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Fate and Free Will
When the nobles fight for Henry's affection, or when Henry decides to get a quickie divorce, are these characters acting of their own free will? Or are they merely pawns getting played by fate?
Literary scholars and historians are divided on this issue, because Shakespeare presents two competing views of history in Henry VIII. On the one hand, the drama suggests that everything is prophesized and part of a divine plan. After all, Shakespeare's audiences knew what was gonna happen—since it was historical—and they might have felt that these events were somehow predestined.
On the other hand, the play also presents the idea that the characters choose their own paths out of their own free will. This view of history doesn't see any kind of divine plan at work. Instead, it attributes the events of history to human actions. There's plenty of evidence in the play to argue either position, and it seems more fruitful to simply acknowledge the ambiguity and tension between them.
Henry VIII's historical foreknowledge suggests that all the events that unfold throughout the course of the play are inevitable and were therefore fated to happen.
Even though the play is based on historical events, we see the characters use their own free will throughout the play.
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