
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
Authors

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...
Books by William ShakespeareDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
Related books

Victorian Short Stories of Troubled Marriages by Various
This collection of short stories by various Victorian authors explores the complexities of marriage in the Victorian era. The stories depict the strug...

Bible (KJV) Apocrypha/Deuterocanon: Book of Tobit by King James Version
The Book of Tobit tells the story of Tobit, a devout and righteous Israelite who is exiled to Nineveh during the Assyrian captivity. He loses his sigh...

Elective Affinities by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Elective Affinities explores the complexities of human relationships, particularly within the confines of marriage and societal expectations. It exami...

Andria: or, The Fair Andrian by Terence
This play, written by the Roman playwright Terence, follows the story of Pamphilus, a young Athenian man, who is caught between his father's wishes an...

Ordeal of Richard Feverel by George Meredith
Ordeal of Richard Feverel is a Victorian novel by George Meredith that tells the story of a young man's struggle to live his own life in the face of h...

Democracy - An American Novel by Henry Brooks Adams
Published anonymously in 1880, *Democracy* is a satirical novel that offers a sharp critique of American politics during the Gilded Age. The story fol...

Ana Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Ana Karenina is a complex and tragic novel that explores the themes of love, marriage, and society. The story follows the titular character, a beautif...

George Dandin, ou Le mari confondu by Moliere
George Dandin, a wealthy peasant, marries Angélique, the daughter of a nobleman. However, Angélique's family, particularly her father, M. de Sotenvill...

Virgin Soil Volume 2 by Ivan Turgenev
Virgin Soil, the final novel by Ivan Turgenev, explores the tumultuous social changes sweeping through Russia in the wake of serf emancipation. The s...

Camp Fire Girls in After Years by Margaret Vandercook
In "Camp Fire Girls in After Years," the beloved characters from Margaret Vandercook's Camp Fire Girls series navigate the complexities of adult life....
Reviews for All's Well That Ends Well
No reviews posted or approved, yet...