The Canterbury Tales: the Man of Law's Tale Fate and Free Will Quotes

Here the narrator gives the first indications of his belief that the fate of man is fixed by powers beyond his control. The narrator expresses support for the precepts of astrology in his claim that whatever is written in the stars at the time of a person's birth, in this case, the Sultan's, predicts what's going to happen in the person's life.

The expression "God woot" is a common throwaway phrase in medieval poetry. It's often used just to preserve the poetic rhythm. But here, in the context of fate being written in the stars, it takes on significance: God knows what our future will be. Maybe He's even the one who wrote it in the stars in the first place.

The narrator apparently thinks that our inability to predict the future is due largely to our own failings ("mennes wittes ben so dulle"). It's not that the information isn't out there, it's just that most human beings are too short-sighted to see it. This theory goes along with a belief that God has filled the universe with messages and meanings that are accessible only to the morally upright. Again, it is the failings of man—not God being secretive—that lead to our ignorance.

The stars don't just contain information about our future. Here, at least, they also cause it. We see this when the narrator blames the failure of Custance's marriage on the position of Mars at the time.

Here's another theory for why Custance's marriage fails. The Emperor of Rome chose an unlucky time for the start of her journey. The narrator connects this failure to people being "to lewed or to slowe," again implying that mankind is to blame for our ignorance of the future. What's contradictory about all this astrologizing is that people are blamed for failing to control their future, while, at the same time, that future is said to be already written in the stars.

Here the narrator expresses his fatalism, his view that "wo," or suffering, is, frankly, inevitable. This philosophy denies agency to human beings because it implies that we are helpless to control what happens to us.

This passage makes it apparent how the open ocean serves as a symbol of fate at whose hands human beings are helpless. Custance drifts "as it was hir aventure." "Aventure" is a word that refers to what happens to a person by chance, beyond her control. Custance is also shown to "wayte / Er that the wilde wawes wol hire dryve / Unto the place ther she shal arryve." All she can do in this situation is wait, helpless, for the waves (or fortune, fate) to take her where they will.

Finally, a note of hope in all his gloomy talk of man's helplesseness in the face of cruel fate. The narrator claims that God has a purpose for the things that He does, whether or not we can understand it. Our characters trust in this idea. Their faith allows them to weather the unpredictable twists of fate with patience.

This is King Alla's response when given the (false) news of the birth of a demon-child. He welcomes it as the "sonde," or "sending" of Christ. Although Alla's response models the proper Christian approach to misfortune (trust that God will provide), the fact that he's contemplating a demon child raises an important question: does God "send" even evil things?

The Constable expresses dismay at what he perceives as the lack of logic in what God ordains. If God is a just judge, shouldn't people be rewarded for virtue and punished for sin? It seems unfair to the Constable that people have little to no control over their fate in this world.

Custance's faith in God's protection is heartening, don't you think? At the same time, though, it implies that everything is in the hands of God, which denies human beings the ability to control their own fates.

This passage compares happiness to the tides. In so doing, it suggests that joy is inevitable but, like the sea, is uncontrollable. Happiness arrives and takes its leave at the hands of mysterious forces beyond our control.