While discussing the proper actions one should take to make one’s life meaningful, Kant states that “To assure one’s own happiness is a duty…” (pg.54). This is to prevent the desire from becoming a “…great temptation to transgression of duty“. In the same way, love is another form of duty. Kant is showing that actions following duty and not desire are meaningful and worthwhile but sometimes these duties are our own desires. This becomes even more complicated when one’s happiness infringes on other duties, mostly when they happen to contradict. What duty should one follow when multiple contradict each other? Multiple movies, plays and TV shows revolve around the idea that the best way to love someone is by letting them go, even if it means sacrificing your own happiness. Is this type of self-sacrifice truly worthwhile and morally meaningful? If not, a good portion of the Romance genre can be called into question to determine the rationality behind the decisions made by many of the characters.

One such play, Life is a Dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, depicts the story of Segismundo, a man who was locked in a tower from birth, and his escapades when he receives his freedom (Spoilers!). When a lost woman, Rosaura, stumbles upon his tower, he finds himself falling in love with her not knowing she is already engaged to be married. At the end of the play, and finding himself king over Poland, he decides to let Rosaura marry the man she loves, the one who she was engaged too, and instead marries Estrella, a princess. Even though Segismundo was deeply in love with Rosaura throughout the play, he ends up letting her go and be happy instead of forcing her to be his bride. He acted according to his duty by truly loving her and by marrying a princess as was expected by him of his subjects. In doing so, he does not assure himself of his own happiness. By acting according to two duties, his actions mathematically were moral and valuable as following the two duties outweighed the opposing duty of his happiness. But should his happiness taken the forefront of his actions?

If I’m asleep, don’t let me wake. If this is real, don’t let me dream. ~Pedro Calderón de la Barca