Boccaccio and Dante
We have no control over our own fate. We are powerless when it comes down to fortune. Things come and go, and everything happens for a reason - one can continue convincing themselves to have reason, power, and control over something unpredictable. Some may argue fate is just a name for events that are inevitable, events that are intended but were just waiting to happen. Things may happen by chance or as caused by factors such as karma, but these are ultimately derived from fortune. It works itself into us in many different ways, although in both Boccaccio and Dante's pieces, fortune is but an omniscient entity. I believe such is true; fortune is unpredictable and uncontrollable, yet this factor predicts and controls fate.
Fortune is reason. A chain of events that lead up to either a positive or negative result can be explained simply by introducing fortune.
Gustave Doré's illustration to Dante's Inferno. P...
English: Dante Alighieri's portrait by Sandro Bott...
Domenico di Michelino, La Divina Commedia di Dante...In the Decameron's novel number eight of the second day, the count of Antwerp made decisions caused by forced exile upon him, leaving his sons to their own fates. Throughout the novel, he could not have caused any deterrence or progress towards his and his sons' successes and failures. It wasn't his actions that fronted their destinies. Having the gentle lady Jeannette been destined to cross fates with the three been out of complete circumstance provides neither good reason nor justification. It was shaped, these series of events, and constructed by fortune, governing the causes that affect what ensues in earthly lives.
Divine Comedy defines fortune - she - upon a similar thought. Dante states that, "As the heavenly spheres are governed by the angels, so "worldly splendors" are governed by fortune." We have no control when fate will occur and affect our lives, instances happen defined by fortune.