"Our acts our angels are, for good or ill, our fatal shadows that walk by us still"
About this Quote
A razor-edged bit of Renaissance moral accounting: Fletcher turns the comforting idea of guardian angels inside out and replaces it with something darker and more intimate. Your “angels” aren’t heavenly emissaries sent to protect you. They’re your own actions, and they don’t hover above; they trail behind like “fatal shadows,” inseparable, persistent, and quietly accusatory. The line works because it refuses the era’s easy split between private sin and public reputation. Even if no one sees what you did, the deed continues to “walk by” you, shaping what happens next, shaping who you become.
The subtext is steeped in early 17th-century anxiety about agency and consequence. Fletcher is writing in a theatrical culture obsessed with moral causality: tragedies where one choice metastasizes into a destiny, and comedies where a lie keeps breeding new lies. “For good or ill” compresses a whole worldview into four words: the shadow isn’t only guilt; it’s also merit, the accumulated weight of generosity, bravery, restraint. Either way, you’re haunted - but by yourself.
Calling the shadow “fatal” is the slyest move. It suggests doom, but also inevitability: not that the universe is cruel, but that cause and effect is. Fletcher’s intent feels less like sermonizing than like stagecraft. It’s a line meant to land in the body, not the intellect: a reminder that in a world of masks and performances, the one role you can’t exit is the one written by what you’ve already done.
The subtext is steeped in early 17th-century anxiety about agency and consequence. Fletcher is writing in a theatrical culture obsessed with moral causality: tragedies where one choice metastasizes into a destiny, and comedies where a lie keeps breeding new lies. “For good or ill” compresses a whole worldview into four words: the shadow isn’t only guilt; it’s also merit, the accumulated weight of generosity, bravery, restraint. Either way, you’re haunted - but by yourself.
Calling the shadow “fatal” is the slyest move. It suggests doom, but also inevitability: not that the universe is cruel, but that cause and effect is. Fletcher’s intent feels less like sermonizing than like stagecraft. It’s a line meant to land in the body, not the intellect: a reminder that in a world of masks and performances, the one role you can’t exit is the one written by what you’ve already done.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|---|
| Source | Line from the play The Faithful Shepherdess by John Fletcher: “Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, our fatal shadows that walk by us still.” |
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