Karen Blixen - Isak Dinesen home

Question 32: Destiny vs identity?

Q. Can you give me some explications of her concept of destiny and identity? According to Karen Blixen man acquires his own identity by fulfilling God's plan. But how does this accord with her non-deterministic conception of destiny and with her idea of the indeterministic correlation between man and the idea of God?

In "The Roads Round Pisa" we can find the motif of the marionette, however the events of the story reject this motif. How can it be possible?

A.
1.) As in Nordic mythology, Karen Blixen believed that one's destiny is predetermined. What is not determined is the individual's attitude, or acceptance of Fate. The artist accepts Fate joyfully; tragedy and comedy are of equal value. "Life is to be understood on the analogy of art in which everything, even the pain and the evil, is esthetically necessary." (Langbaum, Isak Dinesen: The Gayety of Vision, p. 12)

Tragedy offers the opportunity for immortality, because tragedy is remembered. The person who experiences tragedy takes a place in history.

2.) You find your identity by assuming a mask or a role. The mask is an expression of your deepest longings; it allows you to transform yourself. You need to view your life from a distance, and see how it fits into a pattern of history. Instead of seeing yourself as an individual, you become an "archetype" (Langbaum, p. 20); ie, you see the symbolism behind events in your life, the significance to history.

Experience was important to the Romantic writers as a means of understanding your identity. You cannot find your true identity without testing yourself, ie without taking risks.

In "The Roads Round Pisa," "Augustus ought to have learned from Prince Potenziani's example that you do not fnd out who you are by introspection, by looking into a mirror, but by putting on a mask and engaging in an action with such intensity that you step from a human story into God's story, from your own relative to God's absolute purpose" (Langbaum, p. 19).

3.) "To be in a marionette play is to know that your purpose is part of a grand design." It is to act according to instinct, intuition, or "regained naivete" (as shown in "Copenhagen Season"). It is to return to nature, or to the primitive, to a regained innocence.

Langbaum says that, in "The Roads Round Pisa," Prince Potenziani represents the artist. Life (the story) is a series of events whose surprises exalt the Creator's genius. As he dies, the other characters realize that he (like God) has been responsible for the story. In this case, Pozentiani was the master of the marionettes.

"The story transforms human purposes into the divine purpose. It is the means by which the artist can show both the limited points of view of the characters and the abiding view of God..." (Langbaum, p.12). That is, only when you see events, even tragedy, as connected and necessary, can you accept your fate.

Copyright © 2001 by Linda Donelson. All rights reserved