William Shakespeare 
All’s Well That Ends Well 

All’s Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare  is a play by William Shakespeare, published in the 
First Folio in 1623, where it is listed among the comedies. There is a debate regarding the dating of the composition of the play, with possible dates ranging from 1598 to 1608.



Bertram is compelled to marry Helena. Bertram refuses to consummate their marriage. He goes to Italy. In Italy he courts Diana. Helena meets Diana. They perform the bed trick.

The play is considered one of Shakespeare’s ‘problem plays’, a play that poses complex ethical dilemmas that require more than typically simple solutions.



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.