Fate or Free Will in Othello by William Shakespeare

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Are the characters governed by fate or free will? Fate means a power that some people believe causes and controls all events, so that you cannot change or control way things will happen. Free will means the ability to decide what to make independently of any outside influence. The different between the two they justify the causes that are in somebody else’s hands or in your own hands. The reason why I picked the background information that supports my hook because life can be influenced by the outcome of what you do regardless of what is in favor. The characters and events in the play were influenced by fate because the path and actions they chose recently reflect what happen later on in the play.
The beginning of the play starts when Iago and Roderigo were discussing about their plan of Iago wants to be second-in-command and Roderigo wants to make love with Desdemona. Next, they went into a dispute with Desdemona’s father about Othello marrying Desdemona. When, Othello marry Desdemona, Iago first plan was to get Cassio lose his job by getting drunk and into a fight. Afterwards, Desdemona tries to convince to Othello about giving Cassio’s job back. Then, Iago gets Desdemona, Othello, Cassio, and Bianca stuck in a situation about who are cheating on what, the handkerchief and Cassio’s job. Later on, Iago got in trouble of the evidence that reveal everything that actually happen in the play. Lastly, Othello killed himself, Iago receives imprisonment with torture, Emilia dies later and Cassio became the governor of Cyprus.
The first meaning of free will in the play is the ability to act at one’s own discretion. Duke: “If goodness is beautiful; your son-in-law is beautiful, not black.” The reason why I pick the quote because Duke ha...

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...hoices in her favor. The examples show, Iago took their free will and used it as an advantage to carry out his plans.
Out of the entire essay, the characters were mostly influenced by fate because Iago took advantage of the characters freedom to make choices. He made his plans and knew what to do and the right way of doing them. The term fate is related to the play when Iago was considered as the outside force that decide what he had planned in advance so he could just have the characters to do what he set up so there’s no control of the situation that other characters are dealing with. However, Emilia had an advantage where she rather knew what happened about the handkerchief and Desdemona was not cheating to reveal the truth of what happen in the play. The reason why the actions support fate because everything the characters did determined the outcome of the play.

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