The Backwards Role of Helena

A detailed Summary of The Backwards Role of Helena

Today in order to get a date, the guy customarily calls the girl and asks her out. If their relationship become very serious, the guy will get on one knee and ask the girl to marry him. It does not matter how much money the other person makes or even his or her family background. Basically, everyone is equal and treated the same as to what he or she can personally do to bring honor or disgrace to his or her name. Unfortunately, the marriage process in Shakespeare's time was a little bit different, because of the feudal system. One character in All's Well that Ends Well breaks all the rules and traditions usually accustomed to her time period. Helena, who lives in a fairy-tale fantasy, seeks the affection and love from Bertram, a spoiled nobleman, through her good virtue and high aspirations.

To begin with the main character, Helena, wants someone whom she cannot have. Bertram, the object of her lust, grew up with her in his household. His family took her under their wing when Helena's father, the physician for the Count of Rossillion, passed away. He was thought of by the king as "much famed" and "if he were living, [he] would try him yet" as his doctor [I. ii. 80,82]. Unfortunately, havin

Schucking, Levin L. Character Problems in Shakespeare's Plays. Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith Publishing, 1959.

Shakespeare, William. All's Well that Ends Well. Ed. G.K. Hunter. Cambridge, MS: Harvard University Press, 1959.

I cannot reconcile my heart to Bertram; a man noble without generosity, and young without truth; who marries Helena as a coward, and leaves her as a profligate; when she is dead by his unkindness, sneaks home to a second marriage, is accused by a woman whom he has wronged, defends himself by falsehood, and is dismissed to happiness (Bloom 345).

Dusinberre, Juliet. Shakespeare and the Nature of Women. 2nd ed. New York: St. Marin's Press, 1996.

tion is a proof of a great love." However other critics are "strongly against any facile acceptance of the bed-trick" (Hunter xlv). Surprisingly leaving the scene of the play, Helena stages her death which causes much grief to all that knew her. Some critics think that Bertram truly regrets ever leaving and "has come to love [her] now that she is dead" (Goddard 39), but I believe that it was only an act he put on to cover up his real feelings of happiness that he was free of Helena at last and perhaps he felt guilty for not giving her a chance in the first place.

g a well known father who was a physician did not help to make someone higher in the social status. Bertram, the new Count of Rossillion after his father passed away, possess more money and nobility than ten times Helena's wealth. "This low station is unique among Shakespeare's comic heroines" (Scott 427). Surpassing anyone's wildest fantasies, Helena confesses her devout love of Bertram to the Countess, his mother. According to some critics, they find it "troubling" to see Helena as a "woman who determines the man she wants and then sets out to get him by any means avai!

lable" (Meaning 74). However it is truly admirable to even the Countess, who gives the consent and love to Helena for her journey.

SmallWood, R.L. "The Design of 'All's Well that Ends Well'." Aspects of Shakespeare's Problem Plays. Eds. Kenneth Muir and Stanley Wells. Great Britain: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Helena, full of ambition, travels to the King's place where she knowingly has a premeditated plot to win Bertram. She sets out on a task to cure the king of his illness, although she has no medical experience, and uses her late father's instruments to help him. The surprising fact happened when the king trusts Helena enough to allow her to attempt to cure him of the disease. He sees "the honor which Helena possesses through her own virtue" (Dusinberre 36). When her plan works and saves the king's life, he grants her the choice of any lord in his c

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Approximate Word count = 1829
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English