Summary of All’s Well That Ends Well
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Helena – The play’s heroine. The orphan daughter of a great doctor, she is the ward of the Countess of Rousillon, and hopelessly in love with the Countess’ son, Bertram. Her good qualities are attested to by nearly every character in the play, and events prove her a resourceful and determined woman, who is not easily discouraged
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Bertram’s companion is, by general agreement, a boastful, cowardly, treacherous character. Bertram’s unpleasant qualities have occasioned some critics to argue that it is Parolles who leads Bertram astray–that he is the villain of the piece. This, however, elevates Parolles higher than he deserves, raising him to the level of true Shakespearen evil, akin to Iago
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Like all of Shakespeare’s comedies, the plot of All’s Well That Ends Well is primarily concerned with bringing young people together in marriage. It is not, however, a romantic play: relations between the sexes are relentlessly demystified. The good characters, like Helena and Diana, are moral, defending female virtue and monogamy against the lechery of Parolles and the adulterous advances of
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Few of Shakespeare’s works offer such a sharp contrast between two generations. The older characters in the play are haunted by death–the Countess has lost a husband and is aging herself; Helena’s father has passed away; Lafew is infirm; Diana’s mother is, appropriately enough, a Widow; and the King is near death as the play
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Bertram, the son of a widowed countess sets off from Roussilon with his friend, Parolles, and the Lord Lafeu, to the French court. He is the ward of the French king. He is unaware that Helena, orphan daughter of the countess’ physician, raised in the household of the countess, is in love with him. The countess
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