How Does Doctor Samuel Johnson Defend Shakespeare’s Violation of the Three Unities?

Answer

The three unities—unity of time, unity of place, and unity of action—were important rules for writing plays. These rules came from Aristotle’s (384-322 BC) Poetics (likely between 335 and 323 B.C.E.). Many Renaissance critics believed that all good plays must follow these unities. However, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) did not always follow these rules. In his “Preface to Shakespeare” (1765), Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) defended Shakespeare and explained why breaking these unities does not make his plays bad.

The Three Unities: Aristotle’s three unities were:

• Unity of Time – The story should happen within one day.
• Unity of Place – The story should happen in one location.
• Unity of Action – The play should have one main story with no extra events.

Shakespeare often ignored the unity of time and place but followed the unity of action. Johnson defended this in his essay.

Johnson’s Defense of Shakespeare: Johnson argued that Shakespeare’s plays do not need to follow all three unities to be great. He gave several reasons:

A. Unity of Time Is Not Important

• Johnson said that a play does not have to happen in one day to be believable.
• The audience knows that a play is not real life. They can imagine that time is passing.
• Shakespeare’s plays often show many days, months, or even years, but the audience can still understand the story.

B. Unity of Place Is Not Important

• Johnson argued that a play does not have to happen in one place.
• The audience actually knows that the stage is not real life. They can imagine different places in their mind.
• In Shakespeare’s plays, scenes change locations. However, the audience can still follow the story.

C. Unity of Action Is Important

• Johnson agreed with Aristotle that a play should have one main story.
• Shakespeare follows this rule because his plays have a clear beginning, middle, and end.

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