The document discusses Greek theater, Sophocles, Synge, Aristotle's Poetics, and Forster's Aspects of the Novel. It examines the role of fate and prophecy in literature. It provides examples of prophecies from Oedipus Rex and Riders to the Sea that foretell tragic endings for characters. The document argues that fate is predestined and humans are powerless to change what is foretold by prophecies according to ancient and modern literary conceptions of fate.

1. Presented by
Sadia Afroz
Lecturer
Stamford University Bangladesh

2.  Greek Theater
 Sophocles (496 BC-406 BC)
 Edmund John Millington Synge
 Aristotle’s Poetics
 E. M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel

3. Part of religious festival
Dionysus
Cultural centrality
City Dionysia Festival

4. Playwright of Golden age
Won the first prize at the Athenian
festival eighteen times
Only seven plays survived among
123 (approximate) plays.

5. Irish playwright, poet, prose writer,
travel writer .
Collector of folklore.
Key figure of the Irish Literary
Revival.

6. Co-founder of the Abbey Theatre.
Visited Aran Islands several times.
Background of Riders to the Sea.

7. Pity and fear
Tragic flaw
Fate and prophecy

8. Concept of prophecy
How prophecy is interrelated with
fate
Parody or adaptation
Role of prophecy in literature

9.  Suffering of human being due to fate:
 Fate brings the tragic end of
characters
 Importance of fate in classic plays.
 Legends behind fate.
 Aristotle’s view of fate in ancient
Greek tragedies.
 Forster’s view of prophecy.
 Fate is predestined.

10. Sufferings of characters of The
Theban Plays due to fate.
Maurya represents the whole
community living on this island.
The sea becomes a living force

11. Maurya is a tragic character. She can
predict his son’s future by observing
weather but her son is not paying any
attention on her words. She is lamenting
for the upcoming countless loss-
“If it was a hundred horses or a thousand
horses you had itself, what is the price of
a thousand horses against a son where
there is one son only?’’(

12. Oracle of Delphi.
Prophecy of Teiresias
 Weather forecast of Maurya and other
islanders

13. Maurya knows about upcoming
destiny of her only left over son-
“He's gone now, God spare us, and
well not see him again. He's gone now,
and when the black night is falling I'll
have no son left me in the world”.

14.  In Aristotle’s Poetics , he says-
“For the essence of a riddle is to
express true facts under impossible
combinations.”

15.  Shakespeare’s philosophy about fate is
found from the words of Macbeth-
“Life's but a walking shadow, a poor
player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the
stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing”.

16.  Teiresias, the blind bisexual prophet, is giving
the most thrilling prophecy about the remedy
of ongoing problems-
 “Who murdered Laius--that man is here.
He passes for an alien in the land
But soon shall prove a Theban, native born.
And yet his fortune brings him little joy;

17. For blind of seeing, clad in beggar's weeds,
For purple robes, and leaning on his staff,
To a strange land he soon shall grope his way.
And of the children, inmates of his home,
He shall be proved the brother and the sire,
Of her who bare him son and husband both,
Co-partner, and assassin of his sire.”

18.  In Synge’s Riders to the sea tragic
ending of characters are depicted
pathetically-
"May the Almighty God have mercy on
Bartley's soul, and on Michael's soul, and on
the souls of Sheamus and Patch, and Stephen
and Shawn (bending her head) and may he
has mercy on my soul, Nora and on the soul
of every one is left living in the world"

19.  Importance of fate in classic plays.
 Legends behind fate.
 Aristotle’s view of fate in ancient
Greek tragedies.
 Forster’s view of prophecy.

20.  MLA style (7th edition)
 Through reading
 Critics Views
 Analyzing different texts

21.  Prophecy and fate are interrelated.
 Concept of prophecy is different
from ancient time to modern time.
 Human being is a puppet in the hand
of fate.
 Fate is predestined and human beings
are the players.