Literary Devices in All's Well That Ends Well
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
The action of the play goes down in France (Roussillon and Paris, to be exact), as well as Italy. We're not exactly sure when the play is set. Let's just say that events occur "once upon a time." A...
Genre
If you've been paying attention, then you already know why we think All's Well That Ends Well is a fairy tale with a major twist. (Go read our "In A Nutshell" for more on this.) Here's the thing, t...
Tone
Let's see. The play opens with a lot of dark, depressing talk about dead dads, gross diseases, and an ailing king. (Oh, did we mention the bummed out orphans and the grieving widow?) To round out a...
Writing Style
All's Well That Ends Well is 55% verse (poetry) and 45% prose (how ordinary folks talk every day). (Source.) There are two main kinds of verse in the play: (a) blank verse, also known as unrhymed i...
What's Up With the Title?
On the surface, All's Well That Ends Well seems like a pretty happy-go-lucky title (kind of like As You Like It). It's as if Shakespeare is saying to us, "Hey, it's all good" or "Don't sweat the sm...
What's Up With the Ending?
What's up with the ending, you ask? We think the hilarious crew of the Reduced Shakespeare Company says it best in their Tweeting Shakespeare project. Check it out: "All Is NOT Well That Ends Well,...
Tough-o-Meter
Here's the deal: this play isn't any more difficult than the average Shakespearean comedy. Then why do some readers pick up the play only to want to put it right back down?The toughest thing about...
Plot Analysis
Helen and Bertram sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G? Yeah, not so much.Helen's got it bad for Bertram and she'll do anything to get him (like cure the king of France's gross skin disease for a chanc...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
Bertram can't see why he should have to marry Helen.According to Booker, "in the first stage we see a little world in which people have passed under a shadow of confusion, uncertainty and frustra...
Three-Act Plot Analysis
Helen's got it bad for Bertram and she'll do anything to land him as a husband. She chases/stalks Bertram to Paris, cures the king's mystery disease, and wins a chance to choose any husband she wan...
Trivia
In the Reduced Shakespeare Company's "Tweeting Shakespeare" project, the All's Well That Ends Well "tweet" goes like this: "All Is NOT Well That Ends Well, and this play doesn’t. MORAL: Do it wit...
Steaminess Rating
How steamy is All's Well That Ends Well? Let's see. The heroine of our play (that would be Helen) tricks a guy into having sex with her so she can have his baby and force him to stay married to her...
Allusions
Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron (c. 1350-1353)Shakespeare's main literary source for this play is the ninth tale of the third day of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron, a collection of one hundred tales,...