@Article{, title={POETIC JUSTICE IN SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS}, author={Hazim Mahmood Ismail حازم محمود اسماعيل}, journal={Journal Of AL-Turath University College مجلة كلية التراث الجامعة}, volume={}, number={5}, pages={92-109}, year={2009}, abstract={Unfortunately many atrocities in our world go unpunished, and many good people are punished for no reason whatsoever. This is because we often fail to maintain justice. But justice must be done one way or another. God is just and He expects us to do justice in the world we are living in. If we cannot do justice for one reason or another, poets and writers can. But where and how? If not in reality, they do it in the world they create in their works.The aim of this paper is to show where and how poets and writers do justice in their own world and in their own way. Four major characters have been chosen from four Shakespearean tragedies for this purpose. These characters are: Richard III, Iago, Macbeth, and Claudius All these four characters are Shakespeare’s most intriguing and plausible villains. They represent blind ambition. They do everything they can in order to serve their wicked purposes. But in the end justice takes its course and they get the punishment they deserve.

} }