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All's Well That Ends Well

by William Shakespeare, Paul Werstine, Barbara A. Mowat

3.6 of 5 stars 3.60 · rating details · 5,859 ratings · 195 reviews

FOLGER Shakespeare Library

The world's leading center for Shakespeare studies

Each edition includes:

� Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play

� Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

� Scene-by-scene plot summaries

� A key to famous lines and phrases

� An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language

� An...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published December 27th 2005 by Simon & Schuster (first published 1605)

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Apr 14, 2010 Kimberly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ALright, obviously I am biased - being that I will be playing the heroine May through September...but before all that, when I first read this play last winter it became my favorite play by Shakespeare. This is the best edition f the play, and has a brilliant introduction. Helena is the first female physician ever created, and her strength, daring, and unabashed lack of self-respect where her feelings for Bertram are concerned make her a fascinating subject and a great role model in many ways.
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Mar 01, 2013 Barbara rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was reading a free Kindle download of "All's Well That Ends Well". It read as though Shakespeare was making up Latinate words on the run (some which have been reinvented or have evolved a quite different meaning) and pointlessly torturing syntax. I know those are the sorts of things he liked to get up to but I'd never had so much trouble understanding him. As the early scenes are set at courts, I was guessing also that the linguistic showing off was meant to indicate that we were observing a...more

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Feb 17, 2013 V rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the performance last night, and it actually exceeded my expectations. After reading various play summaries, I thought it would actually be quite dry and very complicated. But the actors were terrific and made the play very enjoyable and understandable.

I agree with critics that is hard to believe what Helena would pursue Bertram with such vigor for he was such a jerk. Helena certainly was crafty getting Bertram’s ring and becoming pregnant.

I found the play really funny – there wa...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Amalie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: plays

I'm a fan of Shakespeare but I'm certainly not biased in addding my thoughts.

I periodically pick up Shakespeare's plays to soak into that timeless wisdom and entertainment and it's only rarely that I find myself to be I disappointed like with The Taming of the Shrew, certainly not a "timeless" entertainment but pretty much time-bound, only the Elizabethan audience could've enjoyed it but compared to this one I'd say, The Taming of the Shrew is a better Elizabethan humour/comedy.

All's Well That...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Chelsea rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama

All’s Well that Ends Well is a quasi-comedy of Shakespeare’s. I say quasi-comedy because, although it technically has a happy ending, the tone is definitely not keeping in line with the comic gener, especially Shakespeare’s comdey. The story is of the young maiden Helena. Helena’s father, a physician for the Count Rossillion, has just died and the King is ill. Helena goes to court to cure the king with a special sure her father possessed. At this same time, the Countess’s son Bertram (whose fath...more All’s Well that Ends Well is a quasi-comedy of Shakespeare’s. I say quasi-comedy because, although it technically has a happy ending, the tone is definitely not keeping in line with the comic gener, especially Shakespeare’s comdey. The story is of the young maiden Helena. Helena’s father, a physician for the Count Rossillion, has just died and the King is ill. Helena goes to court to cure the king with a special sure her father possessed. At this same time, the Countess’s son Bertram (whose father has also just died) goes to court to enlist in the service of the king. When Helena cures the King, the king tells her to pick whomever she desires as a husband. Of course, Helena is in love with Bertram, and she picks Bertram for the kings offer. However, Bertram can’t stand Helenaso he goes away to war without consummating the marriage. Helena, realizing that he’s run away from her, follows him. Bertram has written Helena a letter saying he will only return to her when she can get the family ring off his finger (hard when he’s far away at war) and is pregnant with his child (hard when you haven’t slept together). Helena, with the help of her friend Diana, tricks Bertram at night and gets him to sleep with her and give her the ring from his finger. In the end, Bertram is still with Helena, Helena is pregnant with his child, and alls well that ends well.

I found Helena INCREDIBLY annoying. Like, really, really annoying. So much so that I wrote an entire paper about it for my Shakespeare class. First of all, she is ridiculously manipulative. Secondly, she’s headstrong to a fault. I don’t know how many times Bertram tells Helena that she wants nothing to do with her, but she just won’t take the hint. Furthermore, she goes through great lengths to force Bertram in to being with her. Its entrapment. I know quite a few people who disagree, who see Bertram as a foolish boy who is deliberately avoiding his responsibilities. However, I see him as an unfortunate man with his back against the wall and nowhere to go but into a marriage that he hates or run to a war he doesn’t particularly care to fight. It’s frustrating to watch him do all he can to deliver the message to a girl that refuses to hear it. True, a lot of times we champion the woman who knows what she wants and pursues her goals to whatever end possible. However, in the case of love, or, in the case of Helena’s love for Bertram, sometimes too much is too much. The only positive thing about the play was its explorations of questions about marriage, love, and what it takes to make a person recognize their faults.
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Aug 26, 2011 Molly rated it 5 of 5 stars

I studied the play this summer at graduate school and wrote on it extensively. Helen is an interesting protagonist and though I argued in a 15-page paper that she is a strong willed woman, I'm not entirely confident that she is... The more I studied HER the more curious I was about Bertram. Would definitely like to see an updated movie version to watch the bed-trick unfold...

Helen is a problem product of one of Shakespeare’s problem plays. Aggressive yet passive, intellectual yet subservient, in...more

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Jan 07, 2011 Charles Matthews rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Time for another run-through of Shakespeare's plays. The last time I did this, I wrote an article for the Mercury News about reading all the plays in alphabetical order, which meant I had to start with All's Well That Ends Well. I called it one of Shakespeare's worst plays, which rather shocked an academic friend of mine who is uneasy about such critical judgments. So I promised myself that this time around I wouldn't start out with such a harshly prejudicial point of view.

I still hold that if y...more

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Sep 30, 2010 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

Enertaining, although much darker than most of Shakespeare's other comedies.

In reading most of the reviews I'm just a little surprised on how one-sided the views of Betram are. Obviously, Bertram has many character flaws. However, I think that a case can be made that he is not as big of a jerk as the play is set up to portray him as. He is young, and as a result of his youth makes some serious mistakes. But can we truly fault him for not loving Helena? It may seem incomprehensible that he would...more

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Jun 04, 2010 Rowland Bismark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The date of composition for All's Well That Ends Well is uncertain. Our earliest copy of the play appears in the Folio of 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, so other clues must be sought in order to date the work. The most common datin places it between 1601 and 1606, grouping it with Troilus and Cressida and Measure for Measure in what are typically referred to as Shakespeare's problem comedies. All three share a dark, bitter wit and an unpleasant view of human relation s that contras...more The date of composition for All's Well That Ends Well is uncertain. Our earliest copy of the play appears in the Folio of 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, so other clues must be sought in order to date the work. The most common datin places it between 1601 and 1606, grouping it with Troilus and Cressida and Measure for Measure in what are typically referred to as Shakespeare's problem comedies. All three share a dark, bitter wit and an unpleasant view of human relation s that contrasts sharply with earlier, sunnier comedies like Twelfth Night and As You Like It. The darker sensibility is embodied, this theory argues, in the coarse pragmatism surrounding sexual intercourse in All's Well and the obvi ous difficulties of rejoicing about a "happy ending" that unites such an ill-suited couple as Helena and Bertram.

An alternative dating, held by a minority of critics, places the play's writing in 1598 or earlier, and associates it with a "lost play" called Love's Labour Won, which is listed in a 1598 catalogue of Shakespeare's plays but has never been seen or mentioned elsewhere. All's Well, it is argued, matches the title of this work admirably--Helena "labours" to gain her love, and wins. Supporters of this dating claim that All's Well is likely an edited or reworked version that Shakespeare published at a later date.

In either case, the source for the story is more obvious--it is derived, more or less directly, from the ninth story of the third day of Boccaccio'sDecameron, a classic of early Renaissance literature written between 1348 and 1358. The work, and the story in question, were translated into English in the mid-16th century by William Painter as The Palace of Pleasure, and it was this version that Shakespeare probably drew upon. Typically, Shakespeare altered and reshaped the original text to create a richer story, adding characters like Lafew, the Countess, and Parolles while keeping essential elements like the bed-trick and the war in Florence in place.

The critical reception of All's Well has always been mixed, with both critics and audiences often sharing the displeasure with Helena's choice of Bertram. Its reputation has revived significantly in recent years, but it remains an unpopular and little-performed play.

All's Well That Ends Well is often described as a "dark" or "problem" play, distinguished from the earlier, more cheerful comedies by unpleasant characters and a sophisticated bitterness toward human relations, all capped off with a "happy ending" that is nothing of the sort. In part, these criticisms are unfair. The characters in general are a pleasant group, distinguished either by the wisdom of experience (the King of France, Lafew, the Countess) or by basic decency and good intentions (Diana, the First Lord and Second Lord Dumaine). The only truly unsympathetic figure in the supporting cast is Parolles, who is less a villain than a comically value- free rogue. The ending, while unsatisfactory to our sensibilities, seems to please the characters, and the play is far from being a tragedy.

There are unpleasant themes percolating amid the comedy, however. Specifically, the gloom of decay and old age hangs heavily over the older characters, none of whom seem to have long to live. At the same time, for a play ostensibly concerned with romance, All's Well takes a harshly cynical view of sexual love. We expect coarse humor from characters like the Clown, who exist to provide smutty comic relief, and cynics like Parolles, but even the romantic heroine, Helena, indulges in sexual banter, and has a low opinion of male sexual behavior in general. This view is justified, the play suggests, since the successful central deception, the bedroom switch that enables Helena to become pregnant by her husband, Bertram, and thus force him to stay by her side, hinges on the fact that in the dark, all women are alike to men.

Just as significant in analyzing the unpleasant effect of the play on the reader/audience are the facts of the central "romance," if we can call it that. Shakespearean audiences have to accept great women picking men who are unworthy of them (Portia and the fortune-hunter Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice; Hero and the feckless Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing, and many others), but it is extremely difficult to reconcile oneself to a romantic lead as odious as Bertram, who abandons Helena, tries to seduce an innocent woman, and only turns repentant in the play's final scene. We may be meant to perceive him as salvageable in some way, and to expect that he will mature in marriage, but the play gives us only a few hints of this, preferring to focus on his obvious flaws.

The resourceful Helena, meanwhile, loved by everyone (save for Bertram), cuts a far more appealing figure. However, her relentless pursuit of a man who is obviously unworthy of her has the unfortunate effect of diminishing her appeal as the play goes on. Nothing stands in Helena's way as she determinedly pursues the man she loves, and while we may admire her, by the time she appears to triumphantly show Bertram how he has been tricked, we no longer like her as much as we did--and our opinion of her good taste, after so long watching her chase a cad, is all but gone. The final scene demands that we celebrate the triumph of love--but it seems less a fariy-tale ending than a cynically contrived close to a cynical comedy, in which true love takes a back seat to manipulation.(less)

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Feb 13, 2010 Kristopher rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, re-read, play

Shakespeare's comedies just don't thrive the page like his tragedies.

I read this right before seeing a production of it by the American Shakespeare Company. While I read Parolles' overblown speeches and Latvach's clever puns, I knew they were supposed to be funny, but I didn't really laugh until I saw them acted out on stage. Not just the physical slapstick needs to be seen to be appreciated, but normal jokes need to be heard. A lot of how funny a joke is depends on how it's delivered.

Of cours...more

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Jun 09, 2011 Alyssa rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found this play to be quite a delightful read although I must admit I did struggle with some of the plot. However first readings of Shakespeare are often slightly confusing for me and it is only through rereading or discussion that I am able to more fully understand any of his plays. I have not read many of his comedies, but I always find them enjoyable and this was no exception. The character development was not as clear or as full as in some of his other plays, but as a light play I'm not su...more

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Dec 06, 2012 Chris Moorhead rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare

PLOT SUMMARY

A young woman (Helena) has become secretly besotted with the son (Count Bertram) of the Countess who has become her adopted mother after the death of her father, a renowned man of medicine. When Bertram must leave to become ward to the invalid King of France, Helena becomes very upset and reveals her feelings to the Countess. Prior to this, Helena had been working on a cure for the King's illness using her father's medical notes and resolves to join Bertram in the King's court and cu...more PLOT SUMMARY

A young woman (Helena) has become secretly besotted with the son (Count Bertram) of the Countess who has become her adopted mother after the death of her father, a renowned man of medicine. When Bertram must leave to become ward to the invalid King of France, Helena becomes very upset and reveals her feelings to the Countess. Prior to this, Helena had been working on a cure for the King's illness using her father's medical notes and resolves to join Bertram in the King's court and cure the King of his malady. After some convincing, the King consents to let her try and she successfully cures him. As her reward, she requests that she be married to Bertram and that the King use his power to arrange this marriage. Bertram, however, finds such a union highly distasteful due to the fact Helena is a commoner.

In an attempt to escape his unwanted wife, Bertam flees with some companions to the Florentine Wars in order to serve the Duke of Florence (France's allies) as a commander of war. En route, he sends a letter to his mother in which states that he will not ever return to France unless he no longer has a wife there. He also states that Helena would never be his true wife until she wore his ring and bore his child and that he would never do either. Helena, distrait about placing her beloved into the dangers of battle, vows to leave France so that Bertram might return home to safety.

Unknown to all, Helena has formed a plan to satisfy the conditions of marriage that her so-called husband has placed upon her so that she might win him again. Meanwhile, in Florence, Bertram, who does not consider himself married, has begun courting a young lady (Diana) whom he wishes to sleep with. Diana holds her reputation very highly and does not wish to succomb to Bertram's amorous intentions. Bertram, so wound up with desire, finally agrees to an exchange of rings, giving Diana a precious family heirloom that she estimates as being just as valuable to Bertram as her virginity is to her own family honour. Diana's ring is to remind Bertram of the covenant they made. Word reaches Bertram that Helena has died whilst undertaking a holy pilgramage and, after explaining to Diana that his wife is no longer living, Diana consents to one hour of passion with her suitor.

Back in France, the Countess and her court mourn the news of Helena's death while at the same time celebrating the news of the end of the war and the impending return of her son. The Countess and one Lord Lafeu start making wedding plans for Bertram, this time he is to be wedded to Lafeu's beautiful daughter. The King of France has forgiven Bertram for abandoning his first wife, Helena, putting his failure to recognise the value of a good wife down to the folly of youth. Bertram and his company return home from Florence and he is informed of the wedding plans made in his absence, which he finds much more preferable to him than his first marriage. The King, however, notices that Bertram wears a ring that could only have been one the King had given to Helena as a wedding gift. The Countess and Lafeu confirm that they have seen Helena wear it often and that it was very valuable to her. The King begins to suspect that Bertram has murdered Helena to escape her and orders that he be imprisoned.

These proceedings are interrupted by a petitioner that calls for the King's justice in a matter concerning Bertram. His former lover, Diana, and her widowed mother enter and accuse Bertram of forsaking promises of marriage, presenting the ring he had given Diana in exchange for her maidenhood. Dismayed, Lafeu states that he will find a better son in law. To her grief, the Countess immediately recognises the ring that Diana possesses as the one that has been handed down through six generations of her family. Although this places Bertram in even more trouble, he tells the King that the ring on his own hand was given to him by Diana, immediately placing suspicion of Helena’s death upon her. The King orders for Diana to be taken to prison instead, but Diana pleads that she is allowed a witness to be brought to them. To everyone’s shock and amazement, Helena is admitted to their company. She then begins to reveal her scheme to all, how she faked her own death, befriended Diana and her mother, bid Diana extract Bertram’s ring from him and took her place in the bedchamber with Bertram. Since Helena now possesses his ring and bears his child, she demands that their marriage be reforged once again. Dumbfounded, Bertram can only consent.
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Apr 12, 2010 Chris rated it 2 of 5 stars

I periodically pick up my Shakespeare anthology to soak in the timeless wisdom, and rarely am I disappointed. But there's a first time for everything. I suppose even Shakespeare slipped into prosaic demagoguery every once in a while in order to set his barbs deeper into the more vulgar members of the adoring public. All's Well That Ends Well didn't pack the same punch with an undercurrent of meaning that I look for in grandfather Bill's bottom lines. It was a fun, unpredictable story that made g...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Bram rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-bard, 2011

Where can you go after writing Hamlet? Only into the bitterest depths of irony and nihilism, apparently. All’s Well That Ends Well is part of the problem play trilogy that followed soon after the Danish Prince’s demise and Malvolio’s humiliation, and it appears on the surface to be less twisted than both Troilus and Cressida and Measure for Measure. But don’t be fooled. Shakespeare plays one of his greatest tricks on the audience here, achieving something difficult and deeply unsatisfying, which...more Where can you go after writing Hamlet? Only into the bitterest depths of irony and nihilism, apparently. All’s Well That Ends Well is part of the problem play trilogy that followed soon after the Danish Prince’s demise and Malvolio’s humiliation, and it appears on the surface to be less twisted than both Troilus and Cressida and Measure for Measure. But don’t be fooled. Shakespeare plays one of his greatest tricks on the audience here, achieving something difficult and deeply unsatisfying, which probably explains this play’s lack of staging popularity.

See, we like Helena. Shakespeare wins our sympathy for her early and often, but he also has her fall in love with Bertram, one of the shallowest d-bags the Bard has to offer. Harold Bloom points out that nearly all Shakespeare’s women marry beneath themselves, but the Helena-Bertram coupling might be the most egregious in the canon. Even so, why is this such a problem for the audience? Well, the plot focuses almost entirely on Helena’s pursuit of Bertram via means elaborate and occasionally of questionable ethics (but we don’t care because we like Helena!), and we can’t help but root for her success. Yet—and here’s the trick—this success wins her the shittiest prize ever, someone that will make her life miserable. I’m not exaggerating. Bertram wants nothing to do with Helena and tells her as much at regular interval. He’s a hopelessly immature, warmongering slut, hanging around with the scoundrel Parolles, who manages to be more relatable (if not likable) than Bertram following his acceptance of public disgrace and dispossession. But we’ve probably all had a friend like Helena, someone whose “imagination / Carries no favour in’t but Bertram’s”, who falls for someone we can’t stand. Such is life, such is love.

And it’s worse. Helena knows that Bertram is bad news:

“But, O strange men!
That can such sweet use make of what they hate,
When saucy trusting of the cozen’d thoughts
Defiles the pitchy night; so lust doth play
With what it loathes for that which is away.”

And yet she keeps holding on to that belief: all’s well that ends well. Ah, but who else can believe it? So bitter, Shakespeare!
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Jan 04, 2011 Marion rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

THis is considered to be one of Shakespeare's problem plays and having listened to it on CD, I can understand why. The plot is a challenge to follow. It's supposed to be a comedy, but when you think about what is happening in the plot with lots of lying, deception, characters working angles, and impure motives, it really isn't all that funny.

The first part of the play has some really funny lines and great observations about human interaction which redeems the time and energy spent on figuring ou...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Terence rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-plays-the-thing, shakespeare-stuff

For me All’s Well That Ends Well is an ironic title. At its conclusion, events appear to have concluded successfully but you can’t help but wonder how long anyone’s happiness is going to last. This is especially true in the case of Helena and Bertram. How likely is it that after five acts of boorish, callow and mendacious behavior Bertram will love Helena “dearly, ever, ever dearly” (Act 5, scene 3)? (I can only hope that, having grown up with him, Helena can see something worthwhile in Bertram...more

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Oct 25, 2010 Bryan Basamanowicz rated it 4 of 5 stars

I haven't read Shakespeare since high school, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to get much out of it. But the play and the supplemental content in the Signet edition proved to be both accessible and insightful.

My main reason for approaching Shakespeare was to find some explanation for 'the bard's' persistent presence in the academic study of literature. Why do so many readers still take time for this work?

From what I've read, inferred, and understood thus far, I believe Shakespeare's linger...more

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Sep 02, 2011 Indy rated it 4 of 5 stars

An entertaining Shakespeare comedy thats relatively easy to understand. The play is good for female characters, not only from a performing point of view, but also because the men don't really come out of the play that well at the end!
Not the funniest Shakespeare commedies I've read, but seeing as I've never seen this play performed as I have others I could be biased. Also this play was FULL of sexual innuendoes which after a while arent that funny any more. But then again, with good actors perfo...more

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Jul 15, 2011 Edward rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Coincidentally, just as I was reading ALL'S WELL, the NEW YORKER was reviewing this summer's Central Park production. For once, I wished I were in NYC during the summer. The NEW YORKER called it ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL LIGHT.
I had never read it before but it impressed me as anything but "light" or cheerful. It was written just before some of Shakespeare's major tragedies, and you can begin to see dark elements of life creeping in - aging, sickness, betrayal and disloyalty, and Bertram's Haml...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars

This play bears many similarities to Shakespeare's earlier and, in my opinion, better work "Measure for Measure" -- two women switch places when a man thinks he is sleeping with the other (the virgin); the play's title appears (in capital letters) as a line of dialogue; deception plays a key role. The best lines in the play are delivered comically by the clown ("It [his answer to the Countess' question] is like a barber's chair that fits all buttocks, the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the bra...more

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Feb 16, 2009 Mitchell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am reading this play with an eye toward understanding what is to me a mysterious phenomenom: the unpopular Shakespeare play.
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The clown Lavatch is tedious. The setting-up of Parolles is a paler version of the trick Poins and Prince Hal play on Falstaff, Bertam is exceedingly unappealing as the nominal hero and Helena's love for him is incomprehensible.

The play works better if you read it in terms of a fairy-tale, with good and virt...more

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Jul 31, 2011 ☯Emily rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama, classics

This is one of Shakespeare's more obscure plays and after reading it, I know why. There is really no character that is interesting. Helena is considered a worthy woman by other characters in the play, but is of low birth. In reality, she is an obsessive woman who will do anything to get the man of her dreams. However, the man of her dreams doesn't want her. He is a morally weak and intellectually deficient man, but is apparently a good-looking soldier who tries to seduce local girls in his free...more

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Sep 25, 2009 Kay Fair rated it 3 of 5 stars

Apparently, Helena lost her copy of He’s Just Not That Into You.

Personally, I caught the film version several months ago and frankly strongest impression I gathered from that hour-and-a-half-I’ll-never-get-back was a profound respect for Scarlet Johansen’s resistance (or inability) to conform with the Hollywood starlet size zero standard. I mean no offense to anyone out there who may have enjoyed it, I was simply never a fan of Sex and the City or any of its little pop culture spin-offs.

However,...more

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Jan 31, 2009 Laurele rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2009, arkangel-shakespeare-complete

This play by Shakespeare has a worrisome plot, but Shakespeare carries it off flawlessly and it does indeed end well. The Arkangel dramatization is , as usual, wonderful.

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Aug 13, 2011 Simon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

meh, just another woman who loves a man who doesn't love her back. Then she gets all depressed and schemes a plan to make him get her pregnant.

Was it that dark back then that the men could not see who they were having sex with?
And what on earth is with the clowns? They have popped up in a few plays and have nothing to contribute to the play. They are just fillers and can bore anyone. I do not find them funny, or entertaining, just there.

I admire the power of woman in the plays and how tragic ci...more

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Jun 05, 2011 Mark Bratkowski rated it 4 of 5 stars

Erin and I are going to see this play while we visit London this summer. I always like having excuses to read Shakespeare, because I rarely pick up a play for recreational reading. For one of Shakespeare's lesser known plays, I found it quite enjoyable. I kept trying to find reasons to like Bertram, but I found more reasons to dislike him as I continued reading. This kept my interest as well as the strong female character, Helena. Although, I did not like how all her efforts were directed toward...more

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Dec 08, 2012 Amerynth rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, play, read-2012, shakespeare

I found "All's Well that Ends Well" to be really uneven. Helena is in love with Bertram, who apparently hates her for no reason and treats her shabbily... apparently that's incredibly attractive. Of course, with the title the play has, you can guess it's all going to go swimmingly well for Helena even if she has to trick her way into it.

Actually, Helena was a pretty interesting character as far as Shakespeare's women go (but she was no Lady MacBeth.) However, there seemed to be a lot of filler c...more

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Jul 21, 2010 Katherine rated it 2 of 5 stars

I didn't enjoy this play as much as others I have read becuase it has a problem ending and not completely likeable characters. Instead of rooting for Helena to win Bertram's dedication, who she says she loves but only seems to have superficial reasons for, you almost want her to wake up and realize he isn't worth it. She seems to want him to be her husband the way one likes high heel shoes. They look good on, but hurt your feet. Bertram looks good, but treats her like crap. Regardless, she hatch...more I didn't enjoy this play as much as others I have read becuase it has a problem ending and not completely likeable characters. Instead of rooting for Helena to win Bertram's dedication, who she says she loves but only seems to have superficial reasons for, you almost want her to wake up and realize he isn't worth it. She seems to want him to be her husband the way one likes high heel shoes. They look good on, but hurt your feet. Bertram looks good, but treats her like crap. Regardless, she hatches a plan to get what she wants, saves the Kin's life and in return is rewarded with the King forcing Bertram to marry her. Again, she doesn't really seem to love Bertram, since she doesn't care if he is happy or forced into a marriage against his wishes. When he leaves without consumating their marriage and leaves a letter with a cowardly conditions of ever being her husband in good faith (wearing a ring her won't give her and being pregnant with is child when he ran away without sleeping with her) Helena again schemes to entrap her husband. One should note, Bertram is no better of a person. He is cowardly, cruel and quite happily goes off to seduce another young woman for the sport. Helena, discovering his intentions, plans the "bed-switch" and fools her husband into sleeping with her, unbeknownst to him, and accquiring his ring. She then fakes her own death in order to suprise Bertram in front of the court with the news she is pregnant, does have his ring and he has been duped. He is resigned that she has met the conditions which he set forth, and reconciles himself to marriage. The audience is left to assumer that the plays ends well with the married couple being well. However, the audience can easily see how this marraige was built on manipulation, no real emotional bond, and therefore, wonders, did it really end well? Wouldn't it have been better for Helena to realize Bertram's character was not as attrative as his appearance, she didn't really love him, and maybe decided to find a husband she actually liked? Because really, how long can the marriage last, or how much happiness if any can it bring? Its seems more of a temporary happy ending, where eventually the real ending will happen: Helena scored the painful shoes, wore them to a fancy party looked great for a few hours, but then ends up shoving them in the closer, never wears them again becuase of bad blisters. You always end up going for the comfy shoes long-term anyway...(less)

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May 18, 2012 Anna Serra i Vidal rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, theatre

That's been a rare choosing from my kid who wanted to read this, and I did humour her. She has not understood much but she has enjoyed some parts, and I a grateful for an opportunity to revise something I hadn't read since collage.
Helena is one of the best female role models in Shakespeare's plays. She is strong and daring and has an idea of her own and follows it no matter what the odds are. She works hard to get what she wants and after a long road full of misunderstandings and fake identitie...more

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Feb 17, 2012 Stuart Aken rated it 3 of 5 stars

How do you go about reviewing a work that must have been described, analysed and generally pulled apart by thousands of readers, writers, scholars and professional reviewers? Well, as I see it, the only thing to do is give a very personal opinion.

Shakespeare is, of course, our national bard, our cultural hero, if we write in English. So, the reviewer better beware if he says anything untoward. But I set myself a target and I'm determined to hit it. The target? As a writer, to read and review at...more How do you go about reviewing a work that must have been described, analysed and generally pulled apart by thousands of readers, writers, scholars and professional reviewers? Well, as I see it, the only thing to do is give a very personal opinion.

Shakespeare is, of course, our national bard, our cultural hero, if we write in English. So, the reviewer better beware if he says anything untoward. But I set myself a target and I'm determined to hit it. The target? As a writer, to read and review at least 52 books this year, all taken from my 'to read' list'. So, you have my motivation.

I have yet to read most of the Bard's work. What I've so far managed has been very good. But I can't say that for All's Well That Ends Well. It reads like an apprentice piece, almost as if it was written by a different author, in fact.

In common with much of his work, Shakespeare took the original plot from Boccaccio's Decameron and embellished it with his own characters and additions. But, for me, he hasn't done his usual magic here. I found much of the text tedious. There was little that made me laugh and a great deal that felt like unnecessary complication. In fact, the play, for me, would have worked much better without a number of the scenes; some of which seemed to have no bearing on the story at all.

Of course, the language is brilliant most of the time, of course the characters are written with the usual sureness of style and genius. But the whole doesn't quite add up to the parts in this one. Naturally, there is the ever present problem for a modern reader that certain references no longer have the meaning they did for the contemporary audience and this means that some of the jokes fall flat. Some of the words used have not been included in the staggering total of new words that Will added to our language and context is then the only clue to their meaning.

I was able to follow the story, the plot, relatively easily. But some of the characters failed to display the qualities they were reported to carry by their fellows. So, I could see no evidence, until the scene where he is hooded and tricked, of Parolles' reported wickedness. He came across as no more a villain than others in the play. Even his diatribe against Lafeu seemed relatively justified in light of the Old Lord's treatment of him. And it was difficult to understand Helena's infatuation for the superficial, opportunist and selfish Bertram.

So, not a play I'm likely to go out of my way to watch, though it's my personal experience that Shakespeare always comes alive when performed, especially by a good ensemble cast. I'm sorry if I've offended or upset the lovers of our national poet, amongst which I count myself, but this one was a disappointment.
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About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been tr...more William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. Scholars believe that he died on his fifty-second birthday, coinciding with St George’s Day. It is an interesting idea that English writer is so closely identified with the Patron Saint of England!

At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

According to historians, Shakespeare write 37 plays and 154 sonnets throughout the span of his life. Shakespeare's writing average was 1.5 plays a year since he first started writing in 1589. There have been plays and sonnets contributed to Shakespeare that were not authentically written by the great master of language and literature.
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Quotes from All's Well That Ends Well

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” — 19,107 people liked it

“Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech.” — 16 people liked it

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