Fate And Coincidence In The Wonder Of The World

As David Lindsay-Abaire wrote this play “Wonder of the World”, that presents an unanswered question about a person’s life. The story opens up with a wife, Cass Harris, leaving her husband, Kip Harris, to find herself. Thus, Cass mind is tested to see whether the love of a person's life is either fate or coincidence. Fate can be described as something in which is somehow definitely predetermined. Some say things happen for a reason and at times people cannot control how things go. Were coincidence is said to be a remarkable event that happens out of the blue without any connection to that something. In this paper, Cass’s ideas on fate and coincidence, thoughts on Cass and Kip meeting (either fate or coincidence) and, Cass meeting Captain Mike (being fate or coincidence) is tested to see Cass’s inner thoughts.

Cass Harris, a woman who wakes up one day and realizes that the last seven years of her life were a miserable mistake. Believing that her fate is different from the overall coincidences that decided her life. This is seen when Cass said, “ I’m a new person today. I’m happy and bubbly. I’m a tall glass of sparkling
cider.”(1.1). To Cass fate is something that was supposed to happen and/or something that she imagines her life would be like. In the play, Cass said, “ I had this list of all the things I wanted to do in life, but for some reason I put it away when I married Kip.” (1.2). This shows that she thinks her life is planned out already and that she somehow got off the path that she was supposed to be on. This is more apparent in the quote from Cass, when she said, “ But I don’t think it’s the life I was supposed to have…” (1.1). The quote gives us a deeper understanding of what Cass thinks about her life and marriage, while also showing that she is not sure if her life was dictated by fate or coincidence. Though she takes it upon herself saying, “ I’m starting my new life and I’m brimming with expectation! There are possibilities where I’m headed!” (1.1), this gives us a better understanding of who she was as a person and how she believe fate and coincidence could be changed in her life.

As the story unfolds more and more, the story of how Cass and Kip met becomes a mind picking thought of Cass, whether they met by fate or a coincidence.
A marriage of seven years goes down the drain when Cass begins to question their life together and if them meeting is just a coincidence--not fate! This is shown when Cass says, “ I agreed to marry you based on what I knew to be true. Kip equals X. X will make me happy. Everything added up. Seven years later I find out you’re not X at all, you’re Z. And if you’re Z, then I did the math wrong. Z is no good. I would never have said yes to Z.” (1.1). Through this math explanation, it is seen that Cass, being a math teacher, considers many things through math equations and that she is questioning not only herself but how she believes love works between being fated for each other or just a
coincidence.