Preface to Shakespeare By Samuel Johnson summary in English and Bangla

 

 Preface to Shakespeare

Samuel Johnson

 

Lectured and an article written By Sharjana Hussein.

 

Contents:

 

Preface to Shakespeare
Samuel Johnson
Introduction

What is it?

Subject Matter

The preface to Shakespeare is

Author’s Perspective

Excellencies

Defects

 

Introduction

•Preface to Shakespeare is written about the works of Shakespeare by Dr. Samuel Johnson where he has depicted the excellencies and defects of the famous poet Shakespeare.

•এই topic টি তে আমরা কোনরকম text summary করবো না বরং আমরা এই লেখাটির আলোচিত বিষয়গুলো নিয়ে একটু কথা বলবো। তার সাথে থাকবে Samuel Johnson এর point of view নিয়ে discussion.

•This lecture includes three parts those are :

This lecture includes

 What is it?

—Preface to Shakespeare is considered as the most famous critical essay of 18th century. There was an emergence of Literary criticism in 18th century and it has evolved with time.

—ধারনা করা হয়, ইংরেজি সাহিত্যের classical period থেকেই এই Literary Criticism এর চর্চা হয়ে আসছে। সাধারনত একজন লেখকের সাহিত্য কর্ম এবং তার কর্মের বিভিন্ন দিক নিয়ে কিছু গঠনমূলক সমালোচনাকেই indicate করা হয়। Literary Criticism এর মাধ্যমে একজন লেখকের মনোভাব, তার সৃজনশীলতা এমনকি তার জীবনবোধ ও সবার সামনে উঠে আসে। literary criticism এর  চর্চার শুরুতে ধর্মীয় বিষয়গুলো নিয়ে সমালোচনা হতো যা পরবর্তীতে সামাজ ব্যাবস্থা এবং লেখকের সমসাময়িক পারিপার্শ্বিকতাও আমাদেরকে বুঝতে সাহায্য করে। literary criticism doest not mean that one has to just find out the flaws from the author’s writing rather it should be a impartial and unprejudiced piece of discussion. And preface to Shakespeare is that kind of Critical Essay.    

Subject Matter

•Shakespeare ছিলেন Elizabethan Period এর কবি এবং নাট্যকার। তার কবিতা তথা নাটক এবং কর্ম নিয়ে সমসাময়িক লেখকগন বিভিন্ন ভাবে সমালোচনা করেন যার প্রতি উত্তর দেয়ার মাধ্যমেই Preface to Shakespeare টি রচনা করেন Samuel Johnson. তার মতে, একজন সাহিত্যিক এর জীবদ্দশায় তার কর্মের ভাল দিক নিয়ে ততোটা আলোচনা হয়না যতটা হয় তার গত হওয়ার পরে। Samuel Johnson তার রচনায় চেষ্টা করেছেন একটি নিরপেক্ষ আলোচনা করার Shakespeare এর সাহিত্য কর্ম নিয়ে।

•এই আলোচনার মধ্য দিয়ে William Shakespeare এর play and drama তে আলোচ্য বিষয়গুলো যেমন The four most prominent are: appearance and reality; change; order and disorder; and conflict কিন্তু মনে রাখতে হবে।

Preface to Shakespeare is

A literary criticism by Samuel Johnson which has been done from neutral point of view.

The excellence  and defects both have been depicted very beautifully by the author. And some important aspect of life like “Man v/s nature”, “Representation of general nature”

Author’s Perspective

•A literary work cannot be judged as good or bad if it is not compared to other works of same kind

•If someone want to criticize any literary work of any author he must practice a lot.

•His works are the representation of General Nature

•Shakespeare is universal in his works.

•Shakespeare’s works are neither tragedy nor comedy

Excellencies

•Shakespeare is a  Poet of nature and by saying this Samuel Johnson means the observation of reality. Shakespeare's plays are excluded of artificial emotion and surreal atmosphere. Rather he tried to show the thing as it is in reality.

•His characters are more realistic. His dramas give the essence of human practical life. It seems more real than the other plays or dramas. The choice of place and plot by Shakespeare is pretty natural and free of dramatic incarnation.

•His drama is the mirror of life which reflects the real life tragedy and real life comedy . Where he felt the characters should have relief from grief he created the comic situation without hampering the coherence of play.

According to Johnson Shakespeare is “long outlived his century, the term commonly used as the test of literary merit” which means he is above his contemporary period since still in 21st century he is admired for his works.  His plays and dramas are so involved with regular human life that still his works can be connected to this era.

—“Shakespeare has no heroes; his scenes are occupied by men” . Shakespeare never used any superhero to solve the problems in his drama rather it was well managed by the ordinary characters of his drama. Which made is dramas more close to the audience.

—“Shakespeare’s plays are not in the rigorous and critical sense either tragedies or comedies, but compositions of a distinct kind..” there was a conflict that whether Shakespeare’s play are tragedy or comedy where Johnson mentioned that it can be considered as a new form of expression.

Defects

•Johnson identifies, “The end of writing is to instruct; the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing”.

•Shakespeare has ignored the demand of poetic justice

•Another defect highlighted by Johnson is that Shakespeare does not give much consideration to plot construction. Initially, in the preface, Johnson praises Shakespeare for his universality, his not belonging to any one age, place or time but then, he contradicts with himself as he identifies it a flaw of Shakespeare’s style.

•For Johnson, clarity and diction are important. Johnson criticizes Shakespeare’s use of language. According to him, Shakespeare is not of civilized kind and is also over-punning. Sometimes, it seems that Shakespeare is involved in providing mere dialogues not related to the plot.

Thank you so much