Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown;
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.

William Shakespeare: “Hamlet”

These lines may be regarded as highly pessimistic, but this is not the case. In fact, these lines depict reality in its stark naked form. Reality is not a sweetmeat to be savored by everyone. It is, rather, always bitter in taste. And life is nothing, but a bitter reality.

Life is full of anguish, despair, and grief. We must live this life because we have no other option. There is no escape from the bitter realities of life. We can groan and grumble, but we can’t force life to alter its course.

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We are helpless before our destiny, and cannot exercise our free will. We cannot have our own way. Yes, we can’t. The only thing that we can do is to build castles in the air, and this we do freely.

These illusory castles may give us some solace, but the problem with these castles is that they have no solid foundation. In fact, they have no foundation at all. Thus, they are easily pulled down by the jerks of life. And man — the crown of the creation cannot even lament his loss. How helpless the man is!

Man is not a free agent. Instead, he is a mere puppet in the hands of a hostile fate. Fate intervenes again and again to frustrate his plans. His dreams are shattered, and his plans are upset, yet he can do nothing. He is so helpless that he can neither dodge his destiny nor frustrate his fate.

Over the period of time, I’ve come to believe that our will and fate can never meet. They always repel each other like the similar poles of a magnet. Hence, Shakespeare is quite right when he says that

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.