Final answer:
The excerpts explore human suffering and the unpredictability of life, highlighting the miseries, decay, and deceitful twists of fortune that characters across various texts experience.
Step-by-step explanation:
The provided excerpts illustrate the theme of human suffering and the futility of human plans in the face of larger, uncontrollable forces such as fate, change, or fortune. The characters in these texts grapple with the pain of unexpected turns in life, reflecting on the miseries and decay that time brings, the deceitful twists and turns of Fortune, and the inescapability of fate.
For instance, the line from Robert Burns' poem "To a Mouse", featuring the famous words "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley", underscores the theme of life's unpredictability and disappointment. Similarly, the letter by Cicero discusses the fleeting nature of human life and the inevitability of death, while the account from Apuleius' Metamorphoses speaks to the vagaries of luck and the often devastating impact of fortune on human lives.
Moreover, the other excerpts provided, which include Shakespeare's Macbeth and Antigone by Sophocles, amongst others, touch upon tragedies and emotional turmoil those characters endure, reinforcing the concept that suffering is an intrinsic part of the human condition.