All's Well That Ends Well
A "problem play" that tests the genre of comedy to its limits: the heroine Helena wins her husband through a bed-trick, cures a King of a mysterious illness, and is publicly shamed before the "happy" ending — which the title acknowledges is only provisionally satisfying.
At a Glance
- Genre: Comedy (Problem Play)
- Approximate date: c. 1602–1603
- Setting: Rossillion (France) and Florence (Italy)
- Source: Boccaccio's Decameron (Day 3, Tale 9), via William Painter's Palace of Pleasure
- Acts: 5
Dramatis Personæ
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
| KING OF FRANCE | Ill; healed by Helena; grants her any husband she chooses |
| THE DUKE OF FLORENCE | Italian duke |
| BERTRAM, COUNT OF ROSSILLION | Handsome young nobleman; Helena's husband; sets impossible conditions |
| HELENA | Orphaned daughter of a physician; loves Bertram; brilliant; resourceful |
| COUNTESS OF ROSSILLION | Bertram's mother; adoptive mother to Helena; admires Helena |
| LAFEW | Old lord; worldly-wise |
| PAROLLES | Bertram's follower; braggart soldier; exposed as a coward |
| RYNALDO | Steward to the Countess |
| A CLOWN | Servant to the Countess; witty and rude |
| DIANA | Young Florentine woman; helps Helena with the bed-trick |
| AN OLD WIDOW OF FLORENCE | Diana's mother |
| VIOLENTA | Neighbor to the Widow |
| MARIANA | Neighbor to the Widow |
| SEVERAL YOUNG FRENCH LORDS | Who serve with Bertram in Florence |
| A PAGE |
Plot Summary
Act I: Helena, ward of the Countess, loves Bertram hopelessly — he is noble-born, she is merely a physician's daughter. Bertram departs to the King's court. The Countess discovers Helena's love; Helena admits it and follows Bertram to court.
Act II: Helena uses her father's medical knowledge to cure the mysteriously ill King of France. As her reward, she asks to choose a husband from the court. She chooses Bertram, who is appalled: "A poor physician's daughter my wife! Disdain / Rather corrupt me ever!" The King orders the marriage. Bertram submits, but immediately sends Helena back to Rossillion and goes to war in Florence with Parolles.
Act III: Helena receives Bertram's letter: she is his wife in name only; he will not return to her until she has "the ring upon his finger and a son in her womb" — conditions he considers impossible. Helena fakes her own death and travels to Florence disguised as a pilgrim. There she meets Diana, who Bertram is pursuing. She proposes the bed-trick: Diana will pretend to agree to Bertram's advances, take his ancestral ring, and Helena will take Diana's place in the dark.
Act IV: The bed-trick is executed. Helena secretly arranges that Bertram will be recalled to France. Meanwhile, Parolles is exposed as a fraud and coward by his own companions.
Act V: In France, Helena presents Bertram's ring and announces she is pregnant — conditions met. Bertram, cornered, capitulates and claims to have loved her all along. Helena appears, alive. The King promises Diana a husband.
Key Themes
- Female will and desire — Helena is one of Shakespeare's most active heroines; she pursues what she wants against enormous odds
- The unheroic hero — Bertram is almost uniquely unsympathetic as a romantic male lead
- Virtue and class — the play tests whether noble blood or noble virtue constitutes true worth
- The bed-trick — morally troubling; the "happy ending" is purchased through deception
Notable Quotations
"The hind that would be mated by the lion / Must die for love." *(Helena, I.i)*
"Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, / Which we ascribe to heaven." *(Helena, I.i)*
LibriVox Recording
LibriVox has multilingual recordings of All's Well That Ends Well available in translation.
Cross-references
- Comedies — genre context; problem comedy
- Measure for Measure — another bed-trick; another problematic "resolution"
- The Merchant of Venice — the casket test as a condition of marriage