All's Well That Ends Well Part 2 - The Characters

Shakespeare For All

Part 2 discusses the play’s most significant images, of sickness and death, of medicine, and grace. It asks how these themes are reflected in the complicated relationship between Helen and Bertram, focusing particularly on the deceptive plot that Helen uses to secure him in the “dark house” that becomes a place of mystery and renewal. The episode goes on to discuss the role of darkness in comedy more generally - do tragic events undermine comedy, or make it more meaningful? It concludes by asking how the play’s “mingled” character reflects a Shakespearean perspective on the character of human life: how time reveals and reshapes the meaning of our actions, and in that way, can help us recover.