plot of the New Comedy was the final revelation, by birth tokens, that the heroine was of respectable birth and so suitable for the hero to marry. This was often brought about by the machinations of the tricky slave. This plot appears in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, where a recognition scene in the final act reveals that Perdita is a king's daughter rather than a shepherdess, and so suitable for her prince lover. Literature and modern usage Mystery The earliest use of anagnorisis in a murder mystery was in "The Three Apples", a classical Arabian Nights tale, where the device is employed to great effect in its twist ending. The protagonist of the story, Ja'far ibn Yahya, is ordered by Harun al-Rashid to find the culprit behind a murder mystery within three days or else be executed. It is only after the deadline has passed, and as he prepares to be executed, that he discovers that the culprit was his own slave all along. Modern usage Anagnorisis, however, is not limited to classical or Elizabethan sources. Author and lecturer Ivan Pintor Iranzo points out that contemporary auteur M. Night Shyamalan uses similar revelations in The Sixth Sense, in which child psychologist Malcolm Crowe successfully treats a child who is having visions of dead people, only to realize at the close of the film that Crowe himself is dead, as well as in Unbreakable, in which the character of David realizes that he survived a train crash that killed the other passengers, due to a supernatural power. Another well known example of anagnorisis from popular culture is the revelation that Darth Vader is the father of Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back. An extensive account of the history and application of anagnorisis is provided by Terence Cave in his book Recognitions. A humorous definition is included in 'The Banner: mock-heroic verse epic, Part 1: Sid' by Robin Gordon: In any moment of such crisis / one thinks, of course, of those devices / which Aristotle said were needed / in any poem. We have heeded / Aristotle, and our plot, / (beginning, middle, end), has got / complications too, and error / fit to rouse cathartic terror, / protagonists, antagonists, / peripiteia, turns and twists. / The poet's comments form the choruses, / but now it's time for anagnorisis. / When Oedipus sees the bird he's bedded / is his