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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]