The Three Unities and Greek tragedy

Elliot Krieger <elliot.krieger@gmail.com>

Thu, Oct 18, 1:54 PM (21 hours ago)

Sent yesterday (October 18), did not post successfully, reposting this a.m.

The three unities - time, place, and action - were proscribed by Aristotle as the foundational elements for tragic drama, and he based this diagnostic description on the most classic of all tragedians, Aeschylus- and I particular on his famous trilogy, the Oresteia, which recounts the tragic demise of the House of Atreus. I’m now about halfway through reading the Lattimore translation and thinking about what the 3U’s and what they add to drama and where the obviously do not. Clearly part of the power of A’s tragic drama is the clarity and focus: only there or four characters in conversation primarily w the Chorus, a group character speaking in unison and representing the Athenian public, and really only one central action in each drama tho it’s of the highest political and historical consequence - the assassination of a king, which in these tragedies is variously and act not only of regicide but parricide (or in the first of the trilogy spousal murder). But the extreme focus on one place, time, action means that there is no need or even license to develop character: each of the speakers has a clearly defined role, which would be well know to all in the audience (these were their history plays so to speak) but which does not present any of the characters w nuance, ambiguity, or back story. No A character is anything close to a hamlet or an other little - which may be why a prof I had in grad school steeped in the classic (foolishly) held that there is only one true Shakespeare tragedy, the Scottish play. Reading the A trilogy is a powerful experience and perhaps a great director today could bring them to life on stage (I was amazed once to see a English company do a drop-dead performance of one of the Mystery Plays), but we can’t help but feel today that they have no sense of character, much less the growth and evolution. Of character when faced w conflicting obligations and emotion