On 'poetic Justice'

 We have heard this term 'poetic justice' parleyed across very many tables, not necessarily literary and even in literary circles not necessarily in the full know of the term. Perhaps you are even thinking now while reading this, 'is there any poetic justice in what I say'. There are certain terms we know only too well to know in any clear grasp and may be 'poetic justice' is just one such.

Poetic justice is not a term which is specifically related to poetry as such. It was a phrase first coined perhaps and used by Thomas Rymer in the 17th CE. Good people must be rewarded and the bad punished, if not in reality at least in literary creations. No character portrayed as bad can be given undue good treatment by the author. This was the original sense which was ruling regarding poetic justice. But of course, this sense is highly didactic. Later the sense of twist of fate was also added to the meaning to account for naturalistic portrayals. That is the justice as available in hard reality is reflected in literary creations.

But William Shakespeare eludes all these senses in some of his characters. His was one of experimentation. He thought why not a bad fellow has a change of mind and become good. This transition also happens in reality. So his good treatment of some of his characters portrayed as bad in the beginning gave rise to a lot of criticism. 'He has flouted poetic justice!'. And also there is another sense which is more technical. That is: poetic justice has everything to do with architectonics, that is, the structural. You can't just portray a character in one way, their actions in another way, the plot in yet another way, where there is no inherent logic in the overall structure of your literary product. That lack of or presence of overhauling logic in a literary construction is the sense which I see more meaningful for the phrase 'poetic justice' whereas the other meanings of didactics, realism, twist of fate or irony have been, so to say, historical.

Srirangam Mohanarangan

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