Runaway: Stories

Because she features in three separate stories (“Chance,” “Soon,” and “Silence”), Juliet is unique among the characters in Runaway. This continuity transforms her from a figure glimpsed in moments of crisis into a character studied in depth, providing a chance to see how Munro investigates the effect of choices and the slow unfolding of destiny. “Chance” introduces Juliet as a young woman still deeply immersed in studying classic literature. On the train, she reflects on not only Greek texts but also the imaginative framework of Greek tragedy. Her academic passion isn’t incidental. The sense of fate that permeates her worldview colors her encounters, particularly her possible involvement in the death by suicide of a man who had spoken to her. Juliet worries that she was “cruel” for not engaging with him. She can’t help feeling complicit. This sense of responsibility resembles the guilt of tragic protagonists who feel bound by forces beyond their control. When she meets Eric on the train shortly afterward, Juliet likewise interprets the encounter through a lens of destiny. She doesn’t simply view it as a coincidence, but as an event charged with significance, something that had to happen. This conception of fate complicates her understanding of agency.