Verdi arias v. operas

Who's with me on this? An individual aria of a Verdi opera can be emotionally effective by itself, as long as you don't consider it as a part of the opera that surrounds it. At least from today's understand of what works as theatre, one might never understand how Verdi and his librettists came up with the plots of his operas. Cases: "La forza del destino" and "Giovanna d'Arco"