By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Parolles, Bertram’s friend in Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, has often eclipsed Bertram in productions of the play and become the male centre of it, much as Falstaff overshadows Prince Hal in Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. Indeed, Parolles as a character has been likened to Falstaff by numerous critics, most famously, Samuel Johnson.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Bertram, who becomes Count of Roussillon at the beginning of All’s Well That Ends Well upon the death of his father, is young, and has all of the arrogance that youth can bestow, especially on someone as privileged as he is. The young count might be compared to a number of Shakespeare’s earlier young and naïve male characters, such as Claudio from Much Ado about Nothing (who spurns his beloved, Hero, at the altar because he’s been led to believe she’s been unfaithful).
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Helena, the heroine of All’s Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare’s ‘loveliest character’ while the Victorian actress Ellen Terry called her ‘despicable’ and a ‘doormat’. Perhaps the former judgment of Helena’s character is a little over-charitable; perhaps the latter is too harsh. Helena is unscrupulous in her single-minded determination to get what she wants (Bertram, for some mysterious reason).
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
George Bernard Shaw held All’s Well That Ends Well in high regard, having what Frank Kermode described as a ‘perverse’ admiration for it. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Helena, the heroine of All’s Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare’s ‘loveliest character’ while the Victorian actress Ellen Terry called her ‘despicable’ and a ‘doormat’. Samuel Johnson went so far as to compare Parolles, the play’s chief comic character, with the mighty Falstaff.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
All’s Well That Ends Well is one of William Shakespeare’s lesser-known and less highly regarded plays. Before we say more about the play – and how it came to be regarded as one of his ‘problem plays’ – it’s worth recapping the plot of All’s Well That Ends Well as a brief summary. This play, with its use of fairy-tale tropes and complex attitude to marriage and relationships actually has a fairly straightforward plot, thankfully.