BEGC- 102 Important question No.01
Explain Three Dramatic Unities.
Aristotle is a Greek philosopher. He presented his ideas about Greek tragedy in the book called Poetics. In the book, he introduces Dramatic unities as a central element of a tragedy.
Aristotle introduces three dramatic unities- Unity of Time, Unity of Place, and Unity of Action. These dramatic unities had an important role in ancient Greek theater. The study of Greek tragedy is not meaningful without giving reference to Aristotle’s views on the three Dramatic Unities.
According to Aristotle, a play should present a single action, in a single place, and that happened within 24 hours. These three conditions are called Dramatic Unities.
Unity of Time.
The concept of Unity of Time says that the action of a play should not exceed more than 24 hours. It means the action or plot of a tragedy that has not happened in several days or months
There are certain reasons behind this doctrine. Neo-classical critics believed that if an action in a play goes beyond 24 hours and several days and months, that effect the realistic aspect of the play, and the audience does not believe in the story.
Unity of Action
Though Aristotle introduces three dramatic unities, he is more stressed on Unity of Action. According to him, an ideal tragedy should follow the Unity of Action.
According to this doctrine, the action or plot of a tragedy must be serious and complete. A plot of a tragedy should not be written on the trivial (simple) subject that has to be serious, and stories of the king, prices, and general. Plot or action of a tragedy should have a proper beginning, middle, and ending.
If any plot doesn’t have a proper beginning, middle, and ending, the play cannot make any powerful impact on the audience or spectator.
Unity of Place
Unity of place is connected with unity of Action. According to this doctrine, a play’s story or action should take place in a minimal number of locations.
An ideal action takes place in a single place. it means the action of a play should be staged in a single place. That does not shift from one place to another.
In Greek theater, one actor had to act in multiple roles in a play. Therefore, it was difficult to portray characters in different places donning different costumes.
These are the three Dramatic Unities promoted by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle. But he stressed only Unity of Action.