All's Well That Ends Well

Rating:
Summary: All's Well....or is it?
Review: "Alls Well That Ends Well" is one of Shakespeare's "problem comedies", probably lesser known, in which a young woman of Rossillion, Helen, wants to obtain the love of someone out of her social rank, Bertram, the Count of Rossillion. Like many of the Shakespeare plays, there are moments of treachery, disguises and miscommunication within many of the scenes that complicates the plot.

To try to get the King to agree for Bertram to marry her, Helen offers to help the King with his sickness. Once recovered, The King advises Bertram to now wed Helen. Bertram refuses at first, but then finally relents, confessing to himself that he will never love her. Helen then tries to do many things to win over Bertram after he leaves for war, and she comes up with a plan to disguise herself and see him once again. Eventually, through a bit of trickery, Helen is able to win over by accomplishing his list of "demands" in a letter that he sent.

Some of the questions that one may ask while reading this book: Why would Helen want to bother with trying to persuade Bertram to love her, since he is hardly worth it? Clearly, Helen, the heroine in this story, is a noble character, but often her judgment in the play is something to be questioned. Another question to be considered is what makes a couple compatible, especially those that seem to be mismatches? This is a comedy that thrives on a social mismatch between the classes. A more poignant fact is that Helen is a faithful person to her words, while Bertram has no redeeming quality that makes him worthy of her (Bertram hardly becomes a sympathetic character mainly because he never changes from the beginning to the end of the play).

Overall, it is a decent read. But I think that "The Taming of the Shrew" is a better comedy, mainly because there is a stronger sense of character development in Petruchio and Kate.

Rating:
Summary: Not Quite Shakespeare's Worst
Review: The only play Shakespeare wrote that I did not like at all was "Othello." "All's Well That Ends Well" was never that popular. It lacks the hilarious tone of "The Comedy of Errors," the superb construction of "Much Ado About Nothing," or the profound messages of "The Merchant of Venice." Also, we can very well be in two minds of what to think of Bertram's rejection of Helena. The characters are not that convincing, and much of the humour is based on bad taste. But the play is not quite a flop. There are moments of suspense. There is some delightful comedy (especially when Bertram chooses to stay in battle rather than go home and marry Helena). And at times, Helena is memorable. I would not make time to read this play, but then it's not a waste of time either.

Rating:
Summary: Not Quite Shakespeare's Worst
Review: The only play Shakespeare wrote that I did not like at all was "Othello." "All's Well That Ends Well" was never that popular. It lacks the hilarious tone of "The Comedy of Errors," the superb construction of "Much Ado About Nothing," or the profound messages of "The Merchant of Venice." Also, we can very well be in two minds of what to think of Bertram's rejection of Helena. The characters are not that convincing, and much of the humour is based on bad taste. But the play is not quite a flop. There are moments of suspense. There is some delightful comedy (especially when Bertram chooses to stay in battle rather than go home and marry Helena). And at times, Helena is memorable. I would not make time to read this play, but then it's not a waste of time either.

Rating:
Summary: A fine edition of a play that is unjustly unloved
Review: There are artists whose work is so fundamental that they are beyond questioning. It is not that all their work is supreme, but rather that the body of their work is so transcendent and so core to our culture that one must come to grips with it if one wishes to understand what makes us who we are. There is no writer more central to the English language than Shakespeare. So, by definition everything he wrote is worth reading and deserves five stars by my ranking system.

That is not to say that every play has in it what we value most in his greatest works. Certainly, "All's Well That Ends Well" is not one of his greatest works. However, that is like noting that 2004 was not a good year for Tiger Woods and he still placed fourth on the money list and is still ranked number two in the world. Even lesser Shakespeare is ahead of nearly everyone else, especially when one factors in the insight gained by experiencing his entire body of work.

What we are after in reviews like this is less about the play than the edition itself. I am a huge fan of the Arden editions because of the helpful insights their scholarship provides into the plays. We do not have to wade through unnecessary essays on politically correct interpretations of the plays. In this edition, we get an introductory essay that deals with issues of text, date, interpretation, and performance. Since this is one of the least performed of Shakespeare's plays, this is necessarily brief.

What is this play about? The title is a motto of young commoner named Helena. She is the orphan of a doctor and taken in by the Countess of Rossillion. Helena is captivated by the Countess's son, Bertram who has no interest in her. The play is about her unrelenting path to have him as her husband. It is an interesting play with some glorious lines. But if you are only going to read a half dozen of Shakespeare's plays, you need not bother with this one. However, I think you should take time to read all of them.

So, this is a fine and recommended edition of one of Shakespeare's lesser plays, but that is still greater than nearly everything else and so should be read by all.