Fate and Freewill in The Romance of Tristan Anonymous College

Beroul’s The Romance of Tristan exhibits the inevitable, predetermined relationship between Tristan and Yseut. Neither Tristan, Yseut, nor Mark is able to interfere with the lovers’ relationship, suggesting that fate takes away choice and freewill in love. Other characters, such as Frocin, prove that one’s fate can be changed if he or she knows about it in advance and actively tries to prevent this outcome. Tristan’s experience with love happens to be dictated by uncontrollable fate. However, the other characters have differing beliefs about the role of fate in an individual’s life, suggesting that the fate’s role may not be as powerful.

The love potion that Tristan and Yseut drink makes them powerless over their newfound love for one another. The element of choice is completely removed from love and their subsequent actions reflect this as well. Therefore, Tristan and Yseut’s fates are inevitable. When Tristan and Yseut drink the love potion, the narrator states “Both thought it was good wine: neither knew that it held for them a lifetime of suffering and hardship and that it was to cause their destruction and their death” (Beroul 44.) It is fate that brings the two together through the love potion. Even after the potion wears...