THREE CLASSICAL UNITIES (UNITY OF TIME/ UNITY OF PLACE & UNITY OF ACTION)

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:02]Hello friends, I am Dr. Ranjeet Singh. Dear friends, today I will discuss with you the concept of Three Classical Unities.

[00:00:12]And we also call these classical unities dramatic unities. Also, after Aristotle, they are called Aristotelian unities. So what are these three classical unities?

[00:00:27]How is it connected to drama? And how these count under the classical rules of writing drama.

[00:00:34]We are going to discuss all these points with you today. So let's start. First of all, what I just told you is that these unities were mentioned in classical literature.

[00:00:48]That is why they are called classical unities. When we talk about classical unities, any word called classical, it simply means these unities were mentioned in Greek and ancient, Greek and Roman literature and these unities were linked to the writing of drama.

[00:01:07]That is why they are also called dramatic unities.

[00:01:09]That is, in classical drama writing, some rules were made for writing drama and the simple meaning of classical is that where drama originated in Greek literature, some rules were made for writing drama there.

[00:01:23]That is why they are also called classical unities because these are rules related to classical literature.

[00:01:32]What was said in these unities? In these unities it was said that How a Tragedy Should Be Structured.

[00:01:37]What should be the structure of a tragedy?

[00:01:40]These things were told on the basis of rules.

[00:01:43]And these were three rules called the Unities. And what were these three rules? Those three rules were that a tragedy must have one action. A drama must have one action. There should be only one action in a drama. A single action means the main plot.

[00:02:04]Whatever events happen should be only central events and those related to the main plot. There should not be any subplot within the main plot. Because if there is a subplot within the main plot then the action gets diverted. The attention of the viewers gets diverted from the central plot. That is why it is very important that all the events contribute to the main plot.

[00:02:29]This was called One Action. This was called Unity of Action. The second rule was unity, that was the unity of time.

[00:02:41]This meant one time period. And the simple meaning of one time period was one round of the sun i.e. 24 hours. The events shown on stage should be events of one day. There should be a maximum of 24 hours of incidents. The third unity was the unity of place. That means the scenes should not change too much.

[00:03:09]All incidents from the same location, same place should be shown. If those are incidents from the king's palace, then all the incidents must be from the king's palace. It should not be that these are incidents from the king's palace. Then there are the events on the battlefield. Then there are the events of Forrest.

[00:03:22]Such incidents should not be shown.

[00:03:25]The place should not change frequently during the action of the drama. These were the three units which were mentioned under the rules.

[00:03:34]Following these is very important for any drama to make it logical and realistic.

[00:03:40]That is, when the action of the drama continues, then somewhere or the other the attention of the viewers will be sought and they will remain totally attended to the performance of that play from the beginning till the end, their brain will not be diverted anywhere. Second thing, if we talk about unity of time. All events will be shown in real time. As if it happens in real life, people will find it realistic and life-like. It should not happen that events are shown to be of a very long period of time. The events of the years should be shown till the main character is born. Then he grows up. Then he gets married.

[00:04:21]He has children. These very long duration events should not be covered.

[00:04:26]Because if such incidents are shown to the people who are sitting and watching, the spectators or viewers, then somewhere or the other it does not seem realistic to them. They wonder how we can see and show so many events in 3 hours.

[00:04:44]So the realism is missed somewhere. The third was Unity of Place. Because at that time the cost of furnishing the stage or the paraphernalia on the stage was not very rich.

[00:05:00]Therefore, the stage had to be changed again and again and the viewers, the audience or the spectators had to be convinced that now this was the king's palace.

[00:05:08]Then the narrator would come and tell that now this is a battlefield. So somewhere the realistic touch was missing from the play.

[00:05:15]Spectators felt as if this was still the king's palace. Now this is a battlefield. And these people who used to have theatre companies at that time did n't have a lot of paraphernalia.

[00:05:31]That is, there were not many resources available to decorate the stage and show a realistic touch.

[00:05:37]If they wanted to show a forest, they would cut some branches and leaves and place them here and there. So, that is why the dramatists wanted that it should have a realistic touch, it should look similar, people should feel that yes, this is what happens in life, so once the narrator tells that this is the king's palace, then the spectators simply understand in their brain that this is the king's palace.

[00:06:03]If the narrator comes and tells them again and again that the place has changed now. Now it is a battlefield, so it does not seem realistic to the spectators. Life does n't seem like life. And drama is the representation of life. The simple meaning of drama is that it is a representation of life.

[00:06:19]That means it should feel like life.

[00:06:23]So these three unities were created by classical writers. It was made so that the drama appears very simple, logical and realistic.

[00:06:31]We also call these unities Aristotelian unities because the Greek writer Aristotle mentioned these unities in his book Poetics.

[00:06:41]However, in Poetics, Aristotle clearly stated that the most important unity is the unity of action. He did not focus much on the other two unities.

[00:06:54]However, Aristotle did not explain these unities on the basis of clear strict rules.

[00:06:56]Later Rhenish writers and New Classical critics developed these three unities. Let us discuss with you what Aristotle said about these three unities.

[00:07:09]Aristotle in Unities has some principles that are principles for writing drama.

[00:07:14]These were described by Aristotle in his book Poetics and were later developed and elaborated by the Romanesque writers and New Classical critics, and these unities were developed by the New Classical and Romanesque writers, especially in Italy and France.

[00:07:30]These unities had a simple meaning so that the events appeared connected to each other. The drama on stage should seem life-like and the tragedy should seem very effective for the audience. The unity of action in this simply meant that there should be only one plot in the story. There should be only main action. There should n't be a subplot. The main story should be related to the main characters only. It should not happen that another story is woven into it. It should not happen.

[00:08:02]Because all the incidents together should take the story towards the central plot. The entire story should move in one direction. The writer should avoid unnecessary events which we call subplots. Should not be included in the play.

[00:08:20]That is, the play should have only one main plot.

[00:08:22]Aristotle used to say that this is the most important unity for any drama, for any tragedy.

[00:08:31]So in his book Poetics, Aristotle gave maximum focus and importance to any unity and that was the unity of action. The second unity was the unity of time. The simple meaning of this unity of time was that the events of any drama should be within 24 hours so that it appears life-like and realistic.

[00:08:55]This limitation was believed to make the drama realistic and increase dramatic intensity. The spectators feel that yes, this is what happens in life.

[00:09:04]We are seeing the same events on stage as happen in life. It should not happen that events of a very long time are shown on stage.

[00:09:14]Unity of Place.

[00:09:16]U Unity of place means that the entire action should take place in one location.

[00:09:22]Places should not be changed frequently.

[00:09:25]And dear friends, please note one more thing, these unities were given a lot of focus in the society of that time, in the writing of that time, in the theatrical techniques of that time, when in theatre, many of the things like paraphernalia, decoration carts, etc. were not available to them. At that time, changing the location of the stage repeatedly would divert the attention of the spectators a little.

[00:09:54]Somewhere he felt that this was not like life. That is why these units were created. If the stage is once told that this is the setting then the places should not be changed again and again. There should be no shift. Once the audience believes that it is a battlefield, then it should remain a battlefield.

[00:10:14]What did Aristotle want to say? Actually, if I say so, Aristotle described these three unities as strict rules.

[00:10:21]But later, writers and critics added strictness to these split rules.

[00:10:29]Aristotle's main focus was on unity of action. He had said that unity of action is central. It is most important. I said this in my politics. The Unity of Time and Unity of Place were later added by the Ranisha Writers and the New Classical Writers.

[00:10:45]Especially by French critics.

[00:10:49]Now pay attention to what was the purpose of these unities? Why were these included in the drama? This adds to the drama's coherence.

[00:10:55]All the incidents seem to be connected to each other.

[00:10:57]And the drama becomes concentrated. Does not run here and there from the main centre.

[00:11:03]French New Classical drama was greatly influenced by these unities.

[00:11:11]And among them was a writer named Pierre Carne. This is Pierre Carne and the other writer was Jhara Singh. Both of them had a great contribution in describing these unities.

[00:11:24]Because somewhere these pier cars are known to be pier cars.

[00:11:30]He described Aristotle's Poetics and in it he explained these unities very well.

[00:11:40]So these unities came into existence in the 17th and 18th centuries and were accepted as strict rules for writing plays and these unities were made the criteria for judging plays. If a writer followed these unities, he was considered a writer following classical rules.

[00:12:00]Unity of action means there should be one main plot. There should not be a distracting plot. That is, the entire story should be tied together in one thread. The story is taking you in one direction. Unity of time meant that events should occur within 24 hours.

[00:12:16]Maximum. It would be even better if there are 3 hour events in 3 hours.

[00:12:19]But the maximum freedom was up to 24 hours. This was because if the events of 24 hours were shown in 3 hours or some other time, it would look very realistic and very intense. The viewers will realize the reality that yes, this is what happens in life.

[00:12:39]Talking about Unity of Place, it simply meant that events should take place in a single location. If it is a battlefield then the events should be of the battlefield only. If it is the king's palace then the events should happen in the king's palace only. This maintains consistency of space. There is spatial uniformity.

[00:12:56]Spectators get it into their minds that this is the king's palace. Then only the king's palace remains. There is no diversion point in their brain.

[00:13:04]I just talked to you about the three unities, the unity of action in that means there should be a single plot. There should be a main plot. There should be no room for subplots or drama. That is, the play should have only one story line. There should be only one story in it. There should not be another story within a story.

[00:13:24]This means there must be only one central conflict. This should be the central theme. There should not be unnecessary subplots. Every scene should be connected to the main story. It should have a beginning, a middle and an end. Everything should be connected to each other. The purpose of this was to make the drama appear focused, powerful and to ensure that the audience does not have any confusion as to where the story has gone.

[00:13:51]This means that if the tragedy is about the downfall of a king, it should not contain unrelated comic events. The romantic side of Raja's life should not be shown.

[00:14:02]Aristotle wanted to say that unity of action is most important. He said this in politics. He believed that tragedy should have one complete and unified action, which is called the unified unity of action. The second unity was the unity of time which has a 24- hour rule. That means the entire action and events in the drama should happen within just one day, within 24 hours. It was not accepted for a longer time than this. Events of months and years should not be shown because events must be continuous. It should not happen that a break is given in between and now the incidents are happening after 10 years. He was a strict critic who believed that if the stage time is 3 hours and the stage action is going on then all the events should happen in real time. Only events of 3 hours should be shown. But the relaxation in that was for a maximum of 24 hours.

[00:15:02]This will make the story seem realistic and the audience will be able to connect with it clearly.

[00:15:07]Life will feel like it to them on stage.

[00:15:10]Aristotle said that the events in tragedy are a single revolution of the sun.

[00:15:16]When the Sun completes one revolution. What I mean to say is simple, that we have day and night. The Earth rotates on its axis in 24 hours. This is what they say that only the events of 24 hours should be shown on the stage which is called one day, generally events of more than this should not be shown, maximum events of 24 hours.

[00:15:45]But Aristotle did not state this as a strict rule. His main focus was on unity of action. The third was Unity of Place. This means location rule. The rule of place is that all events must take place in one place.

[00:15:59]All events should take place at one fixed location. There should be action in whatever plot there is. Scenes should not be shifted again and again like now there is a scene of a city and now there is a scene of another country or there is a scene of many cities in the same country. It should not happen. There may be scenes from the same place, scenes from the same house or scenes from the same city. This was said. The stage setting should remain constant and the same. Its setting should not be changed again and again, now it is the forest and then it is the king's court. It should not happen.

[00:16:32]This makes the drama seem realistic. It is very simple and it is easy for the actors to perform it.

[00:16:44]Now let us talk about the origin and development of the Unities, then note that their development basically took place during the time period of Ranasha in the 16th century. And the writer was John Jo Trosin, he wrote a play named Sophonizva which came in 1514 and it is believed that he was very much inspired by Aristotle's Poetics and Aristotle's text Poetics was not available in its complete correct form at that time, that is why he misinterpreted this text of Aristotle because Aristotle had only focused on the unity of action. But this writer John Jo Jo Trosino said that all three unities are important for writing drama and cited politics.

[00:17:39]Another famous writer is Lordico. Lordico Costelbathro. This drama of his came out in 1570. He also codified some rules.

[00:17:52]And Lodo Fies, who was an Italian literary critic, also commented on poetics and he also focused on the three unities that all three unities are necessary for writing drama. All references lead somewhere or the other to Poetics, which is Aristotle's main crux work.

[00:18:11]What happened now? The unities gradually evolved into strict dramatic rules. It was an Italian drama because both the writers were from Italy. Aldobico and John Giorgio were both Italian critics. He was an Italian writer. They have now set these up as rules. It was set up as the rules for writing dramas in Threnisha's time period. Now these became strict dramatic rules. To follow the three unities. Italian drama of the Renaissance period became highly structured. And please note that it has become a little artificial, less emotional and a lot more mechanical because now it has started being written on the basis of rules.

[00:18:55]Then when the New Classical Age came to France in the 17th century, they also focused on these things. You know very well when the New Classical Age is in English literature. The same rules were there too.

[00:19:07]Reason and order were followed.

[00:19:10]Disciplina decorum was followed.

[00:19:12]Greek and Roman classics were followed.

[00:19:14]Even at this time, the writers in France followed the Three Unities and followed them strictly. Now according to this the rules have become very strict. You have become very dominant. There is no freedom left to write.

[00:19:28]Who was a French dramatist whose name was Pierre Conte. Pierre Cornet, a French dramatist, popularized the principles of New Classical Tragedy and focused heavily on the three classical unities, using the same reference as Aristotle's The Politics. The other famous French writer is Jacques Rousseau, a tragic playwright from France. He also wrote during the New Classical Age.

[00:19:58]He also focused on the same unities described by Aristotle in his Poetics. The name of the third famous writer is Boltey. We call it Boltaire. He is also a very famous writer, thinker and dramatist of the French Enlightenment Age. He also focused on and promoted reason, tolerance, and new classical literary ideals in his writing and dramas.

[00:20:24]When these dramatists in France were writing plays, they all focused a lot on the Three Unities and conveyed the message to follow them very strictly. Drama was seen as a perfect art.

[00:20:37]That's why writers must follow the rules.

[00:20:43]In the New Classical Age, following the classical unities became a strict rule. If a writer broke any of the rules, it was considered a serious fault on the part of the writer.

[00:20:52]On the writer's part. That is why all the writers started following classical unities.

[00:20:59]When the Romantic Age came, you know, a movement started against these classical rules. There was a reaction.

[00:21:08]During the Romantic Movement, the rule of three unities was a strict rule, which was opposed by the writers. Neither did he follow unity of action, nor unity of time, nor unity of place. The amazing writer was Victor Hugh. Victor Hue, who was from France, was also a French poet, nobleman, dramatist.

[00:21:26]He was considered the leader of the Romantic Movement.

[00:21:30]He challenged them to follow the rules of new classical drama. That means they were rejected. Did not follow the Three Unities. The second famous writer is from France. His name is Alexander Dumas. He was also a French novelist and playwright.

[00:21:48]He also promoted romantic ideals and freedom in literature and drama. There is no mention of creative freedom i.e. following rules. There is talk of breaking the rules.

[00:22:01]Victor Hue had a view that drama should be like life. There should be emotions in it. There should be imagination in it.

[00:22:10]Therefore, a writer should not always bind himself based on rules.

[00:22:16]He believed that artistic freedom was essential and more important than classical unities. That's what he believed.

[00:22:26]What happened because of this was that the Romantic writers now challenged and overcame the classical restrictions. Suppressed it.

[00:22:33]In 1830 a drama called Ernarini was published. This was his name. We also know it as the Aranani Controversy of 1830.

[00:22:43]This was a play by Victor Hue and notice that it symbolically showed the victory of Romanticism over Neoclassicism because it broke the rules of classical spectacle. There was talk of greater freedom and greater freedom simply meant breaking the unities.

[00:23:07]In 1830, a play by Victor Hue called Ernani was published, and it sparked a controversy between Romanticism and New Classicism because it explicitly stated that freedom was essential for Romantic writers. It is not that important for them to follow classical unities. Therefore, it was assumed that after this drama was performed on stage, the rules of New Classical, the Three Unities, were defeated. It is believed so.

[00:23:39]When we talk about England, unlike France, Aristotle's Unities were not strictly followed in England also.

[00:23:46]In the Romantic Age. You know it very well.

[00:23:54]That is, who just followed? Bun Johnson and John Trydon. These are two writers who supported the classical unities to some extent. But he did not motivate others to follow these things in a rigid manner. Nor was it promoted on the basis of a rule that they must follow these rules. William Shakespeare largely ignored the unities. Because William Shakespeare, to a great extent, wanted to enjoy dramatic freedom. That is why he largely ignored these dramatic unities. Shakespeare had practice. Notice that if we look at Shakespeare's play, the places change frequently in his play dramas.

[00:24:39]Different countries, different locations are shown. And events are shown, events of many years are shown. And in their place there are sub plots along with the main plot. This is a clear breakaway from the classical unities. For example, Hamlet contains many stories. Antony Cleopatra frequently shifts countries and locations, breaking the unity of action and place. The story in Winter Scale spans several years.

[00:25:14]Here the unity of time is broken.

[00:25:19]So Shakespeare did not follow the unities very strictly. They have taken liberties and avoided following unity. Samuel Johnson, who is very famous as a critic, also rejected the idea that these classical unities do not need to be followed so strictly.

[00:25:40]But Samuel Johnson had somewhere focused a lot on the unity of action and on this basis he justified Shakespeare's play and said that Aristotle 's main focus was on the unity of action and William Shakespeare's play somewhere follows the unity of action. This is what Samuel Johnson believed. What he meant to say was Samuel Johnson that drama should imitate real life. The drama should be as life actually is.

[00:26:09]And life cannot always be lived on the basis of rules, on the basis of artificial rules and on the basis of very strict rules.

[00:26:16]Such drama cannot be bound by very strict rules.

[00:26:19]This was the belief of Dr. Samuel Johnson.

[00:26:25]Dear friends, this is how we see that these three classical unities, unity of action, time, place, were created to make the drama simple. And it seemed very focused, dramatic and realistic. This was their aim. But the drama was easy. The audience could easily understand and hence the unity of time, action and place was followed. This was its main objective that whatever the story, it should be one main story and it should keep moving forward. There should not be any constant unnecessary distraction for the viewers. This was the main objective of bringing these unities. And the incidents that happened seemed believable. It should not seem like this is a story from when the child was small.

[00:27:10]Then he was shown young. Then it was shown as old. Don't think so. Absolutely believable incidents took place on stage. It feels like life. You will have a life-like experience after watching the drama.

[00:27:21]That is why these units were included.

[00:27:25]But as time changed, writers realized that these rules were too strict. It is very harsh. And because based on these rules your imagination and creativity gets restricted somewhere or the other. It becomes limited. It felt like following the writers and these unities made the drama feel very artificial and unnatural. The writers felt so. That is why, as a result of the emergence of modern drama, the writers broke away from the strict classical rules. I stopped following them. Now he started experimenting. Many things started getting included in the plot. They started taking liberties with time and also with settings.

[00:28:05]Modern drama has now become very flexible. It became creative because the writers did not bind themselves based on these rules. That is, dear friends, pay attention to one thing, these three classical unities were suggested by Aristotle to bring order, coherence and realism in drama.

[00:28:25]But since they had to be followed very strictly, the drama started to seem artificial.

[00:28:34]That's why the writers rejected it and they wanted artistic freedom and creativity in their drama. That is why gradually, in the modern age, they rejected these three classical unities.

[00:28:45]So dear friends, this is the complete history of these three unities. Why was this brought into the drama? What did Aristotle say in Poetics? And which writers have focused on these? When we talk about English literature, the names of Ben Johnson and John Triden come to mind. and Dr. Samuel Johnson who was a critic. What did he say about these classical unities? And why did modern writers reject these classical unities in the modern age?

[00:29:13]I discussed all these things with you for your liberty, to focus on your creation, to focus on creativity.

[00:29:16]So thank you friends. Thank you very much.