Chronicle of a Death Foretold Fate and Free Will Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

"I didn't do any of what they told me," she said, "because the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was all something dirty that shouldn't be done to anybody, much less to the poor man who had the bad luck to marry me." So she let herself get undressed openly in the lighted bedroom, safe now from all the acquired fears that had ruined her life. "It was very easy," she told me, "because I'd made up my mind to die." (4.28)

It's interesting that Angela behaves as if she has no free will and can't fight against fate, when this is actually her first action that is completely independent. Do you think this sort of pitiful behavior is just a ruse or an excuse?

Quote #8

Mistress of her fate for the first time, Angela Vicario then discovered that hate and love are reciprocal passions. (4.32)

Angela and Maria are the only people in this whole novel who seem not to be completely controlled by fate. What makes them different from the other characters, if anything? How does Angela make her transformation from wimpy girl to mistress of her own fate?

Quote #9

Most of all, he never thought it legitimate that life should make use of so many coincidences forbidden literature, so that there should be the untrammeled fulfillment of a death so clearly foretold. (5.3)

We see what you did there Marquez. You went all meta on us. Clever, but it's actually a good point—the characters in this novel act just like that, characters who have no will other than that of the author.