All's Well That Ends Well

Among Shakespeare’s many and varied works, a few plays are often described by scholars to be “problem plays” because of the issues they raise in social and interpersonal morality and ethics, and their ambiguous subversion of the traditional emotional narrative arcs of Renaissance drama. These plays fall outside—or between—the usual generic conventions of drama as either “comedy” or “tragedy.” The three plays considered problem plays are Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and All’s Well That Ends Well, though some scholars include The Merchant of Venice and Hamlet. The “problem” of these plays is that Shakespeare creates characters and scenarios that are too complex and psychologically real to be contained by the conventional ethical models that drama usually exemplified. In these plays, the relationship between cause and effect is more confused and the expected correlation between a character’s morality and the consequences they experience at the play’s end is often disrupted. In Measure for Measure, Angelo sets aside his rigorous legal ethic to save Claudio, while in Troilus and Cressida, Pandarus and Thersites display dark immorality and cynicism. For All’s Well That Ends Well, the primary issue is in Helen’s pursuit of marriage with