own nature. Hesse believes that this tendency begins with the title of the play itself:
Some of the confusion arises from the several meanings of the play's title. It may carry its "face value" meaning that life is a dream, i.e., that life is only a figment of the imagination, a fiction, and that real life begins only after death in the next world. it can also mean that events, fortunate and unfortunate, pass rapidly as though in a dream and do not endure. Life is like a dream also in the sense that it is so chaotic that it becomes almost impossible to distinguish between fact and fiction, dreaming and waking, and truth and a lie (Hesse, Labyrinth 95).
Basilio indeed is a character who wants to do things right, and he sees escaping his fate as accomplishing this task because he believes that if he is overthrown as prophesied, the kingdom and its people will suffer under the hands of a tyrant. Basilio is making a basic error in that he is trying to avoid specific events and yet is doing so with reference to consequences h
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