Well, after last weeks amazingly disappointing read I definitely have high hopes for this weeks. It wasn’t even that last weeks was a tragedy in the comedy section, but also that it was just such an awful tragedy with two extremely crappy and independent storylines in an equally crappy setting. If the tragedy had flowed more effectively and focused on one piece or the other to develop them and the character properly, I might have at least enjoyed it more, although I think the story itself was inherently flawed to the point it would have been hard to save it, at least to the point I’d have enjoyed it. The excessive length didn’t help, particularly when all those extra pages really amounted to nothing, and the story felt poorly developed in spite of all that extra text.
What I’ve learned since last week is that the three final plays in the comedies segment of my book (including last weeks) are what are called his problem plays. They are given this name because they aren’t full comedies, but are hard to categorize as comedies or tragedies. So unfortunately that means that this weeks play, and next weeks play will both be similar to “Troilus and Cressida” in this respect. It is my hope that at least the stories will be better to the point they don’t suffer the same response. This weeks play is “All’s Well that Ends Well”, which is another play I’m familiar with only by the commonality of the saying that its title is derived from, and not as a result of its content. Hopefully this does end well, which I guess we’ll now see.
Story
Well, this weeks play did manage to at least do better than last weeks, which was a relief, but I still had some problems with it unfortunately. While it isn’t as positive as the comedies, it was at least comedic in parts and ended decently, instead of being a full blown tragedy like “Troilus and Cressida” ended up being on every level. This one won’t take any top spots amongst my favorites by any stretch, but it was at least a good read rather than an outright overly long abomination.
The main flaw in this story is the situation. You get a young and beautiful and wonderful maiden of lower birth, Helena, who loves a young nobleman of greater birth by the name of Bertram. The problem is this man is hardly deserving of the love of such a fine woman, but she loves him anyways. To me this kind of rings true even today, since plenty of woman seem to fall for the bad boy types, and plenty of wonderful women end up in relationships with men who simply don’t respect them and treat them right. It’s a facet of our society that has always sickened me, though now I only laugh when I see teenage girls hanging out with complete douchebags because somehow, for some reason, they think this is appealing.
Anyways, on to the story. Helena gains the Kings favor, and he permits her to choose any man of great birth in his kingdom as a husband due to her saving his life. This is really Helena’s primary crime in the story, as she then chooses Bertram, who is forced to marry her against his own will. He should feel so lucky to have such a woman, but unfortunately he is incapable of seeing past her birth status. I do somewhat sympathize since he’s being forced to marry someone he didn’t choose, but he loses some of that sympathy when he uses such shallow criteria to explain why he can not love her. Plus, it’s kind of a turnabout isn’t it? Women of those days often never got to choose their husband, having those marriages prearranged for them ahead of time by their parents. It’s sort of a role reversal for the woman to choose her husband against his will by order of his King.
Unfortunately Bertram ditches his new wife and flees to Florence to join the war there, sending her a heartbreaking and almost taunting letter stating he will never be her husband unless she gains his ring and conceives his child. While in Florence he happily spends his days trying to woo another maiden in that city by the name of Diana, who will have nothing to do with him since she knows him to be shallow and dishonest, not to mention married. Helena is able to trick the foolish Bertram though, as she convinces him she’s dead so he’ll return home, but also gets Diana to exchange rings with him as a ruse to get his ring, and then she takes her place in bed that night when Bertram comes calling, thus conceiving his child. Got to hand it to Helena, she’s definitely got a strong head on her shoulders to compliment her kindness and beauty. It’s just a shame she has decided to pursue the love of someone like Bertram.
Bertram shows his truest colors when he arrives back home, only to be confronted by his own lies and disloyalty. He attempts to weasel his way out of responsibility at every turn, even dying he tried to woo Diana, and stating she was nothing more than a camp whore that slept with every soldier. His behavior in the final parts of the play really demonstrate the type of person he is, and I couldn’t help but lose and and all sympathy I had for the character at that point. Not only does he deserve to be wronged since he is so eager to wrong everyone else, but he also hardly deserves the love of a women like Helena and should count his lucky stars he earns even that much.
Unfortunately I remained unconvinced by the one line change of heart Bertram has at the end when he realizes Helena is still alive and has met his criteria. To suddenly decide he will love her doesn’t seem sincere to me, so I honestly wasn’t too thrilled with the ending. The situation overall also gave me some discomfort, since Helena is such a wonderful woman but wins her husband through somewhat covert means. Then you have the guy that is a complete tool, and certainly doesn’t deserve a woman such as her anyways. I don’t know, the whole relationship just struck me as awkward, which kind of permeated the whole story and had a negative effect on it overall. Still, at least Helena is no longer amused, and she implies that if he fails her then things will end in “deadly divorce”, so hopefully that’ll keep him from being a giant douche in the future. Still, I have my doubts, and I don’t see their future as being very bright.
Still, in spite of the uncomfortable situations and deceptions, the play was actually generally good. The writing was well done and fun to read, and there was some comedy in there and side stories that weren’t distracting and were fairly enjoyable. It was also easy to get behind Helena and cheer her on, even if I didn’t really approve of her choice of a mate. The elements I didn’t care for do manage to knock it down a few pegs, but overall I still found it a good read with good pacing and a decent story with some not so good elements in it.
Characters
Helena is the protagonist of the story. She’s a sweet and caring maiden who was taken in by Bertram’s mother after her father, a doctor of great renowned, passes away. Even Bertram’s mother seems to prefer her over her own son for much of the story, and sees her as an adopted daughter. Using what was left to her by her father she manages to cure the King, and asks only to be allowed to pick a husband regardless of her status. She chooses Bertram, whom she has long loved, but who doesn’t love her as someone of lower birth. Her only real crime is forcing Bertram to be her husband, which I will admit might not have been the best approach. Still, she’s a wonderful woman otherwise, and only saw an opportunity to close the status gap to obtain the man she has always loved in secret.
Bertram is the antagonist in the story, at least sort of. He’s a shallow and self-centered and egotistical man who only deserves syphilis from a woman and certainly not love. At first he does earn some sympathy by being forced to marry, but it was not common for women to be forced to marry back then, so it’s a kind of poetic justice really. He loses any sympathy he earned as he continuously demonstrates how much of a complete douche he is over the course of the play, particularly as events begin to truly unfold near the end. He was willing to backstab and muddy the honor of anyone and everyone that might bring his behavior to light, including Diana who he had only recently tried to woo and who he had thought he married. All this was before he even knew he was tricked and that Helena was still alive; he was still married to Diana for all he knew at that time, but yet he denies it and claims her to be a common whore. It should also be mentioned that at this time he had returned home and was to marry the daughter of Lafeu, even though he had already declared his love to Diana and had bedded her (though he had actually bedded Helena, which he didn’t yet know). So unless you’re a male chauvinist it is pretty hard to sympathize with Bertram in any way by the time the play has ended.
A side character is Parolles, who is a companion of Bertram’s, and is also a complete braggart and coward. In spite of claiming to be a great soldier and to have done many deeds, he is actually all talk and no action, with most of his deeds being lies. He gets his comeuppance midway through the play when he is tricked in to thinking he has been captured and gives his false captors all kinds of information about the armies in Florence and about Bertram and the Generals. It is eventually revealed to him that it was all a front to prove him a coward to Bertram, which he is somewhat thankful for since he was convinced he was going to be put to death. In the end he is redeemed at least a little bit when he speaks against Bertram in the closing scenes of the play.
Diana and her mother (only known as the Widow) are minor supporting characters in the play. They primarily serve to aid Helena since Bertram is wooing Diana, but she has no interest in him whatsoever. They know that Bertram is married and abandoned his wife, and they know the type of man he is, so they’re more than happy to assist Helena to be rid of him. It’d have been nice if they instead talked some sense in to Helena and advised her to seek love elsewhere, but at least they were willing to help I guess.
There is also the Countess, who is Bertram’s mother. She approves of the match between Helena and Bertram, particularly since she already sees Helena as a daughter. Once Bertram flees the country she continues to side with Helena over her own son, recognizing his behavior for what it is. Much of her role in the play is actually spent in scenes geared more towards comedy with her steward and her clown, Lavatch. Her role in the primary plot is actually pretty minor except at the very beginning and end. For much of the play she is in Rousillon, which is far from the rest of the events in the story.
Writing
So I’ve reached the point where Shakespeare’s plays take on a less comedic and optimistic style. I sometimes wonder how the publishing order goes, and if he wrote the tragedies and comedies around the same time, or if his style changed that significantly over the course of his writings. So far it’s a 50/50 mix of good and bad with only two of his “problem plays” under my belt. I’m hoping the plays past the comedies portion lean more towards this one, rather than “Troilus and Cressida”.
This play itself was fairly well written though, even if the plot and situation wasn’t the greatest. The lines were well written and the dialog flowed quite well. This play was also one of the better ones in regard to pacing that I’ve read so far, so I’ve got to give it props for that. Even if the plot didn’t quite agree with me in all respects, I still have to give credit where it is due, and this one was superbly written in my opinion.
Closing Comments
So I have one comedy left, and based on the information I have it is not necessarily even a comedy. This next play will see the end of the comedies portion of the book, and then it’s on to the histories. I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews about the histories, so I don’t know what to expect. Of the three different segments of the book, it is the histories that I’m least sure of. Some say they have the best dialog in Shakespeare’s plays, and are quite engaging. Still, others say that they are a complete chore to read, and are a bunch of lengthy plays that go nowhere. I guess I’ll find out after next week.
All in all I have enjoyed the comedies. Even this “problem play” was enjoyable when all was said and done, although I miss the more straightforward and optimistic style of the earlier comedies. With only one comedy left to go, I can say with certainty that I have enjoyed them overall. There was really only the two bad apples in the bunch, and one of those was a tragedy as far as I was concerned. There were a few comedies that I enjoyed significantly less than others, but overall they almost all yielded some level of enjoyment. I really hope the rest of the book is as enjoyable, even if the stories take a darker turn. I’m not an enemy of tragedy, it’s just the one I have read thus far was a particularly bad example in my mind.
© 2010, Keonyn. All rights reserved.
Tags: Barnes and Noble, Comedy, Shakespeare, The Yale Shakespeare, William Shakespeare
