All's Well That Ends Well
'All's Well That Ends Well' Summary
Helena, the low-born ward of a French-Spanish countess, is in love with the countess's son Bertram, who is indifferent to her. Bertram goes to Paris to replace his late father as attendant to the ailing King of France. Helena, the daughter of a recently deceased physician, follows Bertram, ostensibly to offer the King her services as a healer. The King is skeptical, and she guarantees the cure with her life: if he dies, she will be put to death, but if he lives, she may choose a husband from the court.
The King is cured and Helena chooses Bertram, who rejects her, owing to her poverty and low status. The King forces him to marry her, but after the ceremony Bertram immediately goes to war in Italy without so much as a goodbye kiss. He says that he will only marry her after she has carried his child and wears his family ring. Helena returns home to the countess, who is horrified at what her son has done, and claims Helena as her child in Bertram's place.
In Italy, Bertram is a successful warrior and also a successful seducer of local virgins. Helena follows him to Italy, befriends Diana, a virgin with whom Bertram is infatuated, and they arrange for Helena to take Diana's place in bed. Diana obtains Bertram's ring in exchange for one of Helena's. In this way Helena, without Bertram's knowledge, consummates their marriage and wears his ring.
Helena fakes her own death. Bertram, thinking he is free of her, comes home. He tries to marry a local lord's daughter, but Diana shows up and breaks up the engagement. Helena appears and explains the ring swap, announcing that she has fulfilled Bertram's challenge; Bertram, impressed by all she has done to win him, swears his love to her. Thus all ends well.
There is a subplot about Parolles, a disloyal associate of Bertram's: Some of the lords at the court attempt to get Bertram to know that his friend Parolles is a boasting coward, as Lafew and the Countess have also said. They convince Parolles to cross into enemy territory to fetch a drum that he left behind. While on his way, they pose as enemy soldiers, kidnap him, blindfold him, and, with Bertram observing, get him to betray his friends, and besmirch Bertram's character.
Book Details
Author
William Shakespeare
United Kingdom
William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. The son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, he was probably educated at the King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford, where he...
More on William ShakespeareDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
Related books
The Story Of A Modern Woman by Ella Hepworth Dixon
The Story of a Modern Woman is a novel written by English author Ella Hepworth Dixon. The novel was first published in 1894 and is an example of the "...
The Quest of the Golden Girl by Richard le Gallienne
The main character fears that he will never get married and performs a long pilgrimage whose goal is the perfect companion, the girl God meant for him...
La Comédie Humaine: 04 - Scènes de la vie privée tome 4 by Honoré de Balzac
La Comédie humaine estla collection en plusieurs volumes d' Honoré de Balzac (1829-1848) de romans et d'histoires interconnectés décrivant la société...
The Duel by Anton Chekhov
The Duel is a novella by Anton Chekhov originally published in 1891; it was adapted for the screen by Iosif Kheifits in 1973 (as The Bad Good Man, sta...
Sanctuary by Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton's early novella focuses on Kate Orme, who begins the story happily in love with her fiance, only to discover that he hides a terrible se...
Welcome to Spring by Ring Lardner
Spring has sprung, but for these characters, it's anything but welcome. Welcome to Spring is a collection of poems by Ring Lardner that captures the...
Justice by John Galsworthy
Justice is a 1910 play by the British writer John Galsworthy. It was part of a campaign to improve conditions in British prisons.
Katherine and Petruchio by David Garrick
In David Garrick's witty and satirical adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Katherine Minola is a strong-willed and independent woman...
Charles Rex by Ethel M. Dell
On his last night in Valrosa, Saltash (Charles Rex) returns to his luxurious yacht to find a stowaway, a young woman disguised as a boy. She pleads to...
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
The Custom of the Country is a 1913 tragicomedy of manners novel by American Edith Wharton. It tells the story of Undine Spragg, a Midwestern girl who...
Reviews for All's Well That Ends Well
No reviews posted or approved, yet...