The circumstantial fall The fate and circumstantial fall of the characters (usually around the protagonist) is a recurring theme seen in all eras of theater (particularly among the plays Oedipus Rex [Greek Theater] and King Lear [Elizabethan Thatre.]) Fate and falling victim to circumstance are the same thing; destiny is only a predetermination made by a superior being (gods), while circumstances are almost always the result of causality; Contrary to the psychological phrase, correlation does not imply causation, meaning that a relationship between two variables does not imply that one is the cause of the other. For those who lived during the Greek Theater Age (600-200 BC) the explanation of “destiny” was considered an acceptable means of justifying the unknown and/or gaining information/knowledge. Eventually the public became more literate, and the reliance on the gods to make sense of why something had happened slowly diminished; this cultural reform required the same change to occur within the theater, which correlated fate with falling victim to circumstance. In th...