1. As the play often notes, Helena shares a name with a notorious woman: Helen of Troy. This historical namesake has an ambiguous reputation in Shakespeare’s day. On the one hand, she is a famous beauty who is kidnapped for this by the gods and made a reward for Paris, prince of Troy (note the clown’s song at 1.3). At one level, then, she is a woman who, because of her natural attributes, is made a victim of fate and the gods. Any man of normal desires is doomed to want her. On the other hand, one could argue that Helen, the wife of Menelaus, adapts to being the property of Paris (note the setting of the play and its various scenes) and thus is suspect with regard to her virtue. How does Helena, Shakespeare’s Helen, compare with her famous predecessor? Don’t forget that she is an inappropriate match, due to her social class, for a Count. Can anyone else in the play be compared to Helen of Troy? (Note that Shakespeare will return to this issue in Troilus and Cressida.)

2. Compare Parolles and Lafeu: How are they alike and why are they initially drawn to each other in the world of the court? Why does Lafeu get angry with Parolles in Act 2? This is a crucial moment in the play; note how the distinction which Parolles would hide between servant and master drives this world. Who else relies on the privileges of rank in this story? How and when? What is the threat when rank is disrupted? What then does Helena represent in this world? Why are so many people of higher rank still on her side? What is the ultimate fate of Parolles? Why? How does the drum incident compare to Bertram’s actions? To Helena’s? Note how Helena’s request for help is set in a scene parallel to the same sort of request Parolles after his disgrace. Why? top

3. Bertram is certainly easy to vilify by the standards of our day. But consider that the same rules that he wants to employ in his standards of marital partners and which the King breaks are the very rules that preserve the power of nobility. Can this excuse Bertram’s resentment of Helena? What is Bertram like? What are his goals? What kind of judge of character and people is he? In Act 5, he finally explains why he cannot love Helena. What is his reason? Can we believe him? How do you know? By this point, Helena has repeated several times that “all’s well that ends well.” Is she correct? Has Bertram simply been misled by Parolles as some characters suggest?

4. Often the plays of this era pit an older generation against a younger one. Typically, the younger generation attempts to, and sometimes succeeds in, redefining the rules and replacing their elders in order to attain their desires. How would you describe the generations and their relationships within the world of this play? top

5. Shakespeare often considers the fragility of a woman’s sexual reputation within his plays.This play does that as well, but it also considers the fragility of a male character’s reputation, as a nobleman, as a warrior, and as a husband against that of a virtuous woman (Helen?). What makes or breaks the nobleman’s reputation? Where is Bertram with regard to this issue by the end of the play? What are the results of his sexual attempts on Diana? How important is her response to him after he has slept with Helena in her place? 

6. What is the symbolism of the ring in this play? Not how many times rings get traded, and how each time they replace some other commodity: Diana gets a ring for her maidenhead (allegedly), Helena’s ring on Bertram’s finger is supposed to equal an inescapable marriage contract, etc. Trace all of these relationships and consider the following: If a ring equals all of the above, then they all must equal each other within this world. What sorts of commodities become equivalent to each other through the exchange of rungs and what do these equivalences mean? top

7. Look at 2.2: What is going on in this scene and what is its purpose? How is it important to the play as a whole? And what would happen if it weren’t there?

8. In the first part of Act 4, scene 3 (4.3.1-72), the two Lords discuss Bertram. What do they think of him? What was his response to his mother’s letters? What, according to report, has happened to Helena? And how does the First Lord moralize the story of Bertram? Look closely at 4.3.69-72, in particular. You might be able to locate some important thematic material that might even summarize the play itself, “a mingled yarn, good and ill together.” top

9. What is Bertram’s attitude toward marriage to Lafeu’s daughter in 5.3? What does he say caused his dislike of Helena? Do you think he is he telling the truth? Does anybody care if he does, you think? In this scene, we are on our way to a wonderful happy ending, free of the earlier problems of marrying beneath oneself. Is Shakespeare ignoring the earlier problems here, or is it merely that his characters are ignoring them? Why? And what, finally, puts an abrupt end to all this happiness? And, how does Diana manage to get herself arrested and almost executed? What’s with the riddle?

10. How is All’s Well That Ends Well a comedy? Look at the play’s structure, theme, and motifs and explain how they are “comic” in the framework of the play? top

11. Analyze the characters of Helena and Bertram as heroine and hero? How do they fill or do not fill the role of the protagonist? Do you like them? Are their actions morally acceptable? Is Helena justified in her deceptions? In your answer, pay special attention to the way other people feel and talk about them—remember that in plays often we learn the most about the characters by eavesdropping: Listen up!

12. What about the minor characters, how do they fit in? What function do they have and what do they add to the plot? In your answer, pay special attention to the different humor of the clown and Parolles? What is Parolles’ role in the play? top

13. “Suit the deed to the word, the word to the deed.” Are there examples in the text telling the reader what the physical action on stage should be? Look at 1.3, for example, the Countess' words to Helena "this distempered messenger of wet," and at 2.3, scene iii, when Bertram says "pardon, my gracious lord, for I submit." What do they mean by that and how should these words be performed on stage?

14. Do a little bit of research online and find out what the typical Elizabethan audience was like and try to imagine what a performance might have been like back then. What is different about theater going nowadays? What do we lose/gain through modern performances of Shakespearean plays in general and All’s Well That Ends Well in particular? Be sure to provide an example from the text to illustrate your answer. top

15. What was the traditional role of a King, a Lord, a Countess, a commoner or a servant in Elizabethan society? When could someone step outside the normal bounds of their lot in life and gain (or lose) everything? Who loses the most by the end of the play? Who gains the most? How do traditional roles change? How does each character change?

16. Think about the effect of soliloquies in Shakespearean plays. Does directly addressing the audience affect what you think and feel about the characters? Does it affect your understanding of what is going on onstage? Does it interfere? Why do you think Shakespeare wrote his plays this way? What are the benefits to the actor and/or audience? What are the risks? Be sure to provide examples of specific soliloquies as you answer this question; consider perhaps Helena’s soliloquies in Act 1 (1.1.74-100 and 1.1.199-212) or some of Bertram’s later on in the play. top

17. Here are some words that were invented by Shakespeare and used for the very first time in this play: inaudible, noiseless, radiance, threateningly, transcendence. Find where they appear in the play. Do they mean what you thought they meant?

18. Note the flood of fairy tale motifs in this play—the King’s blind promise to grant Helena’s unknown wish if only she solve his puzzle, the miracle cure, the riddle itself, and the impossible quest. What do these motifs lend and add to the story? How do they affect your perceptions of the characters? How would you perceive these characters if there were no miracles? How would the nobility of Shakespeare’s day feel about Helena marrying Bertram? (Note Helena’s response when asked by the Countess if she loves Bertram. Note also the comparison between her and Medea—if you don’t know who Medea is, look her up on Google, please—suggested by her use of a potion to restore an aged man in the place of a father to her beloved.) How does Helena’s fate compare to Medea’s? What are the conditions of her deal with the King?  top

19. What do you think of the play’s ending? Is all well now? Explain why you feel that way. Be sure to support your answer with passages from the play. 

20. And lastly, discuss the role of power and authority in the play? Who has it, why, and how is it used? top