Strengths of Shakespeare’s Plays According to Johnson

Shakespeare was an established authority by the time of Johnson. According to Johnson, “Nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature”. By nature, Johnson means the observation of reality. Johnson says that Shakespeare had the ability to provide a ‘just representation of general nature’. Here, Johnson presents the idea of universality. David Daiches reports that Dr. Johnson appreciates Shakespeare because he, according to Dryden’s requirement of a just and lively image of human nature, fulfills it. He further explains that Shakespeare as a dramatist is praised because he does what is expected from a dramatist. Shakespeare’s writings have a main theme of good and evil, these are universal problems, and everyone agrees to these problems. All humanity faces good as well as evil so the author who uses these problems relates to people’s lives.

According to Johnson, art should be exact representation (imitation) of general nature as Plato says that art is the imitation of nature. Also, dealing with the theme of universality, Johnson seems to believe in modern thoughts that truth has to be universal, accepted by all and common for all. Nature is represented by classicists so copying them also means copying nature. Hamlet says, “Hold up a mirror to nature”, which means imitation of nature according to Platonic theory. Shakespeare is also categorized by Johnson as poet of nature.

Johnson, further describes about Shakespeare’s characters as, “His persons act and speak by the influence of those general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated..”. Shakespeare’s characters are individuals but represent universality. Johnson elaborates about Shakespeare’s characters, “Shakespeare has no heroes; his scenes are occupied by men”. It means that Shakespeare’s characters are of general kind and are not restricted by customs and conventions of any one society. David Daiches describes that by having no heroes does not mean that his characters are not heroic or impressive but that they are not supernatural beings but “men, whom we recognize as fellow human beings” acting according to the general laws of nature. Also, if Shakespeare uses ghosts, he gives them humanly characteristics as they speak like human beings such as Hamlet’s father’s ghost.

Johnson describes language of Shakespeare as comprehensible. He also describes that Shakespeare’s characters differ from one another because of the usage of language.

Johnson praises Shakespeare and comments, “His drama is the mirror of life”. According to Johnson, his plays are so realistic that we get practical knowledge from them. He further says, “Shakespeare’s plays are not in the rigorous and critical sense either tragedies or comedies, but compositions of a distinct kind..”. According to Johnson, divisions of Shakespeare’s plays into tragedies and comedies is wrong. Eliot shares Johnson’s idea of incorrect labeling of Shakespeare’s dramas as tragic, comic and historic.

Johnson judges Shakespeare’s tragedy as “a skill” and his comedy as an ‘instinct’. He thinks that the natural medium for Shakespeare is comedy not tragedy. According to him, Shakespeare had to struggle for his tragedies but still they did not reach perfection.

He presents a mingled drama – a tragicomedy, which provides instructions in both the ways, as a tragedy as well as a comedy. He reinforces if tragedy and comedy are mingled, the effect one wants to create on the audience is impaired. Mingling of tragedy and comedy means to represent the reality of the world as it is.