All's Well That Ends Well (Vol. 26) | J. L. Styan (essay date 1984)
J. L. Styan (essay date 1984)
SOURCE: "Romance or Realism?," in Shakespeare in Performance: All's Well That Ends Well, Manchester University Press, 1984, pp. 1-33.
[In the excerpt below, Styan examines the polarisation in the stage history of All's Well That Ends Well between romantic and realistic approaches to the narrative. The critic further discusses the handling of such issues as the characterization of Helena, Bertram, and Parolles and the conflict between youth and age.]
Romance or realism?
There will, of course, never be a definitive way to present the play, and it is helpful to recognise the range of styles seen in production. In its comparatively short life-span, all of the play's dramatic and theatrical ingredients have been perceived differently, whether setting, character, costume, mood or atmosphere. The play has been a vehicle for a tale of romantic love or for a more realistic psychological study, a...
[The entire page is 11752 words long]
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