SOURCE: Bergeron, David M. “The Structure of Healing in All's Well That Ends Well.” South Atlantic Bulletin 37, no. 4 (November 1972): 25-34.

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 Parolles.

Since the time of W. W. Lawrence's Shakespeare's Problem Comedies numerous critics and interpreters of All's Well That Ends Well have written about the structure of the play. An excellent summary of the various critical approaches is found in Joseph Price's recent book in which Price also offers his own view: “He [Shakespeare] has unified the play through its structure: the play is tightly knit through parallels, parodies, anticipations, and commentaries.”¹ From a different viewpoint Professor Toole argues that “the structure of the play is based on a humanistic modification of the structure of the morality...