Chaps. 21-23 Summary and Analysis

All's Well That Ends Well

pp. 345-357

The critic Dr. Samuel Johnson complains that Helena, after much work, marries Bertram, a useless man. This is one of the many mismatches that Shakespeare set up in his plays, where the women are usually smarter. The author notes that it is not important if these marriages are happy, because ironically the happiest marriage in Shakespeare is that of the murderers Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. All's Well That Ends Well is a fun play with the famous "bed trick" where Helena manages to conceive Bertram's child. The author notes the joke that for men, women are all the same in the dark. Helena becomes the heroine of this bittersweet comedy.

Measure for Measure

pp. 358-380

Measure for Measure begins with the Duke on holiday, and his deputy Angelo taking over Vienna. Soon...