A
self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to
positive feedbackPositive feedback is a process in which the effects of a small disturbance on a system include an increase in the magnitude of the perturbation. That is, A produces more of B which in turn produces more of A. In contrast, a system that responds to a perturbation in a way that reduces its effect is...
between belief and behavior. Although examples of such
propheciesProphecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
can be found in literature as far back as
ancient GreeceAncient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
and
ancient IndiaThe history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...
, it is 20th-century sociologist
Robert K. MertonRobert King Merton was a distinguished American sociologist. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor...
who is credited with coining the expression "self-fulfilling prophecy" and formalizing its structure and consequences. In his book
Social Theory and Social StructureSocial Theory and Social Structure was a landmark publication in sociology by Robert K. Merton. It has been translated into close to 20 languages and is one of the most frequently cited texts in social sciences...
, Merton defines self-fulfilling prophecy in the following terms: e.g. when Roxanna falsely believes her marriage will fail, her fears of such failure actually cause the marriage to fail.
Many people who declare prophecies that are not true are often thought to be delusional, but in many cases that is not the case, as a delusion is an impossible or fantasy belief. In other words, a prophecy declared as truth when it is actually false may sufficiently influence people, either through fear or logical confusion, so that their reactions ultimately fulfill the once-false prophecy.
History of the concept
Merton's concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy stems from the
Thomas theoremThe Thomas theorem is a theory of sociology which was formulated in 1928 by W. I. Thomas :In other words, the interpretation of a situation causes the action. This interpretation is not objective. Actions are affected by subjective perceptions of situations...
, which states that "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences."
According to Thomas, people react not only to the situations they are in, but also, and often primarily, to the way they perceive the situations and to the meaning they assign to these perceptions. Therefore, their behavior is determined in part by their perception and the meaning they ascribe to the situations they are in, rather than by the situations themselves. Once people convince themselves that a situation really has a certain meaning, regardless of whether it actually does, they will take very real actions in consequence.
Merton took the concept a step further and applied it to recent social phenomena. In his book Social Theory and Social Structure, he conceives of a
bank runA bank run occurs when a large number of bank customers withdraw their deposits because they believe the bank is, or might become, insolvent...
at the fictional Last National
BankA bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
, over which Cartwright Millingville presides. It is a typical bank, and Millingville has run it honestly and quite properly. As a result, like all banks, it has some
liquid assetsIn financial accounting, assets are economic resources. Anything tangible or intangible that is capable of being owned or controlled to produce value and that is held to have positive economic value is considered an asset...
(cash), but most of its assets are invested in various ventures. Then one day, a large number of customers come to the bank at once—the exact reason is never made clear. Customers, seeing so many others at the bank, begin to worry. False rumours spread that something is wrong with the bank and more customers rush to the bank to try to get some of their money out while they still can. The number of customers at the bank increases, as does their annoyance and excitement, which in turn fuels the false rumours of the bank's
insolvencyInsolvency means the inability to pay one's debts as they fall due. Usually used to refer to a business, insolvency refers to the inability of a company to pay off its debts.Business insolvency is defined in two different ways:...
and upcoming
bankruptcyBankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
, causing more customers to come and try to withdraw their money. At the beginning of the day—the last one for Millingville's bank—the bank was not insolvent. But the rumor of insolvency caused a sudden demand of withdrawal of too many customers, which could not be answered, causing the bank to become insolvent and declare bankruptcy. Merton concludes this example with the following analysis:
Merton concluded that the only way to break the cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy is by redefining the propositions on which its false assumptions are originally based.
In economic "expectations models" of inflation, peoples' expectations of future inflation lead them to spend more today and demand higher nominal interest rates for any savings, since they expect that prices will be rising. This demand for higher nominal interest rates and increased spending in the present, in turn, create inflationary pressure and can cause inflation even if the expectations of future inflation are unfounded. The expectations theory of inflation played a large role in Paul Volker's actions during his tenure as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve in combating the "
stagflationIn economics, stagflation is a situation in which the inflation rate is high and the economic growth rate slows down and unemployment remains steadily high...
" of the 1970s.
Philosopher
Karl PopperSir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...
called the self-fulfilling prophecy the Oedipus effect:
Applications
Examples abound in studies of
cognitive dissonance theoryCognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying,...
and the related
self-perception theorySelf-perception theory is an account of attitude change developed by psychologist Daryl Bem. It asserts that people develop their attitudes by observing their behaviour and concluding what attitudes must have caused them. The theory is counterintuitive in nature, as the conventional wisdom is that...
; people will often change their
attitudesAn attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's degree of like or dislike for something. Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing, or event— this is often referred to as the attitude object...
to come into line with what they profess publicly.
In the United States the concept was broadly and consistently applied in the field of public education reform, following the "
War on PovertyThe War on Poverty is the unofficial name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent...
". Theodore Brameld noted: "In simplest terms, education already projects and thereby reinforces whatever habits of personal and cultural life are considered to be acceptable and dominant." The effects of teacher attitudes, beliefs and values, affecting their expectations have been tested repeatedly.
The phenomenon of the "inevitability of war" is a self-fulfilling prophecy that has received considerable study.
The idea is similar to that discussed by the philosopher
William JamesWilliam James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
as The Will to Believe. But James viewed it positively, as the self-validation of a belief. Just as, in Merton's example, the belief that a bank is insolvent may help create the fact, so too on the positive side, confidence in the bank's prospects may help brighten them. A more Jamesian example: a swain, convinced that the fair maiden must love him, may prove more effective in his wooing than he would had his initial prophecy been defeatist.
There is extensive evidence of "Interpersonal Expectation Effects" where the seemingly private expectations of individuals can predict the outcome of the world around them. The mechanisms by which this occurs are also reasonably well understood: it is simply that our own expectations change our behaviour in ways we may not notice and correct. In the case "Interpersonal Expectation Effects", others pick up on non-verbal behaviour which affects their attitudes. A famous example includes a study where teachers were told arbitrarily that random students were "going to blossom". Oddly, those random students actually ended the year with significantly greater improvements.
Other specific examples discussed in
psychologyPsychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
include:
- 'Clever Hans' effect
- Observer-expectancy effect
The observer-expectancy effect is a form of reactivity, in which a researcher's cognitive bias causes them to unconsciously influence the participants of an experiment...
- Hawthorne effect
The Hawthorne effect is a form of reactivity whereby subjects improve or modify an aspect of their behavior being experimentally measured simply in response to the fact that they know they are being studied, not in response to any particular experimental manipulation.The term was coined in 1950 by...
- Placebo effect
Placebo effect may refer to:* Placebo effect, the tendency of any medication or treatment, even an inert or ineffective one, to exhibit results simply because the recipient believes that it will work...
- Pygmalion effect
The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people, often children or students and employees, the better they perform...
- Stereotype threat
Stereotype threat is the experience of anxiety or concern in a situation where a person has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group. First described by social psychologist Claude Steele and his colleagues, stereotype threat has been shown to reduce the performance of...
Sports
In Canadian hockey, junior league players are selected based on skill, motor coordination, physical maturity, and other individual merit criteria. However, psychologist Robert Barnsley showed that in any elite group of hockey players, 40% are born between January and March, versus 25% as would be predicted by statistics. The explanation is that in Canada, the eligibility cutoff for age-class hockey is January 1st, and the players who are born in the first months of the year are older by 9-12 months, which at the preadolescent age of selection (nine or ten) manifests into an important physical advantage. The selected players are exposed to higher levels of coaching, play more games, and have better teammates. These factors make them actually become the best players, fulfilling the prophecy, while the real selection criterion was age.
The same relative age effect has been noticed in Belgian soccer after 1997, when the start of the selection year was changed from August 1 to January 1.
The self-fulfilling prophecy does not seem as prevalent in individual sports such as golf or tennis where age, height, strength, or
birth orderBirth order is defined as a person's rank by age among his or her siblings. Birth order is often believed to have a profound and lasting effect on psychological development...
has little or no bearing on performance when making player to player comparisons. However, it can make all the difference in a player's performance if a negative self-fulfilling prophesy is attributable to negative
self-talkIntrapersonal communication is language use or thought internal to the communicator. It can be useful to envision intrapersonal communication occurring in the mind of the individual in a model which contains a sender, receiver, and feedback loop.-Definitions:...
. The belief that a sub-par performance before the actual event could be enough mental incentive for the performance to mirror the prediction. This kind of result should not be confused with
superstitionSuperstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....
.
Literature, media, and the arts
In literature, self-fulfilling prophecies are often used as
plot deviceA plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....
s. They have been used in stories for millennia, but have gained a lot of popularity recently in the
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
genre. They are typically used ironically, with the prophesied events coming to pass due to the actions of one trying to prevent the prophecy. They are also sometimes used as comic relief.
Classical
Many myths, legends and fairy tales make use of this motif as a central element of narratives that are designed to illustrate
inexorable fateDestiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...
, fundamental to the Hellenic world-view. In a common motif, a child, whether newborn or not yet conceived, is prophesied to cause something that those in power do not want to happen. This may be the death of the powerful person; in more light-hearted versions, it is often the marriage of a poor or lower-class child to his own. The events come about, nevertheless, as a result of the actions taken to prevent them: frequently child abandonment sets the chain of events in motion.
Greek
The best known example from Greek legend is that of
OedipusOedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family...
. Warned that his child would one day kill him,
LaiusIn Greek mythology, King Laius, or Laios of Thebes was a divine hero and key personage in the Theban founding myth. Son of Labdacus, he was raised by the regent Lycus after the death of his father.-Abduction of Chrysippus:...
abandoned his newborn son Oedipus to die, but Oedipus was found and raised by others, and thus in ignorance of his true origins. When he grew up, Oedipus was warned that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Believing his foster parents were his real parents, he left his home and travelled to Greece, eventually reaching the city where his biological parents lived. There, he got into a fight with a stranger, his real father, killed him and married his widow, Oedipus's real mother.
Although the legend of
PerseusPerseus ,Perseos and Perseas are not used in English. the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty of Danaans there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths of the Twelve Olympians...
opens with the prophecy that he will kill his grandfather
AcrisiusAcrisius was a mythical king of Argos, and a son of Abas and Aglaea , grandson of Lynceus, great-grandson of Danaus. His twin brother was Proetus, with whom he is said to have quarreled even in the womb of his mother...
, and his abandonment with his mother
DanaëIn Greek mythology, Danaë was a daughter of King Acrisius of Argos and Eurydice of Argos. She was the mother of Perseus by Zeus. She was sometimes credited with founding the city of Ardea in Latium....
, the prophecy is only self-fulfilling in some variants. In some, he accidentally spears his grandfather at a competition—an act that could have happened regardless of
AcrisiusAcrisius was a mythical king of Argos, and a son of Abas and Aglaea , grandson of Lynceus, great-grandson of Danaus. His twin brother was Proetus, with whom he is said to have quarreled even in the womb of his mother...
's response to the prophecy. In other variants, his presence at the games is explained by his hearing of the prophecy, so that his attempt to evade it does cause the prophecy to be fulfilled. In still others,
AcrisiusAcrisius was a mythical king of Argos, and a son of Abas and Aglaea , grandson of Lynceus, great-grandson of Danaus. His twin brother was Proetus, with whom he is said to have quarreled even in the womb of his mother...
is one of the wedding guests when
PolydectesIn Greek mythology, King Polydectes was the ruler of the island of Seriphos, son of Magnes and an unnamed naiad. Polydectes fell in love with Danaë when she and her son Perseus were saved by his brother Dictys . Perseus was very protective of his mother and wouldn't allow Polydectes near Danaë....
tried to force Danaë to marry him, and when
PerseusPerseus ,Perseos and Perseas are not used in English. the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty of Danaans there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths of the Twelve Olympians...
turns them to stone with the
GorgonIn Greek mythology Medusa , " guardian, protectress") was a Gorgon, a chthonic monster, and a daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. The author Hyginus, interposes a generation and gives Medusa another chthonic pair as parents. Gazing directly upon her would turn onlookers to stone...
's head; as Polydectes fell in love with Danaë because Acrisius abandoned her at sea, and Perseus killed the Gorgon as a consequence of Polydectes's attempt to get rid of Danaë's son so that he could marry her, the prophecy fulfilled itself in these variants.
Greek historiography provides a famous variant: when the Lydian king
CroesusCroesus was the king of Lydia from 560 to 547 BC until his defeat by the Persians. The fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Hellenes, providing a fixed point in their calendar. "By the fifth century at least," J.A.S...
asked the Delphic Oracle if he should invade Persia, the response came that if he did, he would destroy a great kingdom. Assuming this meant he would succeed, he attacked—but the kingdom he destroyed was his own. In such an example, the prophecy prompts someone to action because he is led to expect a favorable result; but he achieves another, disastrous result which nonetheless fulfils the prophecy.
People do not necessarily have to unsuccessfully avoid a prophecy in order for the prophecy to be self-fulfilling. For example, when it was predicted that
ZeusIn the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
would overthrow his father, Cronos, and usurp his throne as King of the Gods, he actively waged war against him in a direct attempt to fulfill this prophecy. This makes the prophecy a self-fulfilling one because it was the prophecy itself that gave Zeus the inspiration to do it in the first place.
Indian
Self-fulfilling prophecies appear in classical
Sanskrit literatureLiterature in Sanskrit begins with the Vedas, and continues with the Sanskrit Epics of Iron Age India; the golden age of Classical Sanskrit literature dates to late Antiquity . Literary production saw a late bloom in the 11th century before declining after 1100 AD...
. In the story of
KrishnaKrishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
in the
Indian epicIndian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called Kavya . The Ramayana and Mahabharata, originally composed in Sanskrit and translated thereafter into many other Indian languages, are some of the oldest surviving epic poems on earth and form part of...
MahabharataThe Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
, the ruler of the Mathura kingdom,
KamsaIn Hinduism, Kamsa or Kansa , often known as Kans in Hindi, is the brother of Devaki, and ruler of the Vrishni kingdom with its capital at Mathura. His father was King Ugrasena and mother was Queen Padmavati...
afraid of a prophecy that predicted his death at the hands of his sister
DevakiIn Hinduism, Devaki is the wife of Vasudeva and biological mother of Krishna.She was the daughter of Devaka, the younger brother of King Ugrasena of Mathura. She was a partial incarnation of Aditi, the mother of the Devas.-Imprisonment :...
's son, had her cast into prison where he planned to kill all of her children at birth. After killing the first six children, and Devaki's apparent miscarriage of the seventh, Krishna (the eighth son) took birth. As his life was in danger he was smuggled out to be raised by his foster parents Yashoda and
NandaNanda or Nandagopa, according to the Harivamsha and the Puranas, was the head of the gopas .It is said that Nand Baba owned 9 lakhs of cows . Nandvanshis or Ahirs are descendants of Nand. The night of Krishna's appearance or birth, Vasudeva brought Krishna to Nanda for Krishna's childhood years...
in the village of
GokulaGokula or Gokul Singh was a Jat chieftain of Sinsini village in Bharatpur district in Rajasthan, India. Later, he became a chieftain of Tilpat in Haryana. His father's name was Madu. Madu had four sons namely, Sindhuraj, Ola, Jhaman and Saman. The second son Ola later became famous as Gokula...
. Years later, Kamsa learned about the child's escape and kept sending various demons to put an end to him. The demons were defeated at the hands of Krishna and his brother
BalaramaBalarama , also known as Baladeva, Balabhadra and Halayudha, is the elder brother of the divine being, Krishna in Hinduism. Within Vaishnavism Hindu traditions Balarama is worshipped as an Avatar of Vishnu, and he is also listed as such in the Bhagavata Purana...
. Krishna as a young man returned to Mathura to overthrow his uncle, and Kamsa was eventually killed by his nephew Krishna. It was due to Kamsa's attempts to prevent the prophecy that led to it coming true, thus fulfilling the prophecy.
Roman
The story of
Romulus and RemusRomulus and Remus are Rome's twin founders in its traditional foundation myth, although the former is sometimes said to be the sole founder...
is another example. According to legend, a man overthrew his brother, the king. He then ordered that his two nephews, Romulus and Remus, be drowned, fearing that they would someday kill him like he did to his brother. The boys were placed in a basket and thrown in the Tiber River. A wolf found the babies and she raised them. Later, a shepherd found the twins and named them Romulus and Remus. As teenagers, they found out who they were. They killed their uncle, fulfilling the prophecy.
Arabic
A variation of the self-fulfilling prophecy is the self-fulfilling dream, which dates back to medieval
Arabic literatureArabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....
. Several tales in the One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabian Nights, use this device to
foreshadowForeshadowing or adumbrating is a literary device in which an author indistinctly suggests certain plot developments that might come later in the story.-Repetitive designation and Chekhov's gun:...
what is going to happen, as a special form of literary
prolepsisProlepsis may refer to:* Flashforward, in storytelling, an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward* Prolepsis , 1975 work by Arrogance...
. A notable example is "The Ruined Man Who Became Rich Again Through a Dream", in which a man is told in his dream to leave his native city of
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
and travel to
CairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, where he will discover the whereabouts of some hidden treasure. The man travels there and experiences misfortune after losing belief in the prophecy, ending up in jail, where he tells his dream to a police officer. The officer mocks the idea of foreboding dreams but takes quiet note of the prisoner's dream. The officer convinces the prisoner that to follow your dreams is fool hardy, in which he agrees and returns to Baghdad. The officer returns home and discovers great treasures buried underneath his home. This is a story of what would have been had the man followed through on his self-fulfilling prophecy and ignored naysayers. A variant of this story later appears in
English folkloreEnglish folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in England over a number of centuries. Some stories can be traced back to their roots, while the origin of others is uncertain or disputed...
as the "
Pedlar of SwaffhamThe Pedlar of Swaffham is an English folktale from Swaffham, Norfolk. The following text is taken from English fairy and other folk tales, 1906, which in turn refers to the Diary of Abraham dela Pryme, 1699:-Source:The Pedlar of Swaffham...
".
Another variation of the self-fulfilling prophecy can be seen in "The Tale of Attaf", where
Harun al-RashidHārūn al-Rashīd was the fifth Arab Abbasid Caliph in Iraq. He was born in Rey, Iran, close to modern Tehran. His birth date remains a point of discussion, though, as various sources give the dates from 763 to 766)....
consults his library (the
House of WisdomThe House of Wisdom was a library and translation institute established in Abbassid-era Baghdad, Iraq. It was a key institution in the Translation Movement and considered to have been a major intellectual centre during the Islamic Golden Age...
), reads a random book, "falls to laughing and weeping and dismisses the faithful
vizierA vizier or in Arabic script ; ; sometimes spelled vazir, vizir, vasir, wazir, vesir, or vezir) is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in a Muslim government....
"
Ja'far ibn YahyaJa'far bin Yahya Barmaki, Jafar al-Barmaki was the son of a Persian Vizier of the Arab Abbasid Caliph, Harun al-Rashid, from whom he inherited that position. He was a member of the influential Barmakids family...
from sight. Ja'far, "disturbed and upset flees Baghdad and plunges into a series of adventures in
DamascusDamascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
, involving Attaf and the woman whom Attaf eventually marries." After returning to Baghdad, Ja'far reads the same book that caused Harun to laugh and weep, and discovers that it describes his own adventures with Attaf. In other words, it was Harun's reading of the book that provoked the adventures described in the book to take place. This is an early example of
reverse causalityRetrocausality is any of several hypothetical phenomena or processes that reverse causality, allowing an effect to occur before its cause....
. In the 12th century, this tale was translated into Latin by
Petrus AlphonsiPetrus Alphonsi was a Jewish Spanish writer and astronomer, and polemicist, who converted to Christianity....
and included in his Disciplina Clericalis. In the 14th century, a version of this tale also appears in the
Gesta RomanorumGesta Romanorum, a Latin collection of anecdotes and tales, was probably compiled about the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th...
and
Giovanni BoccaccioGiovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
's
The DecameronThe Decameron, also called Prince Galehaut is a 14th-century medieval allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio, told as a frame story encompassing 100 tales by ten young people....
.
Fairy tales
Many fairy tales, such as
The Devil With the Three Golden HairsThe Devil With the Three Golden Hairs is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 29. It falls under Aarne-Thompson classification types 461, "three hairs from the devil", and 930, "prophecy that a poor boy will marry a rich girl."...
,
The Fish and the RingThe Fish and the Ring is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales. This tale has several parallels in the literature and folklore of various cultures.-Synopsis:...
,
The Story of Three Wonderful BeggarsThe Story of Three Wonderful Beggars is a Serbian fairy tale. It is also known as Vasilii the Unlucky its Russian form, collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki....
, or
The King Who Would Be Stronger Than FateThe King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate is an Indian fairy tale, included by Andrew Lang in The Brown Fairy Book.-Synopsis:A king with a daughter once was lost while hunting and met a hermit, who prophesied that his daughter would marry a slave woman's son, who belonged to the king of the north...
, revolve about a prophecy that a poor boy will marry a rich girl (or, less frequently, a poor girl a rich boy). This is story type 930 in the Aarne-Thompson classification scheme. The girl's father's efforts to prevent it are the reason why the boy ends up marrying her.
Another fairy tale occurs with older children. In
The Language of the Birds-Synopsis:A merchant's son, Ivan, wanted to learn the language of the birds. One day while hunting, he saw four chicks about to be swamped by a storm, and sheltered them with his kaftan. When the mother bird returned, she, in gratitude, taught him the language of the birds.He sat with his parents...
, a father forces his son to tell him what the birds say: that the father would be the son's servant. In
The RamThe Ram is a French literary fairy tale by Madame d'Aulnoy. Andrew Lang included it, under the title The Wonderful Sheep in The Blue Fairy Book.-Synopsis:...
, the father forces his daughter to tell him her dream: that her father would hold an ewer for her to wash her hands in. In all such tales, the father takes the child's response as evidence of ill-will and drives the child off; this allows the child to change so that the father will not recognize his own offspring later and so offer to act as the child's servant.
In some variants of
Sleeping BeautySleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault or Little Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm is a classic fairytale involving a beautiful princess, enchantment, and a handsome prince...
, such as
Sun, Moon, and TaliaSun, Moon, and Talia is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone...
, the sleep is not brought about by a curse, but a prophecy that she will be endangered by flax (or hemp) results in the royal order to remove all the flax or hemp from the castle, resulting in her ignorance of the danger and her curiosity.
Shakespeare
Shakespeare's
MacbethThe Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
is another classic example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The three witches give Macbeth a prophecy that Macbeth will eventually become king, but afterwards, the offspring of his best friend will rule instead of his own. Macbeth tries to make the first half true while trying to keep his bloodline on the throne instead of his friend's. Spurred by the prophecy, he kills the king and his friend, something he never would have done before. In the end, the evil actions he committed to avoid his succession by another's bloodline get him killed in a revolution.
The later prophecy by the first apparition of the witches that Macbeth should "Beware Macduff" is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Macbeth had not been told this, then he might not have regarded Macduff as a threat. Therefore he would not have killed Macduff's family, and Macduff would not have sought revenge and killed Macbeth.
Russian
Oleg of NovgorodOleg of Novgorod was a Varangian prince who ruled all or part of the Rus' people during the early 10th century....
was a Varangian prince who ruled of the Rus people during the early tenth century. As old East Slavic chronicles say it was prophesied by the pagan priests that Oleg would take death from his stallion. To avoid this he sent the horse away. Many years later he asked where his horse was, and was told it had died. He asked to see the remains and was taken to the place where the bones lay. When he touched the horse's skull with his boot a snake slithered from the skull and bit him. Oleg died, thus fulfilling the prophecy. In the
Primary ChronicleThe Primary Chronicle , Ruthenian Primary Chronicle or Russian Primary Chronicle, is a history of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113.- Three editions :...
, Oleg is known as the Prophet, ironically referring to the circumstances of his death. The story was romanticized by Alexander Pushkin in his celebrated ballad "The Song of the Wise Oleg". In Scandinavian traditions, this legend lived on in the saga of
Orvar-OddÖrvar-Oddr is a legendary hero about whom an anonymous Icelander wrote a fornaldarsaga in the latter part of the 13th century. Örvar-Odds saga, the Saga of Örvar-Odd, became very popular and contains old legends and songs...
.
Movies
- Some "Force Visions" in the Star Wars universe are self-fulfilling prophecies. For example, the plot of the 2005 film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is a 2005 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It is the sixth and final film released in the Star Wars saga and the third in terms of the series' internal chronology....
was based around a self-fulfilling prophecy. The main character, Anakin Skywalker, has a premonitory dreamIn parapsychology, precognition , also called future sight, and second sight, is a type of extrasensory perception that would involve the acquisition or effect of future information that cannot be deduced from presently available and normally acquired sense-based information or laws of physics...
about the death of his wife, Padmé AmidalaPadmé Amidala is a fictional character in the Star Wars science fiction franchise. She first appeared on film in the 1999 feature film, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, as the young queen of the planet Naboo. In subsequent prequel trilogy films, Padmé represents Naboo in the Galactic Senate...
. He searches for a way to save her and, in desperation, allies himself with the evil Sith-Sith:The Sith is a name applied to certain characters in the Star Wars universe. In the films they are the central antagonists. They are capable of using the dark side of the Force.-The Invention of the Sith:...
. However, it is Anakin's turn to evil that ends up killing Padmé. It is only when he meets with his son that he actually fulfills the prophecy of destroying the Sith.
- In the 2006 Indian
The cinema of India consists of films produced across India, which includes the cinematic culture of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Indian films came to be followed throughout South Asia and...
film KrrishKrrish is a 2006 Indian superhero science-fiction film The film was directed, produced, and written by Rakesh Roshan, while the screenplay was written by Robin Bhatt, Sachin Bhowmick, Honey Irani, Akarsh Khurana, and Sanjay Masoom. The film is a sequel to Koi.....
, a modern take on the story of KrishnaKrishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
, the antagonist Dr. Arya builds an advanced computer that could predict the future. After seeing his own future death at the hands of the protagonist Krrish, he goes looking for him to hunt him down. Krrish's friend Kristian is shot dead by Dr. Arya when he is mistaken for Krrish. After finding his friend dead, Krrish becomes intent on getting revenge against Dr. Arya, and eventually kills him, exactly as the computer predicted. Dr. Arya's attempt to prevent his death led to it becoming true.
- The 1999 movie The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
heavily incorporates the idea of self-fulfilling prophecies. One recognizable scene that directly references to it is when MorpheusMorpheus is the name of a fictional character and the secondary protagonist of The Matrix Franchise. The Wachowski brothers were fans of Neil Gaiman and based the character of Morpheus on the title character from the comic book The Sandman, also adopting one of his most common pseudonyms,...
takes NeoThomas A. Anderson is a fictional character and the main protagonist in The Matrix franchise, as well as having a cameo in The Animatrix short film, Kid's Story. He was portrayed by Keanu Reeves in The Matrix Trilogy and The Animatrix. Andrew Bowen provided Neo's voice in The Matrix: Path of Neo...
to see the OracleThe Oracle is a fictional character portrayed by Gloria Foster and Mary Alice within the Matrix series of films created by the Wachowski brothers...
. When Neo walks in to speak to the Oracle, she says "I'd ask you to sit down, but you're not going to anyway. And don't worry about the vase." Neo answers "What vase?" and turns around to see what she could be talking about, but in doing so knocks over and breaks a vase that was sitting on a counter next to him. Neo apologizes and the Oracle reminds him not to worry about it. Neo asks how she knew, to which the Oracle responds, "What's really going to bake your noodle later on is: would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?"
- In the 1995 film Twelve Monkeys
12 Monkeys is a 1995 science fiction film directed by Terry Gilliam, inspired by Chris Marker's 1962 short film La jetée, and starring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, and Christopher Plummer....
Bruce Willis’ character Cole is sent back in time from the year 2035 to prevent a holocaust of the world's population. Throughout the film we see a flashback from Cole's childhood in which a man is seen to be shot dead by security in an airport. During the course of the film we discover that every act Cole makes to stop the man presumed responsible for the holocaust, in fact enables the appearance of the real responsible one, unknown in the future world. In the final reel of the film it is revealed that Cole himself is the man he saw being shot in the airport as a child, while the man responsible for the cause of the holocaust escapes undetected.
- In the 1988 movie Willow
Willow is a 1988 American fantasy film directed by Ron Howard and produced/co-written by George Lucas. Warwick Davis stars in the film, as well as Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Jean Marsh, and Patricia Hayes...
, warned that Elora Danan's birth will lead to her destruction, the evil Queen Bavmorda orders the baby killed; however, her attempts to achieve this result in her own destruction.
- In the 2002 film Minority Report
Minority Report is a 2002 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and loosely based on the short story "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick. It is set primarily in Washington, D.C...
, based on a short story by Philip K. DickPhilip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
which had a different kind of self-fulfilling prophecy (see below), a prophecy is made when John Anderton discovers that the Precrime department predicts that he will murder a certain person, who is a complete stranger to him, in 36 hours. In trying to find his target in order to find out what is happening, John Anderton almost fulfills the prophecy when he discovers evidence that points to this person as the one who kidnapped his son years before. In the end, he does fulfill the prophecy when it turns out that the man was going to be murdered accidentally all along.
- In the 2003 film Paycheck
Paycheck is a 2003 film adaptation of the short story of the same name by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. The film was directed by John Woo and stars Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman and Aaron Eckhart...
(also a Philip K. Dick story), Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) creates a machine that sees into the future. He sees an apocalypse that he discovers only comes about through his knowledge of itObserver effect may refer to:* Observer effect , the impact of observing a process while it is running* Observer effect , the impact of observing a physical system...
, and his potential attempts to avoid it.
- In the movie Premonition
Premonition is a 2007 American drama film directed by Mennan Yapo and starring Sandra Bullock and Julian McMahon. Principal photography took place in Louisiana.-Plot:...
(2007), Linda Hanson (Sandra BullockSandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,...
) acts on premonitions and thus causes the critical event to happen.
- In the 2008 film Kung Fu Panda
Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 American computer-animated action comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures...
, Master Shifu hears a prophecy that his nemesis Tai Lung will escape from prison. Despite being warned that "one often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it", Shifu dispatches a messenger to warn the prison guards. In doing so, the messenger drops a feather, which Tai Lung then uses to escape.
- In the movie The Chronicles of Riddick
The Chronicles of Riddick is a 2004 American science fiction film which follows the adventures of Richard B. Riddick, as he attempts to elude capture after the events depicted in the 2000 film Pitch Black, and details his meeting with Jack and Imam, his escape from the prison planet Crematoria, and...
(2004), the Lord Marshal of the Necromongers hears a prophecy that a young Furyan child would eventually cause his downfall. In an effort to prevent this, he tries to kill all of the Furyan people, and ends up causing the main character, Riddick, to seek revenge on him.
Other
- In the Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
song "Iron Man"Iron Man" is a song by British heavy metal band Black Sabbath from their second studio album Paranoid released in 1970. It was later included on their initial greatest hits compilation We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll , as well as all subsequent greatest hits compilations.-Writing and...
", the lyrics tell the story of a man who time travelTime travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
s into the future of the world, and sees the apocalypse. When going back in time trying to warn the world, he is turned into iron by a magnetic field. Unable to speak, he is ignored and mocked by the other people. This causes Iron Man to become angry, and have his revenge on mankind, causing the destruction seen in his vision.
- In The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, GaladrielGaladriel is a character created by J.R.R. Tolkien, appearing in his Middle-earth legendarium. She appears in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales....
takes FrodoFrodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium.He is the main protagonist of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He was a hobbit of the Shire who inherited Sauron's Ring from Bilbo Baggins and undertook the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom...
and SamSamwise Gamgee, later known as Samwise Gardner and commonly as Sam, is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. Samwise is one of the chief characters in Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, in which he fills an archetypical role as the sidekick of the protagonist, Frodo...
to look in the "Mirror of Galadriel". They see a number of visions in the Mirror, and Sam, in particular, is distressed by seeing his father evicted from their home, so he considers abandoning his mission in order to return to the ShireThe Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in The Lord of the Rings and other works. The Shire refers to an area settled exclusively by Hobbits and largely removed from the goings-on in the rest of Middle-earth. It is located in the northwest of the continent, in...
. Galadriel reminds him that "the Mirror shows many things, and some have not yet come to pass. Some never come to be, unless those who behold the visions turn aside from their paths to prevent them." [emphasis not in original]
- In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling, and was published on 21 June 2003 by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic in the United States, and Raincoast in Canada...
, it is revealed that a prophecy was made shortly before Harry PotterHarry James Potter is the title character and main protagonist of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The majority of the books' plot covers seven years in the life of the orphan Potter who, on his eleventh birthday, learns he is a wizard...
's birth, saying that the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord VoldemortLord Voldemort is the main antagonist of the Harry Potter series written by British author J. K. Rowling. Voldemort first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was released in 1997...
would be born shortly. To stop the prophecy from coming true, the Dark Lord attempted to kill Harry while he was an infant, but his curse backfired on him, vanquishing him for 13 years in the process, and transferring some of his powers to Harry. This fulfills the part of the prophecy that says "But he [Harry] will have powers the Dark Lord knows not". This would not have happened if Voldemort had not marked Harry "as his equal", which he was only tempted to do because he heard the prophecy (albeit only half) in the first place. Dumbledore tells Harry several times that the prophecy is only true because the Dark Lord believes it. Harry is free to turn his back on it, but the fact that Voldemort will never turn his back on it, and therefore never rest until he has killed Harry, makes it inevitable that Harry will have to kill Voldemort, or vice versa. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy because if Voldemort had never heard of the prophecy, he never would have given Harry the power to defeat him. On the other hand, if Voldemort had heard the whole prophecy, he might have decided against attacking Harry and giving him powers; and the prophecy would have become self-defeatingA self-defeating prophecy is the complementary opposite of a self-fulfilling prophecy: a prediction that prevents what it predicts from happening. This is also known as the "prophet's dilemma"....
instead of self-fulfilling.
- In LOST
-In cinema or television:*Lost , an ABC drama about people who become stranded on a mysterious island*Lost , a short-lived reality television program*Lost , an American thriller starring Dean Cain...
, LockeJohn Locke is a fictional character played by Terry O'Quinn on the ABC television series Lost. He is named after English philosopher John Locke...
is told by many people during his lifetime that he is special and he is destined for great things, and he would eventually become leader of the OthersThe Others are a group of fictional characters who inhabit the mysterious island in the American television series Lost. Most serve as antagonists to the series' main characters, although more recently they seem less hostile to the survivors of Flight 815 and have become their allies to overcome...
. This in turn makes Locke believe he is special since others seem to think so. It turns out that Locke time traveled and told others this, leaving them with the impression that he was indeed special and destined for greatness, despite some skepticism from Richard AlpertRicardo "Richard" Alpert is a fictional character played by Nestor Carbonell in the American ABC television series Lost. Alpert is introduced in a flashback of the character Juliet Burke , where he claims to be a doctor for a bioscience company called Mittelos Bioscience; he is later revealed to...
thinking there is nothing special about him. This prophecy turns out to be true, but Locke becomes a tragic hero in the process since he is killed and replaced by Jacob's nemesisThe entity referred to most frequently as the Man in Black is a fictional character on the American ABC television series Lost, and is the main antagonist of the...
. The Others follow this new faux Locke believing he rose from the dead.
- Also in LOST
-In cinema or television:*Lost , an ABC drama about people who become stranded on a mysterious island*Lost , a short-lived reality television program*Lost , an American thriller starring Dean Cain...
, SayidSayid Hassan Jarrah is a character from the ABC show Lost portrayed by Naveen Andrews.-Season 1:Sayid fixes the transceiver recovered from the cockpit, and leads a group into the jungle in order to send out a distress signal. Instead, he picks up a looping message . He tries to locate the...
attempts to kill young Ben Linus, because as an adult he will become a manipulative monster. However, Sayid'sSayid Hassan Jarrah is a character from the ABC show Lost portrayed by Naveen Andrews.-Season 1:Sayid fixes the transceiver recovered from the cockpit, and leads a group into the jungle in order to send out a distress signal. Instead, he picks up a looping message . He tries to locate the...
attempt to kill Ben only results in the boy's being healed by the Others, which causes Ben to "lose his innocence" and grow up to become the manipulative monster that inspired Sayid to shoot him as a boy.
- The British comedy Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
plays frequently with this notion. In series eight, a self-fulfilling prophecy started by the words "RimmerArnold Judas Rimmer is a fictional character in the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, played by Chris Barrie. He is unpopular with his crew mates, and is often the target of insults or pranks...
will die in forty seconds of a heart attack from the shock of being told he's going to have a heart attack." In the Series 1 episode "Future Echoes", ListerDavid "Dave" Lister, commonly referred to simply as Lister, is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, portrayed by Craig Charles...
learns that CatThe Cat is a character in the British science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf. He is played by Danny John-Jules.-Character development:According to Danny John-Jules, the character of Cat is based on a combination of Little Richard's look, James Brown's moves and Richard Pryor's facial...
will break a tooth. Believing that he can prevent this, he tackles Cat to stop him from biting a robotic fish. In the collision, he breaks Cat's tooth.
- Several classic episodes of The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
used self-fulfilling prophecies. One example is "What's in the Box"What's in the Box" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Joe and Phyllis Britt are an old married couple who do not get along. Joe gets home from his job as a cab driver late one night and Phyllis accuses him of seeing another woman. In the meantime,...
", in which a man sees himself on television killing his wife because he had an affair. He tries to confess to his wife, but ends up killing her in the ugly fight the confession triggers. Another episode of an occurrence of a self-fulfilling prophecy happens in the episode "A Most Unusual Camera"A Most Unusual Camera" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Two thieves, Chester and Paula, rob a curio shop, and among the things they steal is a strange camera. The pair come to realize that its pictures reveal the future, specifically five...
" in which several petty criminals find a camera that takes pictures of the future. They then try to avoid their demise as was photographed, but in their effort of self preservation they end up killing each other and themselves.
- On the Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
children's television show That's So RavenThat's So Raven is an American cable television teen sitcom/fantasy series. The show premiered on the Disney Channel on January 17, 2003, and ended on November 10, 2007. The show spawned Disney Channel's first spin-off series: Cory in the House...
, a psychic teenager often makes predictions and accidentally fulfills them in an effort to stop them.
- On the Fairly Oddparents episode "The Secret origin of Denzel Crocker!", Timmy goes back in time to stop Crocker from losing Cosmo and Wanda. At Crocker's speech, Cosmo pulls the switch making the entire crowd hear Timmy telling Denzel about the future. This causes him to lose his fairies, causing the future.
- Most of the predictions in the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...
are self-fulfilling. Most notably, in the final episode of the first season of Buffy the escape of the vampire The Master and the heroine's temporary death occur entirely because she learns that they have been predicted.
- In the season one
The first season of Charmed, an American supernatural drama television series, created by Constance M. Burge, premiered on October 7, 1998 on The WB...
CharmedCharmed is an American television series that originally aired from October 7, 1998, until May 21, 2006, on the now defunct The WB Television Network. The series was created in 1998 by writer Constance M...
episodes "Dead Man Dating" and "Deja Vu All Over Again", there are a pair of self-fulfilling prophecies. Although the former example isn't quite self-fulfilling (as Phoebe manages to save him), it has the same circular pattern: Phoebe has a premonition of a man being run over by a car; it's because of her pestering attempts to save him that he winds up in the middle of the road. And in the latter, Phoebe has a premonition of Andy Trudeau being killed by a demon. Through the sisters' attempt to save him, he winds up being killed.
- In Being Human
Being Human is a British supernatural drama television series. It was created and written by Toby Whithouse and is currently broadcast on BBC Three. The show blends elements of flatshare comedy and horror drama...
the arch of season three focuses on Lia's prophecy that Mitchell will be killed by a werewolfA werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...
. This leads Mitchell to desperately search for a way to fight the prophecy. In the final episode of season three, it is revealed that Lia made it up to drive a wedge between Mitchell and his friends George and Nina, both of whom are werewolves. Ultimately Mitchell commits suicide with George's aid, thus fulfilling the 'prophecy' that he would be killed by a werewolf.
- There have been several incidences of self-fulfilling prophecy in the series Merlin
Merlin is a British fantasy-adventure television programme by Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Julian Murphy and Johnny Capps. It began broadcasting on BBC One on 20 September 2008. The show is based on the Arthurian legends of the wizard Merlin and his relationship with Prince Arthur but differs from...
. One notable example occurs in the fifth episode of season three, in which the hero MerlinMerlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
has a vision that Morgana is going to kill King Uther PendragonUther Pendragon is a legendary king of sub-Roman Britain and the father of King Arthur.A few minor references to Uther appear in Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae , and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in...
. Merlin attempts to stop the prophecy from coming true lead to Morgana accidentally falling down the stairs and fatally injuring herself. In his grief then Uther reveals that Morgana is in fact his daughter. Unable to bear everyone's grief, Merlin uses his magic to cure Morgana. However Morgana, having overheard Uther's confession, attempts to kill him for lying to her and is only stopped by Merlin's swift intervention. Another example occurs in the tenth episode of the same season where Morgana has visions in which she sees GuinevereGuinevere was the legendary queen consort of King Arthur. In tales and folklore, she was said to have had a love affair with Arthur's chief knight Sir Lancelot...
becoming Queen of Camelot. In order to prevent her visions from coming true, she plots to have Gwen branded a witch and burnt at the stake. However as the events unfold Morgana's attempts to prevent the future ultimately solidify it, as ArthurKing Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
and Guinevere come to realise how deeply they love each other and resolve to one day marry.
- The Oracle from the webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
The Order of the StickThe Order of the Stick is a comedic webcomic that celebrates and satirizes tabletop role-playing games and medieval fantasy through the ongoing tale of the eponymous fellowship of adventuring heroes...
is depicted as testing the health of his clients' hearts before revealing anything, a procedure he adopted after being sued by the family of a past client, to whom he said "You're going to have a heart attack as soon as I finish telling you that you're going to have an heart attack," which caused the client to have an heart attack from the fright of it.
Sources
- Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages...
, "Oedipus Simplex: Freedom and Fate in Folklore and Fiction"