Poetic Justice In Shakespeare's King Lear

According to Johnson, Shakespeare’s plays lack poetic justice because he sacrifices virtue to convenience and the major figures suffer more than they deserve, because of their faults. As a critic he shows remarkable regard for realistic portrayal of life in Shakespeare’s plays. Now in this argument for poetic justice when he demands that virtue must be rewarded and vice must be punished because he considers it always a writer’s duty to make the world a better place to live. He also believes that the significance of virtue is irrelevant of time. Now in real life we do not see that virtue is essentially or naturally rewarded or vice is always punished. If Johnson wanted to make the world a better place by relating virtue and vice in a cause

Here Johnson emphasis the necessity of poetic justice at the ending. The deficiency of justice and need for a better ending is felt from this perspective to such an extent that the critic questions that how justice could diminish or effect the impact of the play. He states that every rational person likes justice to be done; hence it seems out of question that justice could affect the quality of the play. On the other hand, discussing the same tragic ending of the play “king Lear” the critic fully acknowledges its powerful impact on his mind. He was so shocked by the death of Cordelia in the last scene that he is not sure about being able to read the last scene of the play again. Now when put together the two remarks by the critic, it may be concluded that though the end was not poetically justified yet it had that long lasting effect on the readers mind as a tragic ending. The tragic effect of this ending is so strong that Johnson himself would not endure to read it again. It was quite unexpected scene. This is so perhaps because the ending has the element of shock in it. May be it is so because it does not fulfill the viewer’s expectation of virtue being rewarded and vice being punished. Thus by missing the element of poetic justice, the play achieves its powerful dramatic impact upon readers as a tragedy and brings realism to drama through a life like shocking