The concept of Poetic Justice has been an ancient literary canon. The concept means that in the ideal world,Rewards & punishments are in proportion to the merits & mistakes of the agents. In this ideal world,virtue is rewarded & crime punished in exact proportion to the nature of the acts. But we do not see this ideal justice in actual life. In the world, we often see virtue suffering & wickedness rewarded.
Shakespeare in his tragedies does nor dispense poetic justice to his characters. That is because Shakespeare as a dramatist is concerned with the real world not the ideal.his aim is to hold the mirror up to nature. He does not hesitate to show that virtue suffers & sin sometimes triumphs in this world.
In Othello, We find Iago, the Arch villain is exposed & punished. This satisfies our sense of poetic justice. But when Othello & Desdemona suffer for no fault of theirs, our sense of poetic justice is not satisfied. The punishment of Othello may be partly due to his own fault, but in the case of Desdemona, her mistake is a trifle but the punishment is excessive. There is no relation between suffering & wrong doing. The waste of goodness is unnecessarily great. In fact, Desdemona & Othello do not suffer owing to the wrongs committed by them,but chiefly due to their virtues.
Thus,in the world of Shakespeare there may be justice even rigorous justice,but it is not the same thing as poetic justice.
Thank You.
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