An aspect container being operable to generate an instance of itself at run time is provided. The aspect container comprises logic operable to create an instance of the aspect container by reading configuration information specifying a sequence of one or more aspects from an aspect container configuration file corresponding to the aspect container. The logic is also operable to generate instances of the aspects in the sequence, configure each aspect instance with its configuration information from an aspect configuration file corresponding to the aspect, and chain the aspect instances according to the specified sequence, such that the chain of aspect instances preamble and postamble activities of a class or method.