How Shifts and An Indiscretion Demonstrate Aristotle's Model for Complexity

Both “Shifts” and “An Indiscretion” are good examples of Aristotle’s model of complexity, because both plays contain reversals and recognition. In “Shifts”, Dane is the first to notice the change going on around the characters, something that takes Kelly longer to notice and ultimately accept, but that eventually sours their previously (we’re assuming) good relationship. The decision of the playwright to have Kelly directly address the audience allows her to tell us what led to Dane’s recognition of his need to move out of the city, and of Kelly’s need to stay.
“An Indiscretion” is basically a series of reversals, in which the politician’s wife presents a challenge (finding someone to vouch for her husband’s reputation to the press), and the two characters spend the whole play going back and forth about why or why not certain people are suitable for the task, because every suggestion by the politician is shot down by his wife. The recognition comes when the woman finally admits to the audience, her husband, and maybe even to herself, that she is only playing the part of a loyal wife, and regrets her choice in marrying an unfaithful, insensitive man.