Oss Agnes ‘authored’ her own fate. Discuss. Hannah Kent’s, ‘Burial Rites’, set against a bleak and harsh Icelandic landscape, explores the journey of a condemned woman, Agnes Magnusdottir, and the path paved for her ultimate, inevitable fate, her execution. Threaded through the novel is the idea of fate that encapsulates Agnes’ predetermined execution for her committed murder of Natan Ketilsson, justifiably portrayed as a murder propelled by love and infatuation towards him. Kent juxtaposes Agnes’ unfeigned motives to liberate her loved one with the strong, preconceived beliefs held of the ‘evil-natured’ ‘murderess’ by the conservative, Icelandic society. Kent accentuates that despite the Icelandic society may have ‘authored’ aspects of Agnes’ fate, ultimately, her unrelenting love for Natan …show more content…
Kent accentuates that Agnes’ unconditional compassion and obsession for Natan, ultimately leads to her act of ‘murder’, and she admits that her prospering love for him propelled her to commit the ‘mercy killing’. Ultimately, Kent establishes that Agnes is but the ‘author’ of her own fate and conveys Agnes’ acknowledgment of the consequences, yet continued to ‘pick the hammer’ to ‘kill him’. Through this, Kent highlights the degree of control Agnes had over her impending execution. Throughout the novel, Agnes justifies her adoration towards Natan for ‘[he] was the only one saw ‘her]’, ‘who [understood] how [she] [felt]’ and ‘made [her] feel [she] was enough’, and unable to watch his ‘slow death’ she decided to ‘give [the] blow’. Kent accentuates the degree of control Agnes had over her imminent death and that despite her underprivileged social status and predetermined fate, Agnes did ‘author’ her own fate by giving into her