All’s Well That Ends Well reverses the usual fairy-tale trope and depicts a young woman on a quest to win a man. Helen, an extraordinary character with elements of the modern professional and the medieval saint, sets out to secure Bertram, a nobleman, for her husband. But the fairy tale plot is further reversed when Helen appears to win Bertram, only to have him flee from her. Helen embarks on a second quest to win him for a second time, with a plot that deceives Bertram but may also help cure him. This ambiguous but moving comedy asks how marriage is made real, how we can heal from our mistakes, and what it means to end well. In this course, you’ll learn the story and context of All’s Well That Ends Well, explore its questions around cure and care, and discover how this play reflects Shakespeare’s search for a dramatic form that captures the complex, “mingled” form of the good and ill in human life. 

In Part 1, you’ll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Julia Lupton, Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. This episode introduces the historical, religious, and literary contexts that shape this play, which combines modern, progressive political dimensions, elements of myth and folklore, and spiritual notions of grace. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean.