NON-AFRICAN POETRY Discuss the theme of fate in "Upon An Honest Man 's Fortune."

Answer Details

John Fletcher's "Upon an Honest Man's Fortune" is a reflective poem that wrestles with the idea of fate and finally rejects the belief that human life is ruled by external forces such as the stars, chance or destiny. Its argument is that the honest, upright man makes his own fortune, and that fate is not a power outside us but a name we give to our own conduct.

Rejecting the tyranny of the stars. The poem opens by dismissing the notion that the heavens govern human affairs. The famous assertion "Man is his own star" declares that a person's destiny is shaped from within, not decreed by the constellations at birth. Fletcher denies astrology and the fatalism it encourages.

Virtue as the shaper of fortune. The poem insists that "the soul that is honest is the only perfect man", and that our own deeds determine our fate. "Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, / our fatal shadows that walk by us still." Fate, then, is nothing but the shadow cast by our own actions; a good man's actions are his good angels, an evil man's his bad. Destiny is thus internalised and moralised.

Fortune has no power over the upright. The honest man is presented as beyond the reach of fickle Fortune. External blows of chance cannot corrupt or overthrow the person whose integrity is firmly rooted within. What the world calls misfortune cannot touch the true worth of the virtuous soul.

Self-reliance and moral courage. The overall theme is one of self-determination. Rather than blaming the stars or bemoaning ill luck, a man should look to his own character, for it is there, and not in the sky, that his fate is written.

The poem therefore treats fate not as a blind external force but as the moral consequence of one's own actions, offering a confident, self-reliant answer to the ancient question of whether destiny or free will governs human life.