How would the stories of “Hamlet” and “Othello” have ended, had their respective protagonists been switched?

That was a politics exam question I had to answer when I was a student at a British university. It was so unexpected, my mind went momentarily blank.

After racking my brain, the answer I somehow managed to come up with was, “Both would have averted their respective tragedies (if their roles had been switched).”

My reasoning was this: Hamlet, being cautious and wise, would not have believed his subordinate’s lie about his wife having an affair, so neither he nor his wife would have had to die.

Othello, on the other hand, is........

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