Editing Classical unities (section)

{{short description|16–19th-century prescriptive theory of dramatic tragedy}}
{{redirect|unities|the concept in common law|four unities}}
The '''classical unities''', '''Aristotelian unities''', or '''three unities''' represent a prescriptive theory of dramatic [[tragedy]] that was introduced in Italy in the 16th century and was influential for three centuries. The three unities are:

#''unity of action'': a tragedy should have one principal action.
#''unity of time'': the action in a tragedy should occur over a period of no more than 24 hours.
#''unity of place'': a tragedy should exist in a single physical location.