HAND OF FATE CONTROLS FREE

Personal initiative and ingenuity in the face of bad luck (like your husband walking in on you and your sweetie or your beloved being married to someone else) are highly prized qualities in the stories. Either way, it's probably not up to you.īut in many of the stories, men and women create their own opportunities and luck. On the other hand, Fortune or Fate's constant presence gives reason to hope when you're about to be drowned or burned at the stake, or when you've been swindled out of everything you own. Emilia calls Fortune 'the enemy of all who prosper,' (III.7.237) letting us know that you should never get comfortable even if things are going right at the moment because we're not in control.

Boccaccio introduces the work by telling his readers that the plague was caused either by 'heavenly bodies' or that it's a 'punishment signifying God's righteous anger at our iniquitous way of life.' Either way, 'all the wisdom and ingenuity of man were unavailing.' Score one for God.įortune is a major character in The Decameron. The storytellers in The Decameron have a lot of names for forces beyond their control: Nature, Fate, Fortune, God, the immortal gods, 'immutable law.' Whatever you call it (and it depends on when and where you lived), there's a fairly overwhelming sense that the course of life is more or less out of man's exclusive control, and that opposing the forces that dictate our lives is useless at best, and dangerous at worst.

HAND OF FATE CONTROLS FREE

Medieval Christian philosophers struggled to reconcile the idea of free will with the existence of a God who ultimately controls everything.

Hand of fate controls