All's Well That Ends Well

All's Well That Ends Well is a 'problem comedy' in which Helena, a physician's orphaned daughter, cures the King of France and claims as her reward a husband, Bertram, who wants nothing to do with her.

Main characters

• Helena, a physician's daughter
• Bertram, Count of Roussillon
• The Countess of Roussillon, Bertram's mother
• The King of France
• Parolles, Bertram's boastful companion
• Lafew, an old lord
• Diana, a young woman of Florence

Plot summary

This summary gives away the ending.

Helena, brought up in the household of the Countess of Roussillon, loves the Countess's son Bertram, far above her in rank. She travels to Paris and uses her late father's remedies to cure the King of France of a fistula. As her reward the King lets her choose a husband, and she chooses Bertram, who is forced into the marriage and flees to the wars in Italy. He writes that he will only accept her when she wears his family ring and carries his child.

In Florence, Helena finds Bertram trying to seduce a young woman, Diana. With Diana's help she takes her place in Bertram's bed and exchanges rings. Meanwhile Bertram's cowardly friend Parolles is exposed in a comic ambush. Helena lets herself be reported dead, then reappears before the King, having fulfilled both of Bertram's impossible conditions. Bertram promises to love her 'ever, ever dearly', but the ending is famously uneasy.

Themes

• Class, merit and 'honour'
• Female agency and desire
• Sickness and cure
• Deception in pursuit of love

Famous lines

Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none.

Countess, Act 1 Scene 1

All's well that ends well; still the fine's the crown.

Helena, Act 4 Scene 4

More in our collection of famous Shakespeare quotes.

Sources

The story comes from Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (Day 3, Story 9), which Shakespeare probably read in William Painter's English collection The Palace of Pleasure (1566–67).

On stage and screen

Often grouped with Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida as a 'problem play', it has been admired in recent decades for Helena's determination and for the Countess, one of Shakespeare's wisest older women.

See where All's Well That Ends Well sits in Shakespeare's career on the timeline, or read about the playhouses it was written for.