Michael Syed 13 Juno English

‘There had never been a death more foretold.’ (page 50)

Discuss the presentation of the fate and inevitability in
chapter 3

There are numerous clues, scattered throughout the third chapter, which

hint at the unavoidability of Santiago Nasar’s death. Through

coincidences, and events that, ironically, turn out to help his death rather

than to save him from it, we can see that his demise had been foretold, as

if his name had been written in a death note. The inevitability of his death

is what makes the reader think that it was destiny, and there are so many

coincidences, not only in the third chapter, but also in the first two, that it

cannot just be by chance that the main character met his tragic end.

The first hint we have that the crime cannot be avoided, at the start

of the chapter, is that the brother’s didn’t really want to kill him. They

“had done so much than could be imagined for someone to stop them

from killing him, and they failed” (p49). There just wasn’t any way out, for

them, and nothing they couldn’t have done anything more to stop

themselves from killing the man. Here Gabriel Garcia Marquez presents

the theme of inevitability through the Vicario brothers, and their attempts

to be absolved of having to murder Santiago Nasar.

To consolidate this point, Marquez tells us the same thing through the

character of Clotilde Armenta. “She was certain that the Vicario brothers

were not so anxious to fulfil the sentence as to find someone who would

do them the favor of stopping them”. (p57). It is fate that made it so that

no one stopped the brothers, and even Officer Leandro Pornoy did not try

to stop the Vicario brothers from murdering Santiago Nasar. “He’d settled

so many fights between friends the night before that he was in no hurry

for another one.” (p56). This, again, is ironic and dark humour – he was
Michael Syed 13 Juno English

the only one who could have done something about the murder, who

could have stopped the twins, and they wanted to be stopped, but he

decided not to trouble himself with that particular incident.

A way Marquez presents the theme of fate is through strange

coincidences. What were the chances that Santiago Nasar would choose to

go through the door the cousin’s were waiting at for him, when he never

used that door? He passed through that door, in fact, “for such an

unforeseen reason that the investigator who drew up the brief never did

understand it.” (p50). This is a very uncanny coincidence, which can be

defined as ‘dark humour’. The coincidence that Nasar decided to go

through that door adds to the reader’s suspicion that his death really way

unavoidable. No one understands or knows why Santiago Nasar chose that

door, but he did, and that sealed his fate.

Another coincidence that proves that the death was inevitable is

that the Colonel Aponte, even though he was the only one to have actually

done something, did not do much to stop the twins. He “took away their

knives and sent them off to sleep”, claiming that “No one is arrested just

on suspicion” (p57). This shows that the death was inevitable, and shows

that it was fate, because had he arrested them, they wouldn’t have been

able to kill him. “But Colonel Aponte was at peace with his soul” (p57).

This highlights fate, because the people who could have had an effect on

the whole story, didn’t, because they didn’t feel like it or thought they had

done enough already. He also forgot to tell him, “he didn’t think of

Santiago Nasar again until he saw him on the docks”.

It is also interesting to note that the twins had drunk two bottles of

cane liquor, apart from everything else from the wedding party before,
Michael Syed 13 Juno English

they were still good enough to do the killing. Their blood pressure was so

high, and they couldn’t have gotten it up even with lamp oil. Maybe, since

“they drank the whole bottle in two long swings”, they had hoped to get

drunk in order to not have to go and murder the man.

Moreover, it is fate, and a bizarre coincidence that everyone knew

about the murder intent apart from Santiago Nasar himself, and that “their

reputation as good people was so well founded that no one paid any

attention to them” (p52). It was fate that no one bothered to tell Santiago

Nasar, because every one thought that since he was so rich, for one, and

every one assumed that he had been told already.

However, the biggest clue Marquez gives us, that Santiago Nasar

was going to die, no matter what, was the quotation: “There had never

been a death more foretold” (p50). The reader has the power of foresight –

we know that the protagonist is dead, and by saying that Marquez wants

us to think that actually they were not coincidences, that everything was

destiny, and that nothing could have changed that.

Throughout the chapter we are given hints of hope, as Marquez

keeps bringing in situations in which Santiago Nasar could have been

warned, or situations in which the Vicario brothers could have been

stopped. The author presents the themes of inevitability and fate through

these means, through irony, dark humour, and through happenstance. The

fate of the main character is what causes the dark humour, and the irony,

and after all these coincidences, joined with all that happened in the first

two chapters, the reader cannot but think that there must have been

some sort of divine intervention, that it really was destiny, and that the

death was inevitable after all.

Michael Syed 13 Juno English