All's Well That Ends Well

The play concludes with a heightening crisis in the conflict between Female Agency and Social Conventions and The Social Construct of Honor and Reputation, as Diana reverses the damage done to her own reputation by striking back at Bertram. Though Helen is the mastermind of the plan, Diana executes the trick in the presence of the King and Countess to demonstrate how Bertram acted dishonorably in Florence, and she is the heroine of this denouement scene. When the King identifies the ring Bertram wears as Helen’s, Bertram claims he got the ring from Diana, but he lies when he asserts he “informed her fully” that he “could not answer in that course of honor” (5.3.13-14), meaning he explained to her that he was obligated to marry Lafew’s daughter and could not marry Diana. However, the combination of Helen’s ring on Bertram’s finger, his disdain for Helen while she was alive, and his patently desperate attempts to impugn Diana as a promiscuous woman or sex worker destroys Bertram’s honor and reputation, in front of his mother, his King, his friend, and his wife. In this scene, he is caught not only in his previous lies but is seen making fresh lies to mask his dishonorable behavior. This heightens the dark comedy and the impending sense of denouement of the scene while also signifying the justice of his disgrace. The only way for Bertram to reclaim any honor is, as he does in the end, to love Helen “dearly, ever, ever dearly” (5.3.61), provided Helen can prove her possession of the ring and her pregnancy with Bertram. Bertram finds himself without options and is forced into the paradox of behaving honorably only when he has no reputation to maintain. He now sees that his honor—and perhaps his life—rely on him “loving” Helen as a dutiful husband, although this love may not be the type that excites him.  

The element of Female Agency and Social Convention in the final scene is expressed primarily through Diana, as she plays on the words of the King, Countess, and Bertram to illustrate the deceit that she and Helen have executed against Bertram. Her wordplay heightens the scene’s comic pleasure and elevates her character as a wit. The play’s method of delaying Helen’s entrance and frustrating the King allows Diana to build up the tension and confusion in the room with statements that play on the true/false duality of the situation: She says, “He knows himself my bed he hath defiled, / And at that time he got his wife with child” (5.3.341-42) and yet asserts “I am a maid” (i.e., a virgin) (5.3.331). Diana’s statement outlines how Bertram can believe he slept with Diana, while Diana is yet a virgin, restoring Diana’s honor while condemning Bertram. Bertram’s and Diana’s honor are intertwined until the plot is revealed by Helen, which is a dangerous game for Diana, revealing the double standards of gendered sexual morality. Indeed, Diana’s paradoxical statements are, the audience knows, entirely true, but they begin to look like lies to the King and Lafew, and she is nearly arrested. This not only adds enjoyable comedy and dramatic irony but demonstrates the real-life high stakes of personal honor and reputation, especially for a woman: For women in the 17th century, love was not a game, and loss of reputation meant ruin. Helen’s entry finally resolves the situation, and Diana calls Helen her “bail,” the means by which she shall be freed. The conventional unevenness of male-female word-against-word cases is referenced here: The women’s plot and the female solidarity it represents are shown as necessary because a single woman’s word is insufficient to maintain her honor against a man. Diana’s jeopardy highlights her bravery and therefore Bertram’s cowardice. His selfishness is such that he is willing to lie about Diana’s honor even though the reputational consequences for her as a woman are so much more damaging than admission would be for him as a man. This scene reveals Bertram’s immoral actions and shames him, as Diana and Helen’s revelations make him look very foolish in public. This trick is necessary to bring Bertram’s private dishonor into the public sphere of reputation. It sways the King and Countess entirely in Diana’s favor, as they can no longer trust Bertram’s intelligence or his honor, while Helen proves herself, again, the smarter spouse in the marriage.

Parolles’s presence in this final scene may indicate a potential resolution to the unsettling idea that Bertram and Helen will be married unhappily. Through the parallel plotline of Parolles’s previous shaming and his personal resolution to live a better life, the play presents a model for Bertram’s potential reform. In bringing Parolles into this role at the end, the play itself dignifies his character from a dupe to a potential role model, literally reforming both his character (his honor) and how the audience sees him (his reputation). Shakespeare leaves open the question of whether the audience can trust Bertram to likewise reform and love Helen “ever dearly” as he promises.