The great poet W.H. Auden was also a very astute Shakespeare critic. (By the way, I use the term in its more useful sense, which refers to one who attempts to help the audience enjoy a work more clearly, not a thumbs-up/thumbs-down type of writer. The latter does not apply to people like Shakespeare. Northrop Frye said it best: "When a critic comes up against something the size of Shakespeare, it is the critic who is being judged".) When lecturing on King Lear, Auden noted that at this point in his career, Shakespeare was writing about states of mind rather than trying to create "believable" characters. In other words, we are not likely to meet someone like Lear, but we are likely to have instances arise where an emotionally-overcharged decision can have serious consequences. Another example: it's interesting how the character of Hamlet is someone with whom no one living has anything in common (a member of a ruling, not symbolic, royal family who sees a ghost and must revenge a murder - I've never met anyone in that position, anyway), and yet is one that has helped innumerable people understand their lives and the workings of their minds more clearly. Quite an achievement, that.