The Perceived Influence of Fate and Luck
As Frédéric actively searches for wealth and pursues Madame Arnoux,
he credits fate and luck for his successes and failures, while failing
to acknowledge his own active role in what happens to him. When
he flips a coin to decide whether to visit Madame Arnoux, he attributes
the outcome to fate rather than to simple probability. Upon facing
poverty after learning that his inheritance has been stolen by Roque,
he decides that luck has created an opportunity for him to work
on his talents. When Senecal asks Frédéric to help him get a job
with Arnoux, which Frédéric thinks will facilitate his pursuit of
Madame Arnoux, Frédéric decides that fate has intervened. When his
stocks make money, he again credits luck. Frédéric believes that
there are very active outside forces at work in his life, and this
helps him deal with failure when it does indeed occur.
When Madame Arnoux and Frédéric first spend time together, fate
serves as a convenient scapegoat for Frédéric, allowing him to keep
her at a distance. Although they both claim devotion to each other,
they take no action to consummate their relationship and instead
spend time complaining about fate. Meanwhile, it seems that everyone
in their social circle is sleeping with everyone else; propriety
and scandal are hardly deterrents. Something besides fate is stopping
them from making their relationship fully, completely real—but it’s
easier to blame the influence of fate than to take personal responsibility
for decisions and actions.
