All's Well That Ends Well

Among Shakespeare’s many and varied works, a few plays are often described by scholars to be “problem plays” because of the issues they raise in social and interpersonal morality and ethics, and their ambiguous subversion of the traditional emotional narrative arcs of Renaissance drama. These plays fall outside—or between—the usual generic conventions of drama as either “comedy” or “tragedy.” The three plays considered problem plays are Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and All’s Well That Ends Well, though some scholars include The Merchant of Venice and Hamlet. The “problem” of these plays is that Shakespeare creates characters and scenarios that are too complex and psychologically real to be contained by the conventional ethical models that drama usually exemplified. In these plays, the relationship between cause and effect is more confused and the expected correlation between a character’s morality and the consequences they experience at the play’s end is often disrupted. In Measure for Measure, Angelo sets aside his rigorous legal ethic to save Claudio, while in Troilus and Cressida, Pandarus and Thersites display dark immorality and cynicism. For All’s Well That Ends Well, the primary issue is in Helen’s pursuit of marriage with Bertram against his will. Bertram is not interested in marrying Helen, and the only way Helen can secure the marriage is by tricking Bertram into consummating it, then exacting his compliance with her pregnancy and Bertram’s ring. The title All’s Well That Ends Well highlights that the play deliberately raises problematic questions of motivation and legal-moral dilemmas and challenges the audience to consider the concept of a “happy” or “deserved” ending. It also engages with complex issues of gender ethics in relation to these ideas.

Though Helen’s actions are legal, the central “problem” of the play is that the audience can recognize that Helen’s plan, though legal, is immoral. By switching herself and Diana, Helen is effectively sexually assaulting Bertram, as he did not consent to have sex with Helen. The result, however, is that a wife has sex with her husband, which, from a legal perspective, seems normal and ethical. Moreover, Bertram is also acting in bad faith, as he fully intends to desert Diana, who he believes considers herself betrothed to him. Shakespeare’s plot raises the problem of traditional gender-based ethics as, if Bertram and Helen’s sexes were reversed, the play would be a highly conventional reflection of social expectations at the time, when women were allowed little or no agency in their marriage choices and had no legal—or widely recognized moral—right to sexual choice, including consent within marriage. Indeed, part of the play’s satirical humor is created when the womanizer Bertram, on finding himself absurdly cast in the female-normative role of forced spouse, refuses to consummate the marriage, an act of personal volition denied to any bride at the time. Helen’s behavior in enforcing her legal marriage is only transgressional because she is a woman: Thus, audience disapproval of her behavior on the grounds of cruelty or selfishness also raises the problem of routine patriarchal tyranny over women. By focusing on the individual’s right to happiness when portraying the constraints placed on Bertram, Shakespeare silently asks the mirror question of whether women feel any less unhappy when forced to marry and “love” men they do not choose.

At the end of the play, Bertram is trapped by Helen’s actions, as she has met the—apparently impossible—conditions he set for her himself. This is both just and unjust, a highly problematic ending. Critics note that Bertram’s final response as written is highly ambiguous and its interpretation varies hugely depending on the choices of the actor. Bertram may look shocked, dismayed, or happy depending on the staging’s interpretation, and this significantly alters the concluding message of the play. Based solely on the text, it appears that Bertram has resigned himself to his marriage with Helen and commits to loving her, which asks questions about the nature of love, commitment, and personal choice.