All's Well That Ends Well Summary William Shakespeare
Everything you need to understand or teach
All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare.
Products may contain comprehensive summaries, analysis, notes, articles, essays,
lesson plans and more. See below for details on what is included.
Biography Essay"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer,...
Read more
The English playwright, poet, and actor William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is generally acknowledged to be the greatest of English writers and one of the most extraordinary creators in human history.The ...
Read more
Considered by critics, scholars, and the theater-going public the most important dramatist in the history of English literature, William Shakespeare occupies a unique position in the pantheon of great...
Read more
"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer, in English or ...
Read more
William Shakespeare's reputation is based primarily on his plays. With the partial exception of the Sonnets (1609), quarried since the early nineteenth century for autobiographical secrets allegedly ...
Read more
In the following essay, Ornstein surveys the plot and principal characters of All's Well That Ends Well.
It is not easy to say why Shakespeare wanted to write a play about characters as limited...
Read more
In the following essay, Levin argues that Helena accomplishes her goals in All's Well That Ends Well through guile and deceit, thus contributing to the play's categorization as a “...
Read more
In the following essay, McCandless sees Helena as a compelling romantic heroine whose chastity and sexual passion are inseparable elements of her character and important components of the play'...
Read more
In the following essay, Erickson examines Helena's disruption of the patriarchal order in All's Well That Ends Well.
One of the most striking features of All's Well That Ends Well...
Read more
In the following essay, McCandless analyzes All's Well That Ends Well's concern with sexuality, and the importance of Helena's bed-trick to “the play's provocative i...
Read more
In the following essay, Hall investigates Helena's “upwardly mobile” desire in All's Well That Ends Well, contending that “her actions restore the very patriarchy wh...
Read more
In the following essay, Dash discusses the subject of women's sexual options within the patriarchal society of All's Well That Ends Well.
How might one do, sir, to lose it to her own lik...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Wheeler examines the comic patterns of All's Well That Ends Well, claiming that they “radically change the comic spirit of All's Well from that of earlie...
Read more
In the following essay, Kastan explores the problematic view of comedy presented in All's Well That Ends Well.
Renaissance theories of comedy generally stress its moral function: “Comedy...
Read more
In the following essay, Miola studies Shakespeare's adaptation of Latin New Comedy in All's Well That Ends Well.
We are all familiar with the traditional understanding of sources: a sour...
Read more
In the following essay, Free maintains that despite its conformity to comic formulae, comedy is thwarted in All's Wells That Ends Well through the play's representation of the power dyna...
Read more
In the following essay, Leggatt explores the tension between elements of romance and elements of realism in All's Well That Ends Well, noting that this tension is never resolved and therefore l...
Read more
In the following essay, Hill explores how familial relations and marriage eventually enable Bertram to assume his proper role within the comic plot of All's Well That Ends Well.
Shakespeare�...
Read more
In the following essay, Bassnett-McGuire suggests that All's Well That Ends Well reflects post-Reformation views of the marriage contract and also comments on the individual's relationsh...
Read more
In the following essay, Simonds examines several matrimonial texts that were available to Shakespeare and his contemporaries in order demonstrate how Shakespeare's audience might have reacted t...
Read more
In the following essay, Nevo asserts that All's Well That Ends Well should not be classified as a problem play since its structure resembles that of Shakespeare's earlier maturation come...
Read more
In the following essay, Brennan discusses Helena in relation to the notion of time in All's Well That Ends Well, noting that she alone of the young people in the play has a strong connection wi...
Read more
In the following essay, Roark asserts that Lavatch is an indicator of the failure of All's Well That Ends Well, noting that “[the fool fails to serve in the same way the play fails to se...
Read more
In the following essay, Snyder probes the characterization of Helena as a sexually aggressive woman through instances of indirect and suppressed speech in the play.
I'm going to move into my sp...
Read more
In the following essay, Asp focuses on the reversal of power—inspired by Helena's desire—that allows Helena to succeed in her plans to win Bertram.
“That man should be at a...
Read more
In the following essay, Hodgdon examines the gender theme on a structural level, revealing how Shakespeare's use of the various instances of doubling and substitution—most notably in the...
Read more
In the following essay, McCandless focuses on the evolving gender roles of Helena and Bertram in All's Well That Ends Well, discussing Shakespeare's handling of the bed trick as a tool f...
Read more
In the following essay, Ranald discusses the nature of Elizabethan matrimonial contracts in order to elucidate the marriage theme of All's Well That Ends Well.
Of Shakespeare's three so-...
Read more
In the following essay, Halio examines the sources, dramatic structure, and characters of All's Well That Ends Well, and contends that although fascinating and complex, the play is a failure.
C...
Read more
In the following essay, Bennett investigates the various comic techniques Shakespeare employed in All's Well That Ends Well, and argues that the play is more a comedy than a romance.
All...
Read more
In the following essay, Bergeron examines the theme of healing in All's Well That Ends Well, focusing on Helena's physical healing of the King and the metaphorical healing of Bertram and...
Read more
In the following essay, Silverman examines the dual nature of the play's structure, demonstrating the way the comedic action of All's Well That Ends Well moves from simple and naï...
Read more
In the following essay, Hunt explores the disintegration of the relationship between language and action in All's Well That Ends Well.
Were playgoers to judge from the King of France's r...
Read more
In the following essay, Parker suggests linkages between characters, scenes, and themes in All's Well That Ends Well, arguing that the sexual terms “increase” and “dilation...
Read more
In the following essay, Huston studies the way Parolles, with his unchanneled youthful energy, draws attention to Shakespeare's development of the idea that the energy of society's youth...
Read more
In the following essay, Richard traces Shakespeare's transition from comedies of plot to tragedies of character through an examination of the comedic villains of the problem plays, focusing in ...
Read more
In the following essay, Cook assesses Shakespeare's portrayal of Helena in All's Well That Ends Well, contending that she generates and resolves a major portion of the play's acti...
Read more
In the following review, Dodsworth discusses Peter Hall's production of All's Well That Ends Well, describing it as deeply powerful and moving.
Its unattractive young hero—silly, ...
Read more
In the following review, Gerard assesses the New York Shakespeare Festival production of All's Well That Ends Well directed by Richard Jones. Gerard comments that the production emphasized the ...
Read more
In the following review, Brustein examines the New York Shakespeare Festival production of All's Well That Ends Well directed by Richard Jones, noting that Jones's tragicomic approach em...
Read more
In the following review, Lindop offers a rather negative appraisal of Matthew Lloyd's production of All's Well That Ends Well, commenting on the production's lack of emotional war...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Smallwood examines Irina Brook's production of All's Well That Ends Well, finding that the director failed in her attempt to create a setting in which the play&...
Read more
In the following essay, Thomas stresses Shakespeare's deeply ambiguous treatment of honor and virtue in All's Well That Ends Well and claims that the play features a clash of personal an...
Read more
In the following essay, Dennis discusses the religious themes of fidelity and divine love in All's Well That Ends Well.
Dr. Johnson's criticism of All's Well that Ends Well has ne...
Read more
In the following essay, Shapiro examines the theme of mutual redemption derived from self-knowledge in All's Well That Ends Well.
Toward the end of his Introduction to the New Arden edition of ...
Read more
In the following essay, Bergeron focuses on All's Well That Ends Well's allusions to the tumultuous affair of the classical gods of love and war, Venus and Mars, and associates these fig...
Read more
In the following essay, Simpson probes the psychological and thematic function of loss, grief, and mourning in All's Well That Ends Well.
Mourning over the loss of something that we have loved ...
Read more
In the following essay, Hapgood studies Parolles as a representation of shame in All's Well That Ends Well and notes that the character sacrifices honor in favor of unrestrained living.
The wit...
Read more
In the following essay, Snyder examines the diverse critical assessments of All's Well That Ends Well's Helena from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries.
All's Well that Ends Wel...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Haley interprets All's Well That Ends Well as a moral play depicting Bertram's path to self-discovery and his transcendence of a courtly “crisis of honor...
Read more
In the following essay, Friedman focuses on the tension between Bertram's individualized sexual desires and the social necessity of legitimate procreation portrayed in All's Well That En...
Read more
In the following essay, Schork claims that All's Well That Ends Well's Parolles is a clever adaptation of several stock types from Roman New Comedy: the cowardly braggart soldier, the cr...
Read more
In the following review of director Richard Clifford's 2003 staging of All's Well That Ends Well at the Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C., Marks finds the production conventional, drab,...
Read more
In the following review, Wolf suggests that director Gregory Doran's 2003 Royal Shakespeare Company production of All's Well That Ends Well at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon was...
Read more
In the following review, Carnegy lauds director Gregory Doran's 2003 production of All's Well That Ends Well at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, highlighting outstanding performa...
Read more
In the following essay, Calderwood surveys the principal themes and ambiguous conclusion of All's Well That Ends Well.
Perhaps the most problematic of the so-called "problem plays,...
Read more
In the following essay, Gross analyzes the ending of All's Well That Ends Well, and addresses the debate abut whether the audience should receive the convention of a "happy ending"...
Read more
In the following essay, Cartelli suggests that the "problematic" ending of All's Well That Ends Well was purposely created by Shakespeare to prompt the audience to recognize its r...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Zitner examines the contemporary social conventions that underscore the action of All's Well That Ends Well.
All's Well opens with a social thunderclap which ha...
Read more
In the following essay, Berkeley and Keesee study the treatment Shakespeare gives to the cross-class marriage in All's Well That Ends Well, and suggest Helena's position may reflect circ...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Price analyzes the structure and exposition of All's Well That Ends Well, and argues that the play is excellently balanced.
What is the nature of All's Well tha...
Read more
In the following essay, Warren maintains that the personal emotions found in Shakespeare's sonnets provide some explanation of the puzzling conclusion of All's Well That Ends Well.
An ex...
Read more
In the following essay, Honigmann considers All's Well That Ends Well as a play that examines the consequences of female dominance, and studies Helena as an aggressive female character.
Shakesp...
Read more
In the excerpt below, Westlund examines the character of Helena, particularly in regards to her longing for Bertram, and her sexuality.
The play most often defines character and action, like the langu...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Neely argues that as a "problem play, " an often corrupt sexuality, rather than romantic love, drives action and informs imagery, language, character, and plot ...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Williamson explores All's Well that Ends Well in light of the social and legal conventions used to control desire in the younger generations of the seventeenth century...
Read more
In the following essay, Bly examines the role the bedtrick plays in defining Helena as an uncommon Renaissance heroine.
Renaissance comedies of love are inherently both erotic and chaste. They must be...
Read more
In the following essay, Donaldson examines the numerous "endings" throughout the play, and argues that All's Well That Ends Well is more complex than it first seems.
All's ...
Read more
In this essay, Wheeler contends that, unlike the festive comedies, All's Well That Ends Well "presents an action in which parental figures are closely and actively involved in the steps ...
Read more
In the following essay, Mukherji studies the legal and contractual obligations of Renaissance marriage dramatized in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well.
Having wed Helena at the kin...
Read more
In the following essay, Adelman centers on Shakespeare's handling of the bed tricks in All's Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure and examines the plays' depictions of marr...
Read more
Ruth Nevo, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
All's Well That Ends Well has been classified among the problem comedies, perhaps mainly because Bertram has failed to captivate; he has been found ev...
Read more
In the following essay, Asp analyzes the character of Helena in All's Well That Ends Well, maintaining that her motivations and actions point toward a re-evaluation of female desire and a criti...
Read more
On April 23, of 2006, I traveled in to Boston to watch the Actor's Shakespeare's Project and their rendition of "All's Well That Ends Well." Going in with a weeks worth of previous knowledge on the pl...
Read more
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
Critical Essay by Robert Ornstein
"All's Well That Ends Well"
