All's Well That Ends Well Criticism

All's Well That Ends Well | Criticism

  • Overview

    In this selection, Anne Barton postulates that the plot of All's Well That Ends Well is nothing out of the ordinary in its day—similar folk motifs and story elements could be found in the literature of other languages and in literature of the past. Barton also discusses the play's nostalgia for the past and the notion of honor as they pertain to the play's main characters.

  • Gender Issues and Desires

    In this selection, David McCandless examines Helena as a desiring subject wth the masculine gaze and the "masculine privilege of choice" in selecting Bertram for her husband. McCandless rejects the characterization of Helena as a "two-faced manipulative manhunter."

  • Bed-Trick/Marriage

    Eileen Cohen, in the first excerpt, examines how Helena and Isabella in, respectively, All's Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure, use the bed-trick as a disguise, and in doing so, these characters "reverse traditional female behavior, invert stereotypes, and turn apparent lechery into the service of marriage." In the second selection, Janet Adelman explores the male desire to sexually contaminate a pure woman (as played out in the character of Bertram in All's Well That Ends Well and Angelo in Measure for Measure), and how this is integral to the bed-trick and the unsustainability of marriage based on trickery. In the last excerpt, Mary Free examines how All's Well That Ends Well is unlike Shakespeare's other comedies through its central coupling (marriage) of Helena and Bertram.

  • Social Class

    In this excerpt, John M. Love examines how social rank "debases" Helena and Bertram and determines their fate as well as that of Parolles. He argues that the issue of social rank is pervasive throughout all of the action of the play.

  • Endings

    In this essay, Gerard Gross traces the events of the play leading up to its conclusion, especially emphasizing how we must have some sense of progress in the love between Helena and Bertram if we are to understand the end of the play.

  • Helena

    In the following excerpt, Robert Ornstein examines the characters of Helena and Bertram throughout the play, focusing primarily on Helena. He finds her more complex than Bertram, though she, like he, is somewhat self-absorbed in her own desires (hers is to become Bertram's wife).

  • Bertram

    In this excerpt, Richard Wheeler argues that examining the character of Bertram can "help identify unresolved tensions" in the play. Wheeler argues that Bertram finds his situation at court intolerable and has to escape, especially when forced into a marriage by the King, a father-figure, with the approval of his mother (in essence, his parents are forcing him to do something aganst his will). Bertram wants to experience the world, physically and sexually. Through Bertram's actions, Shakespeare orchestrates his ultimate retrieval.

  • Parolles

    In the following essay, David Ellis argues that Parolles is not a "corrupter of youth" and that Bertram is not under his spell. Parolles supports and encourages Bertram's misbehavior but is not the cause of it. Ellis also discusses how Lavache and Parolles both contain elements of the fool and the knave.

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