Dramatic Unities

Dramatic Unities. From the study of Aristotle's Poetics and the Greek dramatists critics have laid down three rules of dramatic construction: (1) The unity of time - the action depicted in a drama must all take place within 24 hours; (2) the unity of place - there must be no change of locality; (3) the unity of action - there must be no "underplot" or second theme in the play. The observance of these unities marks the classic drama of France. They are occasionally departed from by the Greek dramatists, and are of course quite unrecognised by Shakespeare.