The Reconsideration of Unity of Character in the Structure of Master Plot Scripts; The Study of Main Character Alternating Mechanism

The unity of plot is the most important principle in classical drama. In Poetics, Aristotle prefers action to character and equates the unity of plot with the unity of action. Modern theories however, eliminate such a decisive differentiation between the character and the action and consider them highly interconnected. Changing the central character and replacing him/her with another character violates yet another principle of classical drama, namely the unity of the central character. In the present study, the analysis of observational data is utilized in order to examine the setup of the films with central character replacement using the theories of Aristotle and other theoretician influenced by him. Through observing and analyzing these films, it is concluded that in order to maintain the unity of plot they employ mechanisms such as attendance of the alternative central character in the causal chain, maintaining the unity of action, emphasizing on an unaltered theme, using the capacities of epic. The effect of the change of the central character on the unity of plot is associated with the extent to which these mechanisms are used. The possibility of maintaining the unity of plot increases with the number of utilized mechanisms. Otherwise, the change and replacement of the central character results in a hybrid plot i.e. there would be two separate plots.