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A review by mary00
All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare
4.0
Enertaining, although much darker than most of Shakespeare's other comedies.
In reading most of the reviews I'm just a little surprised on how one-sided the views of Betram are. Obviously, Bertram has many character flaws. However, I think that a case can be made that he is not as big of a jerk as the play is set up to portray him as. He is young, and as a result of his youth makes some serious mistakes. But can we truly fault him for not loving Helena? It may seem incomprehensible that he would not love such an intelligent, sweet, and beautiful woman - but we don't choose who we fall in love with. I for one cannot fault him for not loving Helena and for not being happy about being forced to marry her. Anyone would be upset at being pushed into a marriage that they don't desire, however desirable it appears to everyone else. Although Bertram is not a character that I admire or love, he is a character who I can feel some sympathy for.
Likewise, Helena is not as innocent as she may appear at first reading. She trapped Bertram into marrying her, knowing full well that he did not care for her in the way that she cared for him. She is a perfect example of the classic sterotype that good girls fall for the bad boys.
A little part of me wishes that Shakespeare would have let the audience see the other side of the story a bit more, instead of manuipulating them into viewing Bertram as a complete cad. He is a cad, but not as completely as most readers will conclude.
In reading most of the reviews I'm just a little surprised on how one-sided the views of Betram are. Obviously, Bertram has many character flaws. However, I think that a case can be made that he is not as big of a jerk as the play is set up to portray him as. He is young, and as a result of his youth makes some serious mistakes. But can we truly fault him for not loving Helena? It may seem incomprehensible that he would not love such an intelligent, sweet, and beautiful woman - but we don't choose who we fall in love with. I for one cannot fault him for not loving Helena and for not being happy about being forced to marry her. Anyone would be upset at being pushed into a marriage that they don't desire, however desirable it appears to everyone else. Although Bertram is not a character that I admire or love, he is a character who I can feel some sympathy for.
Likewise, Helena is not as innocent as she may appear at first reading. She trapped Bertram into marrying her, knowing full well that he did not care for her in the way that she cared for him. She is a perfect example of the classic sterotype that good girls fall for the bad boys.
A little part of me wishes that Shakespeare would have let the audience see the other side of the story a bit more, instead of manuipulating them into viewing Bertram as a complete cad. He is a cad, but not as completely as most readers will conclude.