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Free will could be described as an ability to choose. People have always wanted to be free, and to achieve this; people gave their lives. Modern people are much more fortunate because they have rights. However, there is still no concept of absolute freedom, and a person cannot be free. If people had absolute freedom, without any limits, prohibitions, and moral norms, then the security of the whole society would be in jeopardy. Responsibility limits freedom and allows one to be responsible for the consistency of choice. Moreover, the phenomenon of fate limits the freedom of will, which is considered within the framework of determinism. Thus, free will is an illusion since this phenomenon is limited by fate and moral, administrative, civil, and criminal liability.
Many literary works depict the conflict between determinism and free will. For example, in Sophocles Oedipus Rex, the protagonist does everything to avoid the prophecy of the Delphic oracle. However, the more actions he takes, the faster the prophecy is fulfilled (Sophocles 19). Likewise, no matter how hard Bulstrode tries to hide his past in George Eliots Middlemarch, coincidences reveal his hypocritical deeds. In turn, in The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho depicts the confrontation between fate and free will. King Melchizedek tells Santiago: At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of whats happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate (Coelho 7). The idea of the work is that a balance is needed between ones own choice and the predestination of fate.
A common theme in Dostoevskys works is human freedom. According to Dostoevsky, human freedom, in order to remain precisely freedom, and not just another kind of necessity, must inevitably include freedom of arbitrariness (Dostoevsky 35). This possibility of arbitrariness is a condition for the moral choice to be not forced but genuinely free. In Crime and Punishment, Rodion Raskolnikov tests the boundaries of his nature. For the supposed good of most people, he decides to kill an old pawnbroker who harms people. Nevertheless, it turns out that not everything is permitted to a person. When a person destroys another person, he ceases to be a person (Dostoevsky 76). When a person exercises will, ignoring the norms of human existence and other peoples interests, including their desire to be free, this is arbitrariness followed by responsibility. Thus, the above literary examples support the idea that free will is limited by responsibility and destiny.
Works Cited
Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. Translated by Alan R. Clarke. 1992. Books Library.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. Translated by Constance Garnett. 2001. The Project Gutenberg eBook.
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Notes from the Underground. Translated by Constance Garnett. 1996. The Project Gutenberg eBook.
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Translated by Ian Johnston. 2004. SLPS.
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