Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo

In conclusion, fate does control ones’ life. In Homers book of the Odyssey it shows clearly that fate draws limits around free will, because Odysseus went through so many battles the

"It is precisely of him that I wished to speak. Dispose of me as you please; but help me first to carry him home. I only ask that of you." Upon examination of Les Miserables, it is clearly evident that the elements of Forgiveness, Self – Sacrifice, and Courage are only a few of the main themes Hugo wanted to develop.

In ancient Rome, there was this philosopher who was born a slave. His name was Epictetus. According to Traylor in his book The Epictetus Club, Epictetus’ master crippled him when he was young, and as a result, Epictetus endured poor health for the rest of his life. Instead of growing resentful of his circumstances, he chose to allow his difficulties to bring good. He made “himself stronger, kinder, and wiser” in order to live a healthier mental life (Traylor, 2004. P 11).

Fate is the belief that something is destined to happen by a more godly figure and free will is the belief that it is not suppose to happen but

Are we free thinking creatures? One question is usually on the minds of anybody who has ever had that thought; do we have free will or is everything determined by fate? Its my personal belief that you can't have one without the other. Your fate is determined before you are ever born,but it’s your decisions and choices that ultimately decide how you read that fate. Macbeth, The Odyssey, and Oedipus are all works that show how one’s fate is reached using free will.

William Shakespeare’s 16th century play Othello is a duplicitous and fraudulent tale set alternatingly between Venice in act 1, and the island of Cyprus thereafter. The play follows the scandalous marriage between protagonist Othello, a Christian moore and the general of the army of Venice, and Desdemona, a respected and intelligent woman who also happens to be the daughter of the Venetian Senator Brabantio. Shakespeare undoubtedly positions the marriage to be viewed as heroic and noble, despite Othello’s hamartia and subsequent downfall that inevitably occurs. Their marriage is then sabotaged by the jealous Iago, Othello’s ensign and villain of the play. While Iago’s ostensible justification for instigating Othello’s demise was his failure to acquire Othello’s position as lieutenant, Iago’s motives are rarely directly articulated and seem to derive from an obsessive, almost aesthetic pleasure in manipulation and destruction. Through the genre of the play, being a Shakespearean tragedy, and the structural devices employed by Shakespeare such as plot development, exposition, foreshadowing, dénouement, dramatic excitement, and catharsis, the key ideas of jealousy, appearance vs. reality and pride are developed and explored.

Fate is debatable. Some say that we are all pawns in a higher being’s chess game. Others believe that we execute free will in every aspect of our lives. Most people, however, believe a combination of the two. It is an age old question, and like all intangible questions we try again and again to formulate an answer through books, movies, conversations, analysis of history and prediction of the future. We look at snapshots of the past or theoretical worlds and try to discern our own answers. When Katherine Switzer decided to register for and run the Boston Marathon in 1967, was it an action of her own will or was it predestined? Did the events preceding her decision cause her to make said decision? Was Katherine always going to run

William Shakespeare’s Othello would not be a dramatic tragedy if the smiling villain, Iago, were a deaf mute. There is no doubt that the destruction of each character can be blamed on jealous Iago. The theme of jealousy helps propel the plot naturally and demonstrates the consequences of being morbidly jealous. The circumstantial evidence Iago provides acts like a lethal poison, which surrounds Othello in suspicion and envy but also turns him into an inhuman murderer. Jealousy is the ‘monster’ that unresonably conducts the great suffering in the story.

Yet after his encounter with the witches, his mind was going back and forth trying to figure out how he should act upon the prophecy of becoming king! It was by then that the idea of fate had been planted into his head, and with such good title to come with it, why wouldn’t he want to believe his ‘fate’? Something that I found very interesting about the witches was that looking closely at line 24-25 when one of the witches says, "Though his bark cannot be lost, yet it shall be tempest-tossed." From what I seemed to understand, these lines seemed to really show the limitations to the witches’ powers, because they were basically saying that they could only make life rough for the clueless captain, but they could not kill him. I think that this is really important to all the people who thought that the witches had ‘written out’ Macbeth’s fate because in the same way as the previous stated scene they can tempt Macbeth with predictions about his future, but they cannot make him choose evil. Meaning that in this scene, one of the conflicts is obviously fate vs. free will! All the witches really did was find a way of stirring up evil, by tempting Macbeth into choosing to opt for evil instead of good. “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir.” (Act 1. Scene iii. Line 10). Here, Macbeth seems content to leave his future to "chance." If "chance" will have

    Fate seems to defy humanity at every turn.  A man may have his life planned out to the last second, but then some random force intervenes and he dies the second after he has completed his life plan.  Some believe in fate, believing that our lives are predetermined from the moment we are born.  Other people believe that everything is random, the result of some god rolling the dice in a universal poker game.  Still other people believe that each and every person is in total control of his or her destiny, every step of the way.  Who is to say which viewpoint is false?  Every culture has a unique perception of the role of fate in our lives, and no group has the "right answer," simply a

Fate and free will are two topics that are often questionable because they go hand in hand. Fate is a belief that a certain event is said to happen, then that person's choice and free will lead them to what has been predicted as inevitable. Knowing whether something is fate’s fault or the fault of the person who’s going to enact the said action, is one question that has never been fully answered. In Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Shakespeare's Macbeth, fate is determined by their own choices and free will, the character Macbeth knows of what lies ahead of him, making him alter the present to create his idealistic future, however instead he lives a life of ruins. As for Oedipus his entire actions are based on one prophecy he desperately

In his novel, Les Miserables, Victor Hugo identifies the principle social evils of French society through the actions and qualities of his characters. By depicting each of his characters’ struggles through destitute and oppressed measures, Hugo is able to identify the social errors of 19th century France. The fact that characters such as Valjean, Javert, Fantine, and Cosette, attempt to rise above poverty and redeem themselves indicate that such inequalities did, and still do, exist to this day. Through the use of feminist ideals and the criminal injustice system, Hugo attacks the principle social evils that each of his characters face in Les Miserables.

For example, tomorrow you are fated to get into a car accident. While that is your fate, there are still many ways you could prevent that, like staying at home or ride the metro instead. You may be fated to be involved in the accident, however you have the free will to affect the outcome. This could also be argued within Chronicles, where although Santiago was fated to get murdered, he could have just walked through the back door, visited a friend, or just went on a vacation. As much as this could be an argument, I believe that because there was a religious tied in the scenarios brought upon by the book, fate ultimately overpowered free

What are the personal experiences of Hugo in the French Revolution that inspired him to write Les Miserables? How do his beliefs affect his work Les Miserables? Do you also believe that good always triumph over evil? Victor Hugo was a keen poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist, pamphleteer, diarist, politician and moralist of French romance. In 1862 Hugo published his masterwork Les Miserables, which gained an international success. His novel is used to condemn the unjust class-base structure of nineteenth-century France. Hugo personified the threefold problem of the century he had seen during the French Revolution through his novel “Les Miserables”.

I want to emphasize also the role of Mr. Javert, ( the policeman that constantly looking for Jean Valjean ). It is a strong character that believes on the enforcement of law and justice and he consider Mr. Jean Valjean’s escape as an affront to justice. I thought he will chase jean until the end of the movie but he commit his suicide when he realize that jean was a different person now. That he was chasing the wrong man.