Is Shakespeare's writing universal and timeless?

He addressed complex societal issues that continue today.

Question: Is Shakespeare's writing universal and timeless?
Position1 of 2›: Yes, Shakespeare is universal and timeless.
Argument1 of 3›: He addressed complex societal issues that continue today.

The wide range of issues Shakespeare wrote on - such as racism and gender identity - mean that he will always be relevant, as these discussions continue today.

The argument

Shakespeare's work addresses a variety of complex societal issues which humans continue to grapple with today, and that is the substance of the claim that his writing is universal and timeless. The argument is not simply that the plays are old and still performed. It is that the specific questions they take up are questions that remain open. A work becomes dated when the problem it addresses has been settled; these have not been. Gender is the first example. In "Macbeth" and many of his comedies, Shakespeare deals with gender roles and identity through power struggles, cross-dressing, and other plot points. His work often seems to be more sympathetic to women and the nature of fluctuating gender identities than many authors of the past or even today — a comparison that is the point of the example, since it places the plays ahead of their period rather than merely within it, and ahead of some of what has been written since. Race is the second. In "Othello," Shakespeare clearly displays Iago as a villain fueled by racism who enacts awful things upon the dark-skinned Othello. The structure of the play matters here: the racism is located in the antagonist and treated as the source of the harm, rather than being the assumption from which the drama proceeds. In "The Tempest," he humanizes the native islander Caliban when many people saw tribal natives as savage cannibals — again positioning the play against the prevailing view of its own time rather than expressing it. Shakespeare's grappling with this issue shows his ability to look beyond himself and find a universality in human experience. Writing that reaches past the assumptions of its own era is the kind that does not expire with it.

Premises

[P1]Writing that engages enduring societal issues like gender, identity, and race speaks across eras. [P2] Shakespeare's plays, from Macbeth's gender dynamics to Othello's racism and The Tempest's humanizing of Caliban, directly engage these enduring issues. [C] Therefore, Shakespeare's writing is universal and timeless because it addresses complex societal issues that still resonate today.

Counter-arguments

Shakespeare's lack of explicit commentary on these issues is a moral failure, as one should be able to outright condemn racism or sexism. The works which most reaffirm our current social values are not necessarily the most universal.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] It is not necessary that artwork address societal issues.