Not one of my favourite plays by this author but interesting enough. A daughter of a physician saves the life of a king, and is rewarded by being married to one of his lesser sons. the boy, not a loveable fellow, runs off to avoid commitment, but is reconciled to the woman by a questionable act, on her part. The Shakespearian audience seems to have liked this work betterthan odern audiences do. ( )

A genius elsewhere, it's hard to figure what Shakespeare intended with All's Well That Ends Well. The concept itself is simple enough to understand: a man, Bertram, is forced to marry a woman, Helena, against his will. In order to consummate the marriage, Helena tricks him by means of pretending to be another woman, and so wins him over to her love in the play's happy ending.

This, of course, is a dubious through-line for a modern audience, but unlike other Shakespeare plays, it's hard to decree that the fault is in ourselves for not being open-minded enough. Whereas other plays can be reconciled to a modern audience by recognising that they consciously deploy satire for their apparent sexism (The Taming of the Shrew), or a whimsy that now seems embarrassing (A Midsummer Night's Dream), or values that now seem obsolete (any of those plays which show deference to a monarch), one looks at All's Well That Ends Well and is bemused. Crucially, Bertram and Helena lack depth, and it's difficult to get a handle on what Shakespeare intends to evoke. Is it a frivolous romp that hasn't aged well due to its outdated values? Is it a morality tale in which its young male lead gets a lesson in responsibility? Is it a satire that, by showing the absurdity of a man ordered to marry someone not of his choice but instead someone decreed by a patriarch, highlights the fact that this is what was expected of women of the time with no one raising an eyebrow? Or is it something else which – whether due to the play's failings or the reader's – is difficult to pin down?

I'm no closer to reaching an answer I like, and the closest I can come to commenting on the play with any confidence is by identifying one possible theme. That theme is love, and one could make the argument that neither Bertram nor Helena get to choose. Bertram, of course, is compelled by the king's decree, but Helena can't help falling in love with him. Both, in their ways, are slaves to love.

But it's hard to maintain this thematic sense throughout the play, which is confusing and fails to spark and makes a meal out of its relatively simple plot. As with everything Shakespeare, there's the potential of greater depth depending on how you interpret it (for example, Bertram could potentially be cast as homosexual, explaining both his reluctance to commit to Helena and his close friendship with Parolles), but the modern audience has to make great strains on the play's behalf in order to accept it. ( )

Not one of my favorites of the Bard. Perhaps our modern ways have ruined this one, but for the life of me, I don't see why Helena is so taken with Bertram. He's an arrogant ass. You can do better, Helena, shame on you. Now I have to watch some performances of it, to see if they enlighten or enhance. ( )

There should be a rating for “a lot of fun to read, but boy oh boy”.

If you want to read Measure for Measure but they do the bed trick on our hero not our villain, or Measure for Measure but don't we all agree that Lucio is the absolute worst man in the world?, or Measure for Measure but actually let's not examine any systems of power-- well here’s the tonally confusing play for you. ( )

39. All’s Well that Ends Well by William Shakespeare
written: 1st known copy is First Folio in 1623, but usually dated 1603-1606
format: 280-page Signet Classic paperback
acquired: June
read: Jul 5 – Aug 7
time reading: 9:40, 2.7 mpp
rating: 4
locations: France and Florence
about the author: April 23, 1564 – April 23, 1616

[[Sylvan Barnet]] – series (c1963, 1965, 1988, 2005)
Sources
[[William Painter]] – from [The Palace of Pleasure] (3rd edition, 1575)
criticism
[[Samuel Johnson]] – from [14008561::The Plays of William Shakespeare] (1765)
[[M. C. Bradbrook]] – from [Shakespeare and Elizabethan Poetry] (1951)
[[Joseph Westlund ]]– Longing, Idealization and Sadness In All’s Well that Ends Well (1984)
[[Bruce Smith]] – What Doing it In the Dark, Without Words, Tells Us About Early Modern Sexuality (2005)
[[Sylvan Barnet]] – All’s Well that Ends Well on stage and screen

short version: Shakespeare‘s heroin scores an unwilling, promiscuous, maybe syphilic, but upperclass husband and tricks him into impregnating her.

Possibly titled Love's Labour Won at some point, this a problem play in that it's a comedy, but not exactly. It involves a flipping of gender roles, and bed trick. Here the heroin, Helena, choses the husband, and he, Bertram, rejects her sexually. Hence the bed trick. Helena takes the place of Bertram's desired mistress in bed, in the dark, without him ever knowing. (Which says?) Anyway, Helena plays the tricks, marries her unreachable man, and then gets pregnant by him, then finally gets him to commit. Happiness seems very unlikely.

2021
https://www.librarything.com/topic/333774#7601694 ( )