William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

Louise Harrington (Cardiff University)

Ed. by Virginia Mason Vaughan, Clark University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1604 - c. 1609

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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Recommended Reading

Along with

Measure For Measure

and

Troilus and Cressida, All’s Well That Ends Well

is traditionally labeled a “problem play”. This term derives from F. S. Boas’s 1896 study,

Shakespeare and His Predecessors,

which considered

All’s Well That Ends Well

Measure For Measure

Troilus and Cressida

, and

Hamlet

to be “dramas so singular in theme and temper [that they] cannot be strictly called comedies or tragedies”. In common with the other “problem plays”,

All’s Well That Ends Well

follows a comic trajectory that ends in marriage, but that marriage is imposed on an unwilling groom and does not resolve the tensions aroused in the play. Shakespeare also used mixed modes in

All’s Well

, combining fairy tale improbabilities (magic potion, miraculous recoveries, and…

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1885 words

Citation: Harrington, Louise. "All's Well That Ends Well". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 April 2004; last revised 07 June 2020. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6776, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

Dates

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