Unities |
Unities of time, place and action, the three elements of drama introduced
into French dramatic literature is actually based on a misinterpretation of Aristotle's Poetics. They demanded that
a play should consist of one action, represented as occurring in not more than 24 hours, and always in the same place.
According to The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre, Aristotle "insists only on the unity of action, merely mentions
the unity of time, and says nothing about the unity of place". The influence of Shakespeare in England was such
that the three unitities were never adopted as a rule of dramatic construction. |