The Greeks said character is fate, and they meant that for as many chances as you get to choose a different path there is really only one path for you because you couldn’t do something different at that turning point and still be the same person. Thus, if you shuffle Hamlet and Othello, the one’s credulity and the other’s impulsiveness will solve each other’s tragedies and no one will have to die.

But: circumstances form character, so who knows what would happen with an Othello who did not have to struggle to prove himself at every turn just to overcome perceptions of his complexion, or a Hamlet with only his good name to live up to and not that of a whole line of kings?