Who’s in Control of Your Life?

The belief that the order of things in one’s life is already decided and that people’s lives are determined by this “greater power” is called fate. Many people called fatalists, believe in this and believe that they have no power in determining their futures. Others believe that coincidence explains the way their lives and the lives of others turn out. Although fate plays a big role in the forming of the plot in Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy portrays chance and coincidence as continuously having more significant roles throughout the novel. Three such coincidences were quite influential and had large effects on Tess’s future.
Right from the start of the novel, the theme of coincidences and chance is very evident. Upon returning to his home one evening, Durbeyfield meets a man named Parson Tringham who tells him that the Durbeyfield family is the “lineal representative of the ancient and knightly family of the d’Urbervilles, who . . . came from Normandy with Wi...