Alls Well that Ends Well

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Alls Well that Ends Well

• Dr. Alan Haffa

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Act I

• Bertrams father dies and he must go to court
• Helen plans to cure the King to win his favor and
  ask for Bertram as a reward
• King sends lords off to fight in Florence/Siena
  war
• Countess and Fool talk about marriage and
  cuckoldry
• Countess encourages Helen

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Act II

• Helen appeals to King
• Helens Choice
• Parolles advises Bertram to abandon Helen and go
  to war
• He sends her to his mothers home and she obeys
• Refusal of a kiss.

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Act III

• Letters to Countess and Helen
• The Task set for Helen
• Helen laments the harm she has done and leaves
  for a Pilgrimage
• Helen meets Diana
• Parolles and the Druma plot to trick him
• Helen, Widow and Dianaa plot to trick Bertram

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Act IV

• Parolles captured and interrogated and revealed a
  traitor and coward
• Bertram solicits love from Diana the Ring.
• News that Helen has died on pilgrimage, yet
  Bertram still goes to meet Diana
• Countess agrees to marry Bertram to Lafews
  daughter after word of Helen dying.

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Act V

• Helen sends a letter to the King
• King forgives Bertram agrees to let him marry
  Lafews daughter
• He gives a Ring, which is recognized as the
  Kings, through Helen suspicion of murder
• Diana appears and claims to be Bertrams wife
  She has his ancestral Ring
• Helen appears and all is revealed and forgiven
  She has fulfilled Bertrams tasksring and
  pregnancy

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Question of Gender and Sexual Roles

• I.3 Why does the fool speak about cuckoldry as
  the common state of marriage? Female supremacy?
  
• He is speaking to the Countess, who appears to be
  a strong minded woman.
• At the end of the scene the Stewart arrives and
  tells the Countess that Helen loves her sonthe
  context of the preceding conversation appears to
  put this revelation into a compromising light.

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Question 2 Female Parallels for Helen

• Why is she likened to Joan of Arc?
• Why is she named Helencalling to mind Helen of
  Troy

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Question 3 Bertrams denial of Helen

• II.5 Why does Bertram swear never to sleep with
  his bride? The acceptable convention for a man
  in an arranged marriage was to sleep with the
  wife, have children with her, but have a
  mistress. His vehement denial seems to go beyond
  the norm for some reason. Could he and Parolles
  be gay?
• Contrast Marriage or War, II.5.295

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Question 4 How are Gender Roles Represented in
play?

• How do Helen and Bertram present themselves in
  terms of their gender roles?
• Farewell Kiss she cant ask for it directly as a
  woman so she asks for it as a negativeit is what
  enemies do NOT do.
• II,5,95. Helen Something and scarce so much
  nothing, indeed. I would not tell you what I
  would, my lord. Faith, yes strangers and foes
  do sunder and not kiss.

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Question 5 Is Helens deceit Ethical

• Can she be a heroine and use deceit to accomplish
  her objective of getting her man
• V.7.50 Helen, Why then tonight let us assay our
  plot, which if it speed, is wicked meaning in a
  lawful deed, and lawful meaning in a lawful act,
  where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact. But
  lets about it.

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Question 6

• What is the significance of the parallel
  deceitsParolles by the Lords and Bertram by
  Helen and Diana?
• Does it reinforce the mirror like parallel of the
  two men?

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Question 7

• IV.2 Does Bertram truly love Diana as he alleges?
  If so, why?
• Is it simply because he chooses her?
• Or is it because she resists him?
• Or, is it because she plays the expected role of
  the Sirenchaste female who is yet seductive?
  Madonna, Whore, Siren.

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Question 8 How Satisfying is the Ending?

• Can we imagine that these two will live happily
  ever after?
• Has Helen transformed Bertram from Beast into
  Prince Charming?
• Can she transform herself into the expected
  female rolesubmissive and obedient?
• Her words suggest that she will but her
  actionsthe total manipulation of Bertramsuggest
  otherwise.

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Summary

• Problem of Gender Roles as an obstacle to the
  Comedys inevitable marriage resolution
• Helen is like Beatrice in Much Ado, Kate in
  Taming of the Shrew, Hermione in Winters Tale
• When women transgress their gender role, the fear
  elicited manifests in terms of sex and infidelity
  
• Men see war and the honor that accompanies it as
  an alternative way to establish their
  masculinity.