All's Well That Ends Well

Though Bertram is the primary romantic interest of the play, he is also, arguably, the antagonist, as he works to thwart Helen’s efforts to marry him. Bertram is the son of the late Count of Rossillion, making him the new Count, but he is too young to take up his role in practice. He is sent to Paris to become a ward of the King. Much like Helen, Bertram shows a willingness to disobey authority and pursue his own desires. Though his expressed desire is to participate in battles, which he is also too young to do, the mix in his language of warlike and sexual imagery implies that Bertram is a womanizer, seeking to flee to Florence for lust rather than honor. This language also suggests that he sees love affairs as a win-lose battle of the sexes, and that for him both war and women are an area of male conquest.

Unlike Helen, Bertram does not seem to espouse the idea of true love, nor does he have any need for an increase in wealth or rank. He does, however, lack male empowerment, as he is in an embarrassing position for his perceived masculinity: a young Count under the control of his mother until he is of age. Thus, Bertram claims that he wants to bolster his reputation, though his actions often run counter to this aim in practice. Though he makes a name for himself in the battlefield at Florence, fleeing the court and rejecting Helen both count as strikes against his honor in France. Bertram’s characterization can be read as showing male youth and inconsistency, a young man with poorly-controlled internal drives who yearns to “find himself” and to accelerate his maturity.

His behavior is an example of libertine behavior. This trope is common in drama, although the word “libertine” was not commonly used to describe it until the end of the 17th century. The play explores through his character the collateral damage that may be caused by a man behaving in this way at the time, especially one who will promise marriage to a woman and then desert her, leaving her without her honor and with the risk of pregnancy (as with Diana). He wants only sex and violence, feeling that these can enhance his manliness, but he does not take responsibility for how those actions may hurt his reputation or the feelings of others, like Helen or Diana. Bertram promises Diana marriage, love, and wealth, but he intends to sleep with her and leave without fulfilling those promises. His “assault” on Diana’s virginity enacts the conversation Helen has with Parolles early in the play, in which Helen acknowledges how men pursue women’s sexuality without shame or consideration, much as soldiers would attack an enemy on the battlefield. This dynamic again conflates battle and sexuality, which equally seem to impact Bertram’s character as a young man.

The Countess is an example of the Caregiver or Mother archetype, meaning that she provides support to another character in the text, Helen, that is unconditional or selfless. Though the Countess loves Bertram, she explains early in the play that she views Helen as her daughter, and, after Bertram refuses to marry Helen, the Countess denounces Bertram, saying that Helen is her only child. This behavior, paired with the Countess’s support of Helen’s attempt to cure the King, marks her as a Caregiver, supporting Helen even at the cost of her own family and standing in court. However, since the King also supports Helen, the Countess never faces these risks directly.

A common character that readers might compare the Countess to is the archetype of the fairy godmother, who devotes their efforts to helping a younger or less powerful character succeed in their ambitions, rather than possessing ambitions of their own. This archetype itself derives from the Classical Greek mythic trope of the divine favor of a god or goddess for a mortal who they choose—sometimes arbitrarily—to protect. As a high-ranking widow, the Countess has an unusual level of power and autonomy as a woman, and she is an emblem and exemplar—for good or ill—of female empowerment and control. She is also the practical enabler of Helen’s plans.

The Countess’s role in the play is also to guide the audience toward the moral conclusion that Helen is correct to deceive Bertram, while Bertram is immoral in his womanizing. While present in the final scene, the Countess is silent throughout the revelations, even when her son is to be imprisoned. By taking Helen’s side over that of even her own son, the Countess is enacting a version of female loyalty in which the principles of feminine solidarity come before unconditional motherly love.

The King of France is a Ruler archetype, presiding over the events of the play with near-total control over the outcome. As the arbiter of power, the King can determine the course of each character’s fate, and he consistently rules in Helen’s favor. In the first instances of the King’s rule, the play shows the King in ill health, struggling to overcome his fistula. During this time, the King refuses to choose an allegiance with either Florence or Siena. Characters conjecture that he is first distracted by his ill-health and, then, that he wishes the young men of France to choose their own side. This is an interesting statement in favor of personal freedom from the play’s most powerful, autocratic figure. The King’s authority gives him authority over domestic issues, such as Helen’s marriage to Bertram, and, at the end of the play, he travels to Rossillion specifically to oversee Bertram’s marriage to Lafew’s daughter. In these matters, he is autocratic, willing to enforce his decision by imprisonment or death. He is petitioned by Diana and her mother in his role as justice-maker. The King’s authority in the play can be disobeyed, as Bertram opposes him by fleeing to Florence. However, this betrayal is avenged in Bertram’s ultimate return and marriage to Helen, returning the natural balance of the play in the King’s favor.

Many of the aspects of the King’s role would be conventional for Shakespeare’s audience, both in reality and as a matter of dramatic role tropes. As in 16th-century England, the play’s King has power to make and confiscate title: He offers Helen nobility and threatens to remove nobility from Bertram. As such, the King and the ring he gives Helen are representative of ennoblement through recognized merit, an unusual but increasingly possible experience at the time of writing. Shakespeare himself negotiated the considerable privileges and risks of royal favor in his career. At the time, rank-based nobility was supposed to reflect a corresponding merit-based nobility, with the monarch as the pinnacle of both power and virtue, and with the ability to decide on both. In his ability to “raise up” Helen, the King’s role upholds this model of social order, as her rank now corresponds to the merit he recognizes in her. The play also uses the King’s role and favor to explore the nature of “nobility” and its dual inner/outer meaning of “rank” and “virtue” or “merit.” Helen proves herself to the King through merit, which earns her rank through his power, while the “noble” Bertram openly risks the King’s displeasure, including rank demotion, and shows himself to be ignoble internally, although protective of his external social rank.