under a star that predicted disaster for the king and for Poland, the king chose to deny Sigismund’s existence and hide him in a tower in the wilderness. When King Vasily realizes that he is old and that he must plan ahead for the future of Poland, he decides to test Sigismund in order to determine if the stars were indeed correct or if Sigismund actually possesses a noble spirit. If Sigismund fails the test and proves that he is unfit to be king, then King Vasily will ask Aistulf and Stella to marry and become his heirs. King Vasily’s test is a debacle, and so Sigismund is again locked away, but now that the public is aware of Sigismund’s existence, factions emerge and a civil war arises. King Vasily is overthrown by his son’s forces, but Sigismund shows deference to his father at the end of the play, allowing the king to live and offering his own life in return for the offense. The truth about Sigismund reveals, simultaneously, the truth of the king’s foolishness, and the play ends with all noble and honorable men in their rightful positions. 

Aistulf is the Duke of Muscovy, and the former lover of Rossaura. Aistulf is courting Stella, his cousin, despite the fact that he wears a locket containing a portrait of Rossaura around his neck. His saccharine words of flattery do not quite ring true to Stella, as they reflect his ambitions to the throne more than his emotional attachment to her. He is loyal to the king of Poland, who is his uncle, and he fights heroically in defense of King Vasily during the civil war. At the end of the play, Sigismund insists that Aistulf marry Rossaura in order to preserve Rossaura’s honor, and once Clothold acknowledges that Rossaura is his noble daughter, Aistulf agrees to the marriage. Aistulf’s character is tarnished by his rejection of Rossaura and his unadulterated ambitions towards the throne; though his marriage to Rossaura is what she wants in order to restore her virtue, it is presented to Aistulf as a punishment for his arrogance. 

Stella is King Vasily’s niece and Aistulf’s cousin. Stella and Aistulf are both in line for the throne, and when Aistulf courts her in order to unite their ambitions into one marriage of leadership, she resists his advances, intuiting that his affectionate words are not genuine. She notices the locket around Aistulf’s neck that contains a portrait of another woman, and demands to have the locket; when the locket is denied to her, she dismisses Aistulf and his boorish manners. At the end of the play, Sigismund offers himself to her in marriage.