Destiny and The Kept Man(Independent Study)

In The Kept Man, the main character Jarvis, must attempt to move on after her husband falls into a deep coma. This novel is clearly an example of soemone who determines their own future as Jarvis makes many decisions that in the long run make her unhappy. Perhaps it was fate that caused Jarvis' husband to accidentally fall off the ladder and go into a deep coma. Then again accidents happen all the time, and more likely it was just chance or carelessness that caused such a tragic fall. What is more important are the decisions that Jarvis makes on her own, such as deciding to keep to herself for so many years, cooped up in her apartment, or to sleep with another woman's husband while drunk and high on coke. Or finally, Jarvis' decision to take her husband off life support. Clearly, it is not fate intervening in Jarvis' life at all, rather she is making her own choices that affect her own life.

Fate and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce does not present fate or destiny as a prominent theme. However, I believe that fate does seem to play a role in Stephen's life. In the book Stephen must decide whether to follow the path of priesthood, or take the opportunities that life as an artist would present him. Inside, Stephen is truly an artist and has been since he was a little boy. He has always been interested by the arrangement of words, and the way they can convey his feelings. He is introverted, and appears to spend most of the novel in his own world, and realizing that indeed life as a catholic priest would be too structured, killing the artist inside of him. It seems that Stephen was always meant to be an artist because of who he was as a person. Perhaps Father Arnall's sermon, E.C., Eileen and other occurances helped Stephen to realize that he would be happiest only by abandoning his faith and pursuing his artistic talents. It was Stephen's destiny to become and artist.

Fate and Destiny in History

FATE IN MYTHOLOGY
The Moirae were supposed to appear three nights after a child's birth to determine the course of its life. The Greeks variously claimed that they were the daughters of Zeus and the Titaness Themis (the "Institutor") or of primordial beings like Nyx, the Night, Chaos or Ananke, Necessity.

The Moirae, as depicted in an 16th century tapestry
In earlier times, the Moirae were represented as only a few - perhaps only one - individual goddess. Homer's Iliad speaks generally of the Moera, who spins the thread of life for men at their birth (xxiv.209), Moera Krataia "strong Moira" (xvi.334) or of several Moerae (xxiv.49). In the Odyssey (vii.197) there is a reference to the Klôthes, or Spinners. At Delphi, only the Fates of Birth and Death were revered.[3] In Athens, Aphrodite, who had an earlier, pre-Olympic existence, was called Aphrodite Urania the 'eldest of the Fates' according to Pausanias (x.24.4).
DESTINY
Destiny may be envisaged as fore-ordained by the Divine (for example, the Protestant concept of predestination) or by human will (for example, the American concept of Manifest Destiny).
A sense of destiny in its oldest human sense is in the soldier's fatalistic image of the "bullet that has your name on it" or the moment when your number "comes up," or a romance that teach the futility of trying to outmaneuver an inexorable fate that has been correctly predicted.
Destiny may be seen as a fixed sequence of events that is inevitable and unchangeable, or that individuals choose their own destiny by choosing different paths throughout their life.

DESTINY VS. FATE
Although the words are used interchangeably in many cases, fate and destiny can be distinguished. Modern usage defines fate as a power or agency that predetermines and orders the course of events. Fate defines events as ordered or "inevitable". Fate is used in regard to the finality of events as they have worked themselves out; and that same finality projected into the future to become the inevitability of events as they will work themselves out is Destiny. In classical and Eureopean mythology, there are three goddessess dispensing fate known as Moirae in Greek mythology, Parcae in Roman mythology, and Norns in Norse mythology, who determinted the events of the world. One word derivative of "fate" is "fatality" another "fatalism". Fate implies no choice, and ends with a death. Fate is an outcome determined by an outside agency acting upon a person or entity; but with destiny the entity is participating in achieving an outcome that is directly related to itself. Participation happens wilfully.
Used in the past tense, "destiny" and "fate" are both more interchangeable, both imply "one's lot" or fortunes, and includes the sum of events leading up to a currently achieved outcome (e.g. "it was her destiny to be leader" and "it was her fate to be leader").

Quotes About Fate and Destiny

Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that great gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born.
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 - 1881), "The Brothers Karamazov"

Man is his own star and the soul that can render an honest and perfect man commands all light, all influence, all fate.
John Fletcher (1579 - 1625), 1647

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945), Pan American Day address, April 15, 1939

It's choice - not chance - that determines your destiny.
Jean Nidetch

To accomplish our destiny it is not enough to merely guard prudently against road accidents. We must also cover before nightfall the distance assigned to each of us.
Alexis Carrel (1873 - 1944)

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963), speech at The American University, Washington, D.C.,
June 10, 1963

Crime and Punishment and the Big Question

Raskolnikov's actions in Crime and Punishment convey the idea that indeed a person's future is determined by their own decisions. It was Raskolnikov himself that decided to kill Alyona and Lizaveta at the beginning of the novel and then to confess to the crime at the end. There was not not another person or other power forcing Raskolnikov to do either of these besides perhaps, his sickness and conscience. There does not seem to be any divine intervention in the novel. However, it only seems appropriate that Raskolnikov meet somebody like Sonia, a christ like figure who is one of the main reasons Rask. finally decides to confess. This brings up the question of whether people can be placed in our lives as a part of our fate. Instead of certain events being destined to happen are there instead certain people who we are meant to have in our lives because they influence us in one way or another.

Henry IV Part I and the Big Question

Henry IV illustrates what can happen when people decide their own fate. Hal had the opportunity to become King but he also was given the option of hanging around with the pub crawlers for the rest of his life. Although the latter would have been extremely looked down upon and disappointed his father greatly, if it was what he truly wanted it would have been possible. Rather, Hal decided to become the great king he knew he was capable of being. Through his own action, Hal became a brave warrior and gained respect by not only saving his father's life but also by defeating his enemy. Hal decided his own destiny, it was not determined for him.

"And God forgive them that so mcuh have swayed Your Majesty's good thoughts away from me. I willl redeem all this on Percy's head, And, in the closing of some glorious day, Be bold to tell you that I am your son,"Act 3 Scene 2 Lines 135-139

"Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like Never to hold it up again... it is the prince of Wales that threatens thee "

Oedipus and The Big Question

Do we have free will or are we given a predestined fate?

In Oedipus it is clear that people are predestined from the beginning. Socrates reveals that no matter how hard a person tries their fate will always come true. Oedipus's was that he would kill his own father and marry his mother. Eventhough Oedipus did not know it until the very end and eventhough he did everything in his power by even moving away from his home to a new city, his fate came true. People make their own decisions but they always lead to the fate they were given from the beginning.