A study about fate and free will as seen by some medieval authors. (Everyman, The Wife of Bath, Murder in the Cathedral, Julius Caesar, Macbeth)

1. ISFD Nº 41
INGLES – 4º AÑO
LENGUA Y CULTURA IV
 THE DICHOTOMY BETWEEN
FATE AND FREE WILL
IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 
ALUMNO: QUESADA, NORMA NIEVES
DNI: 16.776.718
E-MAIL: nor.que@live.com.ar
PROFESORA: GRODSKI, BARBARA
FECHA DE ENTREGA: 2 DE DICIEMBRE, 2011
CURSADA: 2011

2. Table of contents
Introduction............................................................................................ 2
Fate vs free wil ....................................................................................... 3
The Wheel of Fortune or Rota Fortunae.............................................. 3
Everyman and human beings’ final destiny......................................... 4
The Wife of Bath and fate as an excuse................................................ 4
The Wife of Bath and the power of will to change fate....................... 5
Murder in the Cathedral and fate used conveniently......................... 6
Julius Caesar ignoring signs of fate...................................................... 7
Macbeth and decisions altering future................................................. 8
Conclusion............................................................................................... 10
Bibliography............................................................................................ 11
References................................................................................................ 11
Apendix.................................................................................................... 13
[1]

3. Introduction
One of the issues dealt by authors in the medieval times has to do with the
influence of fate and free will in human beings’ lives. Whatever destiny is called – fate,
god-will, fortune, God hand, etc. – this supernatural power has always been present
along history in people’s beliefs. In spite of that, many people prefer thinking that they
have the power to change the course of their lives through their own decisions.
The analysis of various works – Everyman, The Wife of Bath by Chaucer,
Murder in the Cathedral by Thomas Elliot, and Shakespeare’s plays, The tragedy of
Julius Caesar and Macbeth, two of them fictional and three of them which reflect
historical facts – will lead us to discover to what extent these authors believed that our
decisions can change our lives.
[2]

4. "Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice;
it is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved."
(William Jennings Bryan)
First of all, some definitions of vital importance for this work need to be
introduced: fate or destiny is the power that is believed to control everything that
happens and that cannot be stopped or changed; fortune are the good and bad things
that happen to a person, family, country, etc.; free will, the power to make your own
decisions without being controlled by God or fate.1
From the beginning of the times, there has always been a lot of discussion about
whether we have the capacity to change our destiny and make a difference, or whether
we have to accept it as it is written in the Tablets of Destiny - a clay tablet inscribed
with cuneiform writing, also impressed with cylinder seals, which, as a permanent legal
document, conferred upon the god Enlil his supreme authority as ruler of the universo2.
For those who believe that free will governs their lives, taking decisions is not only a
way of changing things, but also a responsibility. Although the options can be various at
the moment of choosing a course of action, you have to determine which the best for
you is and how it will influence your future. On the other hand, those who blindly
believe in fate, or destiny, or fortune, or God hand regulating their lives will attribute
their success or their failure to them without trying to have any kind of control.
Depending on what our position is, we will see things and live in a different way.
During ancient times, Roman and Greek philosophers assigned the fickle nature of
Fate to the Wheel of Fortune or Rota Fortunae, which was spun at random by
goddess Fortuna.
Philosophers say that Fortune is insane and blind and stupid,
and they teach that she stands on a rolling, spherical rock:
they affirm that, wherever chance pushes that rock, Fortuna falls in that direction.
They repeat that she is blind for this reason: that she does not see where she's heading;
they say she's insane, because she is cruel, flaky and unstable;
stupid, because she can't distinguish between the worthy and the unworthy.3
Later on, in medieval times, Christianism used Fortuna for religious instruction,
and to make people become aware of the low value of temporary things during their
1
Hornby, A. S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. 7th Edition. Oxford
University Press, 2005.
2
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
3
Pacuvius, Scaenicae Romanorum Poesis Fragmenta. Vol. 1, ed. O. Ribbeck, 1897
[3]

5. lives on Earth. They referred to that wheel as the "wheel of life" or the "wheel of
fortune," "which never stands still, being constantly subject to the turns of fate"4.
In the morality play of unknown author, Everyman, when Death first appears he
speaks about the final destiny of every man:
Lord, I will in the world go run over all,
And cruelly outsearch both great and small;
Every man will I beset that liveth beastly
Out of God’s laws, and dreadeth not folly;
He that loveth riches I will strike with my dart,
His sight to blind, and from heaven to depart,
Except that alms be his good friend,
In hell for to dwell, world without end.5
The character Everyman, who represents all men living on Earth, summoned by God
will, is told that he has to go on a journey that will lead him to the afterlife – final
destiny reaching him. He asks for the company of Fellowship, Kindred and Cousin,
Beauty, Goods, and Strengh, but he is abandoned by all of them to make his journey
alone. Only Good Deeds and Knowledge, which has been previously neglected by the
character, can save him at the end, when he demonstrates his intention of changing his
soul fate through Confession.
I pray you, help me in this need
Or else I am forever damned indeed;
Therefore, help me to make reckoning
Before the Redeemer of all things.6
It does not matter how much he pleads or how many things he offers to the
messenger for a few more days, this voyage is not going to be postponed. The Final
Judgement for Catholics is inevitable, nobody can avoid the day of reckoning; however,
if you are willing to repent of your sins, God will welcome you to Heaven.
Chaucer also used the dichotomy between fate and free will in some of his
books. For instance, in the Prologue of his tale The Wife of Bath, the widow explains
her own character in terms of astrology. The influence of planets at her birth date
determines her dominant personality, something she takes advantage of and she has no
intention to change. She has also a birthmark of which she likes to talk about in public,
as well as gap-teeth that are supposed to identify women as lecherous and voracious. All
of these signs give her the possibility to behave in the way she is – authority-
4
Dictionary of Symbolism, p. 379
5
Gassner, J. Everyman. A modernized version.
6
Cf. 5
[4]

6. challenging, trouble-making, bossy, liar, quick-tempered – without feeling embarrassed
or ashamed, because she is not guilty but her fate.
Venus gave me my lust, my lecherousnesse,
And Mars gave me my sturdy hardiness.7
Moreover, what she really does is to use her fate as an excuse to be able to do her will,
which is mainly being able to break the rules. At those times, women’s role was to help
their husband run the states, especially when the men were at battle. Their main duty
was to give her husband a son – although it was preferably to deliver between six to
eight children as mortality rate was very high – and to look after the household servants.
Nevertheless, they had no rights and they were considered as their husbands’ property.
That is not obviously the case of the wife in question, who would negotiate everything
with her husbands or dominate them, if that was not possible, by means of sexual
intercourse.
In the tale itself, when the Queen and the ladies decide to pray to the King for
grace in favour of a knight who has raped a maiden, we can observe how the women’s
collective will can change the fate of the man who has been condemned to die. The
Queen gives the knight a quest to answer a question – “I will grant you life if you can
tell me what thing it is that women most desire."8 – in a lapse of a year, so he begins a
journey to search for its solution, becoming an errant man who travels through cities
and forests. All his efforts are in vain, and the year is almost over, untill the moment he
passes a forest and sees a circle of women dancing. When he approaches to them, they
vanish; only one of them, old and ugly, remains in the place and promises to help him if
he grants her a wish. They return to the court and the woman tells the knight the answer
to his quest: “women desire to have dominion over their husbands as well as their
9
lovers, and to be above them in mastery”. The Queen is pleased with his answer and
the ugly woman asks the knight to marry him. The knight unwillingly accepts the old
repulsive woman as his wife only to keep his promise after her saving his life. In this
moment, we could less than imagine that fate cannot be avoided. Despite this, when the
old lady gives him the opportunity, in their first night together and after defining a true
gentleman, to choose between having her ugly and old for the rest of her life, but
obedient and faithful to him, or having her young and fair and have to expose himself to
7
Chaucer, Geoffrey. Canterbury Tales. Everyman’s Library. The Wife of Bath (line 611).
8
Cf. 7 (line 48)
9
Cf. 7 (line 181)
[5]

7. the risk of all men coming to his house for her, he freely decides to let her choose
whichever she considers more pleasing and favourable for both of them.
I don’t care which of the two I get;
For whatever pleases you suffices for me.”10
This act of gentilesse and strong will on his part convinces the woman to become
beautiful and good for him for ever.
Now, leaving aside fiction, Thomas S. Elliot also deals with fate and free will in
his historical play Murder in the Cathedral when he refers several times to the wheel,
to God’s providence and his plan for history. After seven years of living in France as a
refugee because of a conflict over power with King Henry II, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Thomas Becket, returns to England. There, he is welcomed by a group of
women – choir – who let the audience know that life during his absence has been very
hard – “living and partly living”11 – but they prefer him being away than running the
risk of loosing his life as the conflict is not fully solved. Becket receives the visit of four
tempters, who offer him physical safety, power, wealth, fame, a coalition with the
Barons and the glory of martyrdom depending on his decision to serve the King, the
Barons, or the Church. Danger is in the air and the three priests that are under Becket’s
orders are aware of that. Nonetheless, the Third Priest’s advice is to let things happen as
they have to:
For good or ill, let the wheel run.
The wheel has been still, these seven years, and no good.
For ill or good, let the wheel turn.
For who knows the end of good or evil?
Until the grinders cease
And the door shall be shut in the street,
And all the daughters of music shall be brought low.12
The choir performance is foreshadowing Becket’s murder, something that he chooses to
ignore in order to seek for martyrdom. For Elliot, as he establishes it in the Interlude
when the Archbishop is preaching to his people on the Christmas morning, a martyr is
designed by God:
The true martyr is he who has lost his will in the will of God, and who no longer
desires anything for himself, not even the glory of being a martyr13.
10
Cf. 7 (line378)
11
Eliot, T. S. Murderin the Cathedral.Harcourt, Inc. 1963
12
Cf. 11
13
Cf. 11
[6]

8. Afterwards, he receives the visit of four knights, who accuse him of several crimes
against Henry II and his kingdom – ambition, pride, envy, ingratitude, rising up false
opinions against the King, insolence, greed, appropriation of power, transgression and
reversing his policy and becoming indifferent to the fate of his country since the
moment he became Archbishop. Finally, after asking the priests to leave the church
doors open, Becket dies in the hands of the four king’s knights, not being able – and not
willing – to escape his fate while the Third Priest defines that day as any other day in
which the divine design will be present.
In the tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Caesar is leading a
procession along the streets of Rome during the Ides of March when a soothsayer warns
him about his death. This warning is not taken into account by Caesar, who is rejoicing
on his triumph over the sons of Pompey the Great. At the same moment a conspiracy to
kill the emperor is taking place among his generals, who think he is getting too
ambitious and powerful. Cassius, while trying to convince Brutus to become part of the
plot, assures that they are responsible of the power Caesar exercise over them as he says
that every man has the power to change his fate in certain occasions:
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.14
Caesar himself has an intuition that something is wrong when he refers to Cassius look
as “lean and hungry”. Even his wife, Calpurnia, has a dream in which she sees a statue
of her husband full of holes and bleeding like a fountain – a foreshadowing of the thirty
three times he is going to be stabbed later that day –, a lioness giving birth in the streets
of Rome, warriors fighting in the clouds, dead people yielding from their tombs and
Caesar’s ghost, all signs that something bad is going to happen, so she asks her husband
to stay at home. He seems to be going to follow her advice, but when Decius asserts that
women are not able to interpret dreams, Caesar decides to ignore his wife and, defying
fate, he goes to the Capitol, where he is brutally assassinated. After his death, Brutus
and Marc Antony present their speeches to the crowd. The latter believes that a civil war
is possible in Rome due to the recent events and, this belief, transmitted to the people
while he delivers his speech, pushes the crowd to rebel against the conspirators and
14
Shakespeare, W. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Worsworth Library Collection.2007.
Julius Caesar. (Act I, Sc II)
[7]

9. leads to the so feared result. Omens and prophesies are present all along the play and
most of them come true; that might drive us to the conclusion that characters have no
power over their lives.
Similarly, in the tragic play Macbeth, Shakespeare focuses on the matter of man
will being able to change their future. The question here is what forces a correct man
like Macbeth to commit a crime. Again, he uses the three witches’ prophesy to make his
audience think that external forces can control the main character actions and future.
Macbeth is a soldier who clearly knows the difference between good and evil.
At the beginning, having defeated two invading enemy armies, Macbeth and Banquo
are crossing a moor when they meet three witches who tell them that Macbeth will
become a thane and, later on, King of Scotland, and Banquo will never be a king but his
heirs will. The two men give no importance to the witches’ words until the moment
some generals come to congratulate them on their victory and inform them that Macbeth
has been named thane of Cawdor. King Duncan arranges to dine at Macbeth’s castle
that night and Lady Macbeth is informed of the facts by his husband. Immediately, she
begins to plan Duncan’s murder that very night by getting his chamberlains drunk and
blaming them the following morning. Macbeth does not agree with her plot in the
beginning but her insistence makes him change his mind. He does not want his wife to
think him a coward and promises her he'll "do all that may become a man."15 Macbeth
stabs Duncan while he is asleep and the following morning he does the same with his
chamberlains, what leads him to the throne. Duncan’s sons flee from there, considering
themselves in danger too. Meanwhile, Macbeth arranges Banquo’s murder, fearing his
heirs will claim their right to the throne. Afterwards, Banquo’s ghost visits Macbeth,
who reacts angrily, shouting to his guests, who mainly belong to the nobility. This event
makes his subjects become resistant to his kingship. Macbeth decides to pay a visit to
the three sisters. More prophesies are presented to him and he is warned about Macduff,
who has been one of the members of the opposition during his accession, because he
cannot be damaged by any man born of woman. Having learned that Macduff has
travelled to England, Macbeth orders that his family has to be killed, what leads
Macduff to seek for revenge. In the meantime, Malcom, one of Duncan’s sons, is
gathering an army in England, which Macduff joins, to dispute the throne with the
15
Shakespeare, W. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Worsworth Library Collection.2007.
Macbeth. (Act I, Sc VII)
[8]

10. support of the Scottish nobles. In the battlefield, Macduff explains that he was born by
Caesarean section before killing Macbeth. Malcom is now the new king of Scotland
and, with that fact, the prophesy becomes true.
On one hand, the characters actions seem to be controlled by the witches’
prophesy – fate. On the other hand, we can observe a man whose convictions change as
time passes and who deviates from his prosperous future, loosing everything because of
ambition.
[9]

11. Conclusion
Fate or free will. Free will or fate. An issue related to faith, to religion, to
superstition, to beliefs. Would the end of each character have been different if their
decisions had been others? Problems arise when we take for granted that we cannot
change anything and we do nothing – but doing nothing is also a decision – or when we
play to be God and think we are able to make all things become completely different. Of
course, these two positions are extremes, and there are always things we can modify and
others we have to accept as they are. We have to be aware of the fact that we are not
able to change everything, but we shouldn’t let everything happen at random, either. We
have to be very careful every time we take an important decision, we should take every
possibility into account and choose consciously the better alternative as we can, not
only change our future but, affect other people’s in the process. On the other hand, we
have to be positive about the facts that we cannot change, as there will surely be a
reason for things to be that way.
All in all, we have at least the freedom to choose what we are going to believe
in, what is possible or impossible for us.
Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
(Author anonymous, reiterating the teachings of Buddha)
[10]

12. Bibliography
 Hornby, A. S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. 7th Edition. Oxford
University Press, 2005.
 Pacuvius, Scaenicae Romanorum Poesis Fragmenta. Vol. 1, ed. O. Ribbeck, 1897
 Dictionary of Symbolism, p. 379
 Gassner, J. Everyman. A modernized version.
 Chaucer, Geoffrey. Canterbury Tales. Everyman’s Library. The Wife of Bath (line 611).
 Eliot, T. S. Murderin the Cathedral.Harcourt, Inc. 196
 Shakespeare, W. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Worsworth Library
Collection.2007.
References
Lynch, T. (1996). DS9 trials and tribble-ations review. Retrieved October 8, 2008, from Psi Phi:
Bradley's Science Fiction Club Web site: http://www.bradley.edu/campusorg/psiphi/DS9/ep/
503r.html
 Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. (Last modified
2011). From web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablets_of_Destiny
 Medina Portal Net. (n.d.) Gods and Heroes at the Archaelogolical Museum of
Milan. From web site:
http://195.176.180.15:82/medina/courses/cm0910/group3/pages/poc.php?ID_PO
C=20&ID_Lang=1
 Jokinen, Anniina. (1996). Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. From
web site: http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/everyman.htm
 Goucher College, Department of English. (2007). ENGLISH 211: English
Literature Beowulf to Dryden. From web site:
http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/Everyman.html
[11]

13.  Harvard College, English Department. (2004). The Geoffrey Chaucer Page.
From web site: http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer
 The Green Man Review Magazine. (2011). The Roots and Branches of Arts and
Culture. From the web site:
http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_eliot_murder.html
 Mabillard, Amanda. (2000). Julius Caesar Study Questions. Shakespeare
Online. From the website:
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/juliuscaesar/juliuscaesarstudyq.html
 Mabillard, Amanda. (2000). Heebie-Jeebies: The Curse of Macbeth.
Shakespeare Online. From the web site:
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/macbeth/macbethfaq/macbethcurse.
html
 BBC. (2011). BBC History. Historic figures. From the web sites:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/becket_thomas.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/caesar_julius.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/macbeth.shtml
[12]

14. Appendix
Wheel of Fortune /Rota Fortunae
Wheel of life - buddhism
[13]

15. Goddess Fortune is the personification of luck in Roman religion (I century A.D.). She is the
equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche. Her father seems to be Jupiter and like him, she can be
generous. She brings either good or bad luck according to the person she is dealing with. She is
represented veiled or even blind, and she comes to represent life's capriciousness. She is also
the goddess of fate: sometimes she helps people to foresee their future. She protects grain
supplies and, for this reason, she is usually portrayed with ears of wheat in her arms. But her
famous attribute is the wheel, symbol of the fortune that the goddess turns spreading among
humans’ good or bad auspices.
Gods and Heroes at the Archaelogolical Museum of Milan. From web site:
http://195.176.180.15:82/medina/courses/cm0910/group3/pages/poc.php?ID_POC=20&ID_Lang=1
[14]

16. The introduction to the play Everyman, by unknown author, and the drawing that
accompanied it.
[15]

17. The Wife of Bath while describing herself.
The lady of her tale showing
her both possible appearances.
The knight and his wife – first night together.
[16]

18. The choir of ladies in Murder in the
Cathedral.
Thomas Becket being assassinated
by the four knights of King Henry II.
Canterbury Cathedral,
Plaque at Thomas Becket Murder Site 2005.
[17]

19. Cassius and Brutus planning
Julius Caesar death
The moment Caesar is killed.
Mark Antony delivering his
speech after Caesar’s death
[18]

20. The three witches
at the beginning of Macbeth tragedy.
Macbeth and Banquo on
Horseback Encounter the Three
Witches
Macbeth at the moment he
sees Banquo’s ghost.
[19]

21. Macbeth killed by Macduff in the battlefield.
[20]