Three unities of Drama

1. Three Unities of Drama
• Name : Makwana Daksha D.
• Course : M.A.( English )
• Semester : 1
• Roll no : 4
• Enrollment no:
• Subject : Literary criticism
• Submitted to : Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of
English MKBU
makwanadaksha9@gmail.com

2. The unity of Time, Place and action
• Unity of Time : The action in a play should not exceed the
single revolution of the sun, the action should occur over a
period of no more than 24 hours, Drama should occur within
a one day.
• Unity of place : A play should exist in a single physical space
and should not attempt to compress geography, nor should
the stage represent more than one place.
• Unity of Action : A play should have one single plot or
action , to sustain the interest of the spectators without
much complex subplots.

3. Three unities
Unity of
Time
Unity of
Place
Unity of
Acton

4. Aristotle ‘s concept
• According to Aristotle’s
definition of tragedy “ Tragedy
is an imitation of an action
that is complete , whole and
of a certain magnitude .
Imitation of one action and
that a whole .
Exa . Sophocles ‘Oedipus rex ‘
• Followed all unities, it refers to
past event , story about what
happened in one day , one scene
and no subplots.

5. Dryden ‘s essay
• In essay “ Dramatic poesy” debate of critic
on use of three unities in ancients and
modern plays.
• Crites defends ancients and Lisideius favours
french play in rules of three unties.
• Neander : Shakeapeare has greater scope
than Ben Johnson

6. Shakespeare’s plays
• Samuel Johnson : “ Preface to the place of Shakespeare “
Merits and faults of Shakespeare
• He finds Shakespeare great because he holds a mirror to
nature.
• Shakespeare for his propensity for wordplay and for ignoring
the demands for poetic justice in his plays.
• “ Happy fault “
Shakespeare clearly violates this principal in many of his dramas.
1) Macbeth : scenes on battlefield ,in castle and England ( unity of
place)
2) 2) Romeo and Juliet: take place over the course of several days or
even longer.( unity of time )
3) 3) King Lear : complex , subplots (unity of action)

7. Shakespeare and Three unities

8. Ben jonson’s plays
• One of the greatest dramatist of
the Elizabethan period. He applied
the formula of the three unities in
most of his plays.
• His play ‘ Volpone’ the play in only
in one city Venice .The action of the
play is restricted to one day, no
digression, the action goes directly
to the climax of the plot.
• His play ‘ Everyman out of his
humour ‘ ,character sleep one night
in the country and return to the
town next morning, here violating
unity of time.

9. Conclusion
• Aristotle crafted three unities or rules for how
to make a perfect tragedy , the unity of time
means that a perfect tragedy should only tell
the story of what happened in one day, the
unity of place means one scene in tragedy and
unity of action means no subplots and side
stories. This three principles of dramatic
construction derived by a Aristotle’s poetics.