Free Will, the Formation of Fate
People say that fate is unavoidable, but, through my personal experiences, it has come to my realization that one’s fate is in their own hands. A person’s actions determine their fate, which is why I believe that life is essentially defined by a person’s free will. An instance in my life, when my fate was being defined by my actions was when I moved from Jersey City to Erie. Since I did not approve of this move, my thoughts made me believe that what was about to happen was just life being unfair, in other words, my fate. Now I have come to understand that this move could have been avoidable; I was given a chance to stay, if only I would have improved my grades and gotten into the high school that my parents wished for me to go to. Alas, I did not take that situation seriously, and I paid the consequences by having to leave my …show more content…
hometown. In my situation, my free will defined my fate and this has been an evident theme in the literature that we have read this year, such as The Odyssey, A Tale of Two Cities, and Julius Caesar. In The Odyssey, Odysseus’ journey is driven primarily by the actions he takes. His actions ultimately end up saving him from the fate that countless men have suffered from. Take for instance the scenario with Circe; she is the beautiful queen that tempts men and ultimately leads them to their demise. Unlike those men, Odysseus uses his free will to resist her temptations, “Circe, now make good a promise you gave me once— it’s time to help me home. My heart longs to be home, my comrades’ hearts as well” (Fagles 247). On the contrary, his actions also lead him astray from his end goal as well. When leaving the Cyclops’ cave, he is smart enough to trick the malicious monster, although as he is about to escape on his ship, he utters, “Cyclops—if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so—say Odysseus, raider of cities…” (Fagles 227). Odysseus gives the Cyclops his own name and thus he gets cursed. The scenario here is similar to the case of Madame Defarge from A Tale of Two Cities who’s actions ultimately end up defining her fate.
Madame Defarge feels that her duty is to render each their due but fails to realize who deserved to be punished and who does not. Her past blinds her with rage and hatred for the aristocracy which is why she loathes even the virtuous nobility, such as Charles Darnay. When Lucie came to plead for her husband’s freedom, Defarge coldly replies, “All our lives, we have seen our sister-women suffer, in themselves and in their children, poverty, nakedness, hunger, thirst, sickness, misery, oppression and neglect of all kinds?” (Dickens 260). This quote shows how misplaced her hatred towards the nobility is; although Darnay has not wronged her, she wishes to punish him. The narrator states, “It was nothing to her that an innocent man was to die for the sins of his forefathers” (Dickens 350). Her actions foreshadow her near future which is death. Madame Defarge’s wrong doings are later punished, just as how Julius Caesar is punished for his dictatorial authority.
Julius Caesar tells the story of a tyrannical dictator, named Caesar who soon falls due to his authoritarian ways.
The people of Rome begin to realize that one man should not have too much power because it will eventually corrupt him. Caesar’s council is the first to realize this, thus bringing questions such as, “'Caesar'? Why should that name be sounded more than yours?” (Shakespeare 12). Caesar’s determination to gain more supremacy slowly leads to his own friends deserting him. He is unaware of the fact that his own council is conspiring against him. This all leads up to the Ides of March, where each person from his council stabs him, leaving Caesar to fall in shock. His last words, "Et tu, Brute?" (Shakespeare 77) show that he is so surprised that even his best friend conspired against him. His failure to notice the conspiracy against him, eventually leads to his demise. This teaches one to not only be aware of your surroundings, but to not let power corrupt. Caesar’s fate was prophesized, but could have been avoided if only he used his free will to discover the plans of the
conspirators. Fate versus free will has been a hot topic throughout the literature that we have come across. From my personal experience, and from what I’ve seen in the actions of the characters, I believe that fate is essentially determined by free will. Our actions ultimately have positive and negative consequences which determine how we are perceived. Caesar ruled with arrogance and was thus overthrown. Defarge acted out of hatred and thus became a victim of her own violent revolution. Odysseus acted to get out of troublesome situations and was able to reunite with his wife. All three characters acted and because of their actions, and ultimately ended up determining their fate. This shows that even in our lives today, our freewill plays a large role in defining out fates. We have the power to control our destinies and we as human beings, need to make the best of it.