Introduction

Samuel Johnson in his “Preface to Shakespeare” highlights several qualities

and defects in Shakespeare’s plays whether they are comedies or tragedies. However,
while highlighting qualities and defects of Shakespeare’s work, Johnson, sometimes
contradicts his own views.

According to Johnson Shakespeare literary work have some

features that are as under:
 Universality
 Theme of good and Evil
 Reflection of nature
 Characters are universal
 Appeal open for criticism on nature
 His dramas are Mirror of life.

While describing qualities of Shakespeare Johnson also describe

some defects of the Shakespeare but occasionally he contradicts
from his own views. Some defect of Shakespeare and
contradictions of Dr. Johnson are as under:

Sacrificed Virtue to Convenience

According to Johnson, Shakespeare’s first and foremost defect is that “he

sacrifices virtue to convenience.” It seems that Shakespeare writes without any moral
purpose. Johnson also points out that Shakespeare does not observe poetic justice. He
did not distribute good and evil justly and even his virtuous characters do not express
any moral disapproval of the wicked. He carried his characters indiscriminately through
right or wrong, and left their fortune in the hands of Chance.
Contradiction: Later on, he deviate from his point and justifies this defect by
saying that he was not a religious scholar and it was not his duty to preach
people about morality. His duty was to entertain the people.
Defective Plot
Next Johnson turns his attention towards the plots of Shakespeare’s plays.
His plots usually too loosely constructed and very carelessly pursued that it seems he
himself did not always apprehend his own design. He always opted for the easy situations
rejecting the grand exhibitions. We can see that Shakespeare has written plays involving
comedy as well as tragedy in many plays. People claim that, due to this, seriousness of
the play is lost due to comic part.

Later on, Johnson defended Shakespeare by saying that he was not qualified
from any university he just learnt from the life and his experiences that’s why
his plot was not very well knitted and constructed.

Mingle Artist
According to Johnson, Human life combination of good and evil, joy and
sorrow mingled with endless variety of proportions of modes of combinations. Most of
the writers choose one of them in their work of literature. Some depict only tragedy and
some only terror etc. However Shakespeare has mingled comedy in serious parts. By
doing so, he has not breached any rule. Johnson says this objection is erroneous. In real
life no one has sorrow or happiness all the time. By mingling these two,
approached actual life, more than just tragedy or comedy. While showing
his characters serious at one time and comic at other, he was only representing actual
human nature.
Johnson refers to the general objection of neo-classical to such
intermingling that it interrupts the developments tragic in tragedy and comic in comedy.
Johnson rejects this saying, drama is a fiction. Shakespeare’s aim was to satisfy audience
who came to the theatre with varied interest. Different people could be satisfied with
different content which pleases them.
Johnson defends Shakespeare by saying “all pleasure consists in variety”.
Shakespeare understands the audiences mind and expectations. He
interchanged seriousness and comedy by which the mind is softened at one time and
exhilarated at other. He makes his audience laugh and mourn at the same time.

Abrupt Ending
Another defect Johnson finds in Shakespeare is that in his plays the latter
part is hastily rounded off so that the plays do not appear to be as artistically ordered in
their concluding sections as in their earlier part. Reaching near the end, Shakespeare is
found to shorten his oil: and as a result, he is found to slacken his efforts where he should
most vigorously exert them.
“His catastrophe is improbably produced or imperfectly represented.”
After saying that he defended Shakespeare. He said Shakespeare’s aim was to
earn money because he was living a miserable life due to his poor financial
conditions, so his work had no proper magnitude.

Not following classical Unities

Earlier Shakespeare has been charged for his neglect of the unities of time
and place. But later, Johnson defends him and said that this neglect is not a fault. He
said if an audience in a theatre can accept the stage as a locality in the city of Rome,
they will also accept the change from Rome to Alexandra. The unity of time and place
are not essential to a good play.

Conclusion
Johnson also defends Shakespeare by arguing that some of the shortcoming
that we find in his plays is actually the faults of the age he lived in. Yet these faults in
Johnson’s views do not lessen Shakespeare’s greatness as a unique dramatic genius, his
universal appeal, his understanding and portrayal of human nature, his capacity and
ability to delight.