2. Aristotle's Poetics is the earliest surviving work
of dramatic theory and the first extant
philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory.
His theory was based on the idea that a well-
formed plot must have a beginning, which is not
a necessary consequence of any previous action;
a middle, which follows logically from the
beginning; and an end, which follows logically
from the middle and from which no further
action necessarily follows.