Push And Pull Of Destiny In Shakespeare's The Fault In Our Stars

My report examines the concept of the push and pull of destiny, the unseen strings of which pull the characters of many texts into many directions at whim. Today in society no one knows whether it exists or how it works but it has remained an object of fascination for humans for millennium. This is seen by many writers having influenced their texts using destiny as a driving force that pushes characters along a set path. Most of the time destiny is used as a maleficent force such as in The Fault in Our Stars novel by John Green or in the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, other times it can be a force of good such as in the film Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle and at other times it is simply there as it pushes good and

This is evidenced in The Fault in Our Stars through the cancer of Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace Lancaster. Both characters where born with terminal cancer and there is little chance of them escaping their destiny of an early death. Similarly in Romeo and Juliet the two are “star crossed lovers” and no matter what they do they are destined to not be together, the more they test their destiny the tighter it pulls until they die. Further in The Fault in Our Stars “and so never was Shakespeare more wrong than when he had Cassius note “the fault dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves”” this quote talks about how no matter what we try we can never escape our destiny. Destiny will always be there, omnipresent and once again their future is not in their hands but fate’s hands “you don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, but you can choose who hurts you”. And so they stick together despite the very real threat of an early death.

Benevolence is also an element that destiny sometimes portrays, for example the film Slumdog Millionaire offers a light-hearted view of destiny as opposed to the death in Romeo and Juliet and The Fault In our Stars. Jamal Malik is prodded along his life by the unseen hands of fate to reach the happy ending. All of his experiences that fate decreed he should face led him to overcome his ultimate struggle, if fate had neglected even one then the ending would be very different. Through the river of destiny Jamal sailed to victory and showed that his life “is written” by