All's Well That Ends Well focuses on what makes a marriage work. Helena is in love with Bertram from the very beginning of the play, and although she recognizes that her class status makes her an inappropriate match, she seeks to marry him anyway. In modern day America, marriage across classes is a common enough affair, so that Helena's low-born status may seem a superficial reason for Bertram's refusal of her. Certainly, the play makes Bertram himself into a superficial, vain, and arrogant young nobleman. But the class difference between the two is significant to Bertram, Helena, and the society in which they live. What other barriers, in addition to class distinction, exist in our own society?

When Helena wins Bertram in marriage, it is as though the play reaches a fairy-tale ending to soon. She has her Prince Charming, but he is not charming at...