CRITICISM

Lewis, Cynthia. “‘Derived Honesty and Achieved Goodness’: Doctrines of Grace in All's Well That Ends Well.” Renaissance and Reformation 14, no. 2 (1990): 147-70.

Examines All's Well That Ends Well's concern with faith, discussing the process by which Helena converts the King of France from a skeptic to a believer in hope.

Rothman, Jules. “A Vindication of Parolles.” Shakespeare Quarterly 23, no. 2 (spring 1972): 183-96.

Maintains that Parolles is the primary element of humor in All's Well That Ends Well, and that as the stock figure of the braggart soldier he is insubstantial as a character and not to be taken seriously as a villain.

Smallwood, Robert. “Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon, 1992.” Shakespeare Quarterly 44, no. 3 (fall 1993): 343-62.

Assesses Sir Peter Hall's production of All's Well That Ends Well, noting that Hall's vision is focused on Helena as the play's key to interpretation. Smallwood describes the production as unsentimental, and views Hall's take on the play as straightforward.

Snyder, Susan. “Naming Names in All's Well That Ends Well.” Shakespeare Quarterly 43, no. 3 (autumn 1992): 265-79.

Investigates the significance of the naming conventions used in All's Well That Ends Well, studying in particular the naming of the French lords, the Countess's Steward, and the Countess's Clown, and noting that the names Helena and Diana are especially meaningful.

Thomas, Vivian. “Virtue and Honor in All's Well That Ends Well.” In The Moral Universe of Shakespeare's Problem Plays, pp. 140-72. London: Croom Helm, 1987.

Asserts that in All's Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare used the structure of romantic comedy in order to highlight the moral and social values the play depicts, and to explore the dramatic mode in which those values are presented.

Wheeler, Richard P. “Marriage and Manhood in All's Well that Ends Well.” Bucknell Review 21, no. 1 (spring 1973): 103-24.

Examines the development of Bertram's character and his attitudes concerning marriage and sexuality.

Wilkes, G. A. “All's Well that Ends Well and ‘The Common Stock of Narrative Tradition.’” Leeds Studies in English 20 (1989): 207-15.

Explores the folktale influences in All's Well That Ends Well and concludes that while Shakespeare employed a variety of folktale elements, the playwright did not allow himself to be bound by the conventions of his sources.