The drama of fulfilment: reflection on Walter Benjamin's ‘Fate and character’ (1921)

How may we think about fulfilment, professional or otherwise?Or, what can we hope to be free for?In his difficult secular essay Benjamin offers clues when he contrasts fate and character, not as abstract theological or psychological concepts but as raw, full-bodied experiences.Aligning fate with guilt and character with innocence, he pulls them apart from each other.However, although mutually contrary, they are not found poles apart but viscerally intertwined.He draws, therefore, on tragic drama and comedy to illustrate the complexity of their entanglement.