All's Well That Ends Well (Vol. 63) | Ruth Nevo (essay date 1987)
Ruth Nevo (essay date 1987)
SOURCE: “Motive and Meaning in All's Well That Ends Well,” in “Fanned and Winnowed Opinions”: Shakespearean Essays Presented to Harold Jenkins, edited by John W. Mahon and Thomas A. Pendleton, Methuen, 1987, pp. 26-51.
[In the following essay, Nevo asserts that All's Well That Ends Well should not be classified as a problem play since its structure resembles that of Shakespeare's earlier maturation comedies.]
All's Well That Ends Well has been classified among the problem comedies, perhaps mainly because Bertram has failed to captivate; he has been found even more devoid of charm than Angelo in Measure for Measure, the companion ‘problem’ comedy. Bertram is, as my students invariably inform me, a creep. And in this they have the critics on their side: that he is ‘a thoroughly disagreeable, peevish and vicious person’ (Lawrence, 61) seems to be the consensus. One is...
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