Fate vs. Free Will in the Cantanbury Tales and The Divine Comedy

Fate and free will are two very controversial subjects. Since the beginning of time it has been an argument whether it is fate or our own free will that gets people to their final resting place. In Dante’s Inferno it explains the use of free will and how it gets people to heaven or hell. Then in The Pardoner’s Tale, which is one of the Cantanbury Tales, it shows how fate is used in getting people to their final resting place.
In Dante’s Inferno Dante Alighieri explains all the different levels of hell. He goes through all these different levels with a guide named Virgil that helps him gain access. Each level of hell has the sinners and their punishment given to them. For instance, “Dante awakened to the Third Circle, where the Gluttonous, are failed by cold and filthy rain and tourmented by Cerberus” is an example of a level of hell with its sinners and punishment (Mandelbaum 1852). As Dante journeys through these different levels he sees souls that he knew on Earth an...