The comment by the narrator in ‘The Chronicles of a Death Foretold’ “the cock of dawn would catch us trying to give order to the chain of many chance events that had made absurdity possible, and it was obvious that we weren’t doing it from an urge to clear up mysteries but because none of us could go on living with out the exact knowledge of the place and mission assigned to us by fate” points that the whole town is guilty about Santiago’s murder as they feel part of it. Calling it fate makes it easier for them to accept that the murder that could and should have been prevented took place. The many people that contributed to the murder do suffer different consequences about their actions. For eg. The health of the Vicario brothers deteriorates Divina Flor was the one who lied to Plancida that her son was in the house and hence Plancida closed the door. In the future, she is described to be sitting with the children of other loves around her. Similarly, when Clotilde Armenta informs her husband, Don Rogelio De Flor he neglects it but after seeing the brutally killed Santiago’s body he dies on the spot out of shock. All the people contributing to the murder acted with their free will as they did as for their self-interest or under the pretext of importance of honour. In the same way in ‘The house of the Spirits’
Esteban Trueba suffers a lot on account of his wrong doings. His grand daughter gets separated from him and undergoes sexual abuse – rape same as Esteban had done with the virgin women in Tres Marias. Also, his son James gets killed on account of the conspiracy of which Esteban had sown the seeds of. In the end, Esteban gets lonely and completely helpless as he is deprived of power and is an old man. Here too Esteban by his own free will had decided to rape women and had agreed for the conspiracy. Therefore, he suffered the fate of his own actions.
Still in the above paragraph fate is related to both the incidents because it is the actual cause of the circumstances created. First evidence for this is that of all the names Angela sorted only his name when her brothers questioned her. “She looked for it in the shadows, she found it (Santiago’s name) at first sight among the many, many easily confused names from this world and the other”. Secondly, Cristo Bedoya who could have prevented the murder just couldn’t on account of the wrong decision at the last few hours. “Cristo Bedoya never managed to explain himself why he gave in the impulse to spend two hours at his grandparent’s house until the bishop came instead of going to rest at his parents who were waiting since dawn to warn him.” Also, few minutes before the murder, he made a mistake of deciding to check for Santiago in his house. He was delayed there as he had to help the sick father of Prospero Arango. There are many such situations that link to fate. Therefore, an inference can be drawn that it was Santiago’s fate to die and he did. As for, Esteban his childhood days were spent in humility and loneliness. Additionally, the death of Rosa, his love for who he worked day and night with the sole aim to marry her left him in complete distress. His action of rape was hence an outcome of his circumstances which were created by his fate.
The love story of Blanca and Pedro Tercero in ‘The House of the Spirits’
resembles the way they get separated and reunited by fate. In childhood they meet each other and get along well and gradually fall in love. However, Blanca gets separated from Pedro when she is pregnant with his child because Esteban marries her to Jean De Staginy. Still, in the end they again meet each other after Blanca leaves Jean when she finds about his secret activities. But Blanca refuses to marry Pedro because she thinks that this would reduce the romance between them. This decision is taken by Blanca on her free will. Nevertheless, they reunite in the end and this time even Esteban agrees. Thus, this was their fate to reunite. In ‘The Chronicles of a death Foretold,’ on the other hand, the love story of Bayardo and Angela is extremely different. Bayardo was behind Angela while Angela had no love for him. On the wedding night when he returned Angela to her mother’s house because she wasn’t a virgin Angela started developing feelings for Bayardo. She went crazy about him over the years of their separation. She wrote him almost two thousand letters during the next seventeen years. This was done by her own free will. These letters proved her love to Bayardo and hence he returned to her. Here, too it was their fate that they reunited. Angela suddenly starting liking Bayardo provides evidence.
Thus, the above examples clearly show that fate is inevitably linked in the lives of the characters of both the novels. It is true that fate is an outcome of one’s actions made by free will as shown in these books. However, here the case is more like the free will is just a choice made by them and the result is still what their fate is. This suggests that the character’s choice is related to his/her fate. For e.g. James spent all his life doing good deeds. Before he would be killed he had an option to say something false against the President on the media and be free but he refused (free will) and got a death which he didn’t deserve. Thus, things are going to happen only in one way and here is the place where fate comes. Here his death was an outcome of his decision made on free will and its outcome can be considered unfair in relation to the way he spent his life but it is his fate. Similarly, Santiago came to know about the fact that the Vicario brothers are waiting to kill him just a little time before at his fiancé’s place though the whole town knew about it. ‘There has been not other death more foretold.’ Still Santiago becomes confused and leaves the fiancés house unarmed and consequently meets his fate. Thus, it was his free will to leave the house even though he knew the danger to his life. Hence to summarize:
Fate is real, but fate doesn't prevent one from doing anything. One can do whatever he or she wants but whatever the conclusion, it was fate that it should happen that way. Free will is a simply a part of fate.
