Healing is a motif that permeates throughout All's Well That Ends Well, manifesting in various forms and contexts. The motif of healing encompasses physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the development of the plot. It also contributes to the play’s overall attention to personal transformation and moral redemption. In Act 1, Scene 1, Helen contemplates the concept of healing and acknowledges the inherent capacity within individuals to heal themselves:
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie
Which we ascribe to heaven.
In saying this, Helen highlights her belief that remedies for healing often lie within, despite most people attributing them to a higher power such as heaven. In Act 2, Scene 1, Helen expands on this belief, assuring the King that she possesses the ability to cure him if he’ll believe he can be cured. She employs personification to describe the process of healing him:
What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly,
Health shall live free, and sickness freely die.
Health and sickness are personified here, depicted as entities with human-like qualities engaged in a metaphorical battle. Helen promises the King that infirmities will “fly” from his healthy parts, allowing health to thrive and sickness to “freely die.”
Not everyone believes in Helen’s powers, however. In Act 4, Scene 3, Lafew and Parolles discuss Helen's role as a healer. They doubt her capabilities, referring to her as a "weak minister”:
PAROLLES: Nay, ’tis strange, ’tis very strange; that is the brief and the tedious of it; and he’s of a most facinorous spirit that will not acknowledge it to be the—
LAFEW: Very hand of heaven.
PAROLLES: Ay, so I say.
LAFEW: In a most weak—
PAROLLES: And debile minister. Great power, great transcendence, which should indeed give us a further use to be made than alone the recov’ry of the King[...]
Lafew, contradicting Helen’s earlier claim, insists that the King's healing must have come from the "hand of heaven." If Helen did cure him, he implies, she must have been acting as a tool of divine intervention. This metaphorical representation emphasizes the limitations imposed on women during that era. Helen's gender prevents her from being recognized as a legitimate physician, even though everyone around her does seem to "heal" in their own way.
Thus, the motif of healing underscores the power dynamics at play in the narrative. It also points to the potential for every character’s personal improvement and redemption. The pursuit of physical, emotional, and spiritual healing becomes intertwined with the characters' journeys toward love and growth.
In Act 1, Scene 2, the King employs personification to describe Bertram's similarity to his father and expresses his hope that Bertram will inherit his father's virtues:
Youth, thou bear’st thy father’s face.
Frank nature, rather curious than in haste,
Hath well composed thee. Thy father’s moral parts
Mayst thou inherit too.
In this passage, the King solemnly declares his hopes for Bertram’s character. He personifies nature, ascribing human characteristics to it and describing it as "frank" and "curious." He is implying, here, that Nature took its time in putting together Bertram’s face, and that he is “well composed.” The tone that the king delivers this in is very formal and declamatory.
When Shakespeare uses the construction “[m]ayst thou,” it gives the passage the feeling of a blessing, or an instruction from a deity. The King is saying he hopes Bertram will be able to be like his father in all the ways he can. It also makes the relationship between Bertram’s features and his character causal. Because he looks like his father he must, it seems, be able to act like him, inheriting his “moral parts.”
This personification emphasizes the King's belief that Bertram's resemblance to his father goes beyond mere physical features. He hopes that it extends to his father's personal qualities as well.Through this personification, the King expresses his hopes for Bertram's character and values, indicating his desire for Bertram to inherit his father's admirable traits. It also shows the King's belief in the influence of Bertram’s father on everyone around him, and the significance of lineage in shaping an individual's identity in All's Well That Ends Well.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Helen uses a metaphor invoking the sun and personification to describe her unrequited love for Bertram:
Thus, Indian-like,
Religious in mine error, I adore
The sun that looks upon his worshipper
But knows of him no more.
Helen employs a simile in this passage, likening herself to an “Indian-like” sun worshipper. Here, the “sun” represents Bertram, while Helen portrays herself as the obsessive and ardent worshipper. This simile illustrates the intensity and devotion of Helen’s love for Bertram, despite his obliviousness to her. He’s so distant from her that he might as well be the sun shining on a human. Helen’s devotion to him is “religious” in its totality, but she knows it’s useless, an “error.”
Moreover, Shakespeare also utilizes personification here, as the sun is depicted as having human-like qualities—it “looks upon his worshipper.” This personification enhances the simile, emphasizing that while Helen adores Bertram (the sun), he remains indifferent and unaware (“knows of him no more”) of her affection. This passage reflects Helen’s sense of unrequited love and devotion, and sets up the drastic measures she takes to win Bertram’s love. As she’s saying this to the Countess, Bertram’s mother, there’s also a pun involved. Helen is not the only one who loves her “sun” in this situation.
Healing is a motif that permeates throughout All's Well That Ends Well, manifesting in various forms and contexts. The motif of healing encompasses physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the development of the plot. It also contributes to the play’s overall attention to personal transformation and moral redemption. In Act 1, Scene 1, Helen contemplates the concept of healing and acknowledges the inherent capacity within individuals to heal themselves:
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie
Which we ascribe to heaven.
In saying this, Helen highlights her belief that remedies for healing often lie within, despite most people attributing them to a higher power such as heaven. In Act 2, Scene 1, Helen expands on this belief, assuring the King that she possesses the ability to cure him if he’ll believe he can be cured. She employs personification to describe the process of healing him:
What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly,
Health shall live free, and sickness freely die.
Health and sickness are personified here, depicted as entities with human-like qualities engaged in a metaphorical battle. Helen promises the King that infirmities will “fly” from his healthy parts, allowing health to thrive and sickness to “freely die.”
Not everyone believes in Helen’s powers, however. In Act 4, Scene 3, Lafew and Parolles discuss Helen's role as a healer. They doubt her capabilities, referring to her as a "weak minister”:
PAROLLES: Nay, ’tis strange, ’tis very strange; that is the brief and the tedious of it; and he’s of a most facinorous spirit that will not acknowledge it to be the—
LAFEW: Very hand of heaven.
PAROLLES: Ay, so I say.
LAFEW: In a most weak—
PAROLLES: And debile minister. Great power, great transcendence, which should indeed give us a further use to be made than alone the recov’ry of the King[...]
Lafew, contradicting Helen’s earlier claim, insists that the King's healing must have come from the "hand of heaven." If Helen did cure him, he implies, she must have been acting as a tool of divine intervention. This metaphorical representation emphasizes the limitations imposed on women during that era. Helen's gender prevents her from being recognized as a legitimate physician, even though everyone around her does seem to "heal" in their own way.
Thus, the motif of healing underscores the power dynamics at play in the narrative. It also points to the potential for every character’s personal improvement and redemption. The pursuit of physical, emotional, and spiritual healing becomes intertwined with the characters' journeys toward love and growth.
Healing is a motif that permeates throughout All's Well That Ends Well, manifesting in various forms and contexts. The motif of healing encompasses physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the development of the plot. It also contributes to the play’s overall attention to personal transformation and moral redemption. In Act 1, Scene 1, Helen contemplates the concept of healing and acknowledges the inherent capacity within individuals to heal themselves:
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie
Which we ascribe to heaven.
In saying this, Helen highlights her belief that remedies for healing often lie within, despite most people attributing them to a higher power such as heaven. In Act 2, Scene 1, Helen expands on this belief, assuring the King that she possesses the ability to cure him if he’ll believe he can be cured. She employs personification to describe the process of healing him:
What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly,
Health shall live free, and sickness freely die.
Health and sickness are personified here, depicted as entities with human-like qualities engaged in a metaphorical battle. Helen promises the King that infirmities will “fly” from his healthy parts, allowing health to thrive and sickness to “freely die.”
Not everyone believes in Helen’s powers, however. In Act 4, Scene 3, Lafew and Parolles discuss Helen's role as a healer. They doubt her capabilities, referring to her as a "weak minister”:
PAROLLES: Nay, ’tis strange, ’tis very strange; that is the brief and the tedious of it; and he’s of a most facinorous spirit that will not acknowledge it to be the—
LAFEW: Very hand of heaven.
PAROLLES: Ay, so I say.
LAFEW: In a most weak—
PAROLLES: And debile minister. Great power, great transcendence, which should indeed give us a further use to be made than alone the recov’ry of the King[...]
Lafew, contradicting Helen’s earlier claim, insists that the King's healing must have come from the "hand of heaven." If Helen did cure him, he implies, she must have been acting as a tool of divine intervention. This metaphorical representation emphasizes the limitations imposed on women during that era. Helen's gender prevents her from being recognized as a legitimate physician, even though everyone around her does seem to "heal" in their own way.
Thus, the motif of healing underscores the power dynamics at play in the narrative. It also points to the potential for every character’s personal improvement and redemption. The pursuit of physical, emotional, and spiritual healing becomes intertwined with the characters' journeys toward love and growth.
The King utilizes metaphor, personification, and employs some Elizabethan English dialect while discussing the concept of honor and reproaching Bertram for dismissing Helen:
She is young, wise, fair [...]
And these breed honor.
That is honor’s scorn
Which challenges itself as honor’s born
And is not like the sire.
Honors thrive
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our foregoers. The mere word’s a slave
Debauched on every tomb, on every grave
A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb
Where dust and damned oblivion is the tomb
Of honored bones indeed.
The King employs a metaphor here, characterizing honor as a “slave” whom people debase for unprincipled purposes. This metaphor suggests that the term “honor” is often misused and stripped of its true meaning. The King is here pointing out to Bertram that a woman’s virginity is a poor measure of her honorable character, as honor should be derived from “acts,” not from a “lying trophy.”
Furthermore, honor is personified here, as Shakespeare gives it human attributes such as thriving, challenging, and being born. The King is trying to persuade Bertram that although that honor is good, it should be something that’s cultivated through virtuous actions rather than relying solely on arbitrary qualifications like lineage.
When the King slurs the word “debauched” to “debosh’d,” it’s indicative of his frustration. This use of dialect implies his disdain for how the term “honor” is frequently degraded and deprived of its genuine significance. He literally “debauches” the word “debauched,” demonstrating to the audience how easy it is to use a word—like honor—incorrectly.
Parolles contemplates the lies he will need to fabricate for Bertram and the Lords in order to maintain his façade of bravery. In this scene, Shakespeare combines idiom, personification, and a classical allusion to display Parolles's internal conflict:
[...] [T]hey begin to smoke me; and disgraces have of late knocked too often at my door. I find my tongue is too foolhardy; but my heart hath the fear of Mars before it and of his creatures, not daring the reports of my tongue.
The phrase "they begin to smoke me" (as it’s used here) is an idiom. When Parolles says this, it means that he fears that Bertram and his companions are beginning to suspect his true nature. It’s a reference to “smoking” a hiding place in order to drive someone out by making the air unbreathable. Parolles is backed into a corner by his own lies, and fears being forced to admit them.
Shakespeare further captures Parolles’ state of anxiety by personifying both the “disgraces” that plague him, and his own tongue. This approach makes inanimate concepts like “disgrace” and “tongue” seem like living things with their own will and motivation. When Parolles says "disgraces have of late knocked too often at my door," he's saying that he’s been getting into trouble frequently in the recent past. He also talks about his “tongue being too foolhardy,” which means he can’t control what he says. Both of these moments place the blame for Parolles’s dire situation away from the man himself. His tongue and his “disgraces,” in his opinion, act in ways he can’t control.
When Parolles mentions his “heart” having “the fear of Mars before it,” Shakespeare is making a reference to Mars, the Roman god of war. Parolles is a military man and he’s been misrepresenting himself to his fellow soldiers. By invoking Mars, he expresses just how scared he is of his comrades finding out about his lies and cowardice.
Diana engages in a flirtatious dialogue with Bertram, employing metaphor and personification to emphasize the value of her honor and chastity:
Mine honor’s such a ring.
My chastity’s the jewel of our house,
Bequeathed down from many ancestors,
[...] Thus your own proper wisdom
Brings in the champion honor on my part
Against your vain assault.
Diana refers to her honor (her virginity) as a ring, and her chastity as the "jewel of our house." This metaphor effectively conveys the value and significance that Diana places on her “virtue.” Women in this period lost a great deal of their value on the marriage market if they had premarital sex. It’s part of the reason Bertram’s request that Helen have his child before he’ll marry her is so shocking to everyone involved. Diana's words in this scene reflect a common attitude of the time: that virginity is not just important, it’s like a precious heirloom passed down through generations.
Diana also uses personification, portraying honor as a “champion” that stands against Bertram’s advances. This gives agency to the concept of honor, depicting it as a guardian or protector against Bertram’s “assault.” By doing this, Diana represents her honor as an active force in opposition to Bertram’s intentions.
The combination of metaphor and personification in this scene serves to show the audience Diana’s intelligence. Bertram thinks that he has the upper hand in this situation, but as the audience knows, Diana and Helen are actually the ones with all the information.
Parolles's fortunes take a turn for the worse toward the end of the play, and he laments his fate to the Fool. As he does so, he invokes the temperamental nature of "Fortune" through personification, alliteration, and the sensory language of smell and sight:
I am now, sir, muddied in Fortune's mood, and smell somewhat strong of her strong displeasure.
Parolles uses personification to paint Fortune as a capricious entity. They have “moods” that can muddy or stain those who fall from their grace. This portrayal of Fortune as moody humanizes the abstract concept of luck or destiny for Shakespeare’s audience.
Additionally, Parolles uses imagery evoking sight and smell to describe himself as being "muddied" in Fortune's "mood." This suggests that his current state is not only unpleasant, but also dirty and unclean. The “muddy” state he’s in seems to correlate to the foul smell, both indicating he's something undesirable.
Moreover, the use of the word "strong" repetitively serves to emphasize the intensity and unpleasantness of Parolles's circumstances. It also adds a sensory aspect, as "smell" and "strong" together conjure up the idea of an overpowering, pungent odor. Shakespeare creates a vivid visual image of someone who has been soiled by bad luck, emphasizing the seriousness of Parolles’s misfortune.
The use of alliteration in "smell somewhat strong of her strong displeasure" works to highlight the intensity of Parolles's downfall. The repeated “s” sounds create a sense of weight and inescapability, as well as a cumulative, unpleasant hiss. This emphasizes how sorry for himself Parolles is feeling. All the elements in this sentence work together to convey the desperate state of a character who has fallen victim to the ever-changing moods of "Fortune."
When the Fool encounters Parolles delivering a letter in Act 5, Shakespeare makes his distaste for Parolles’s stench apparent through the use of the sensory language of smell, personification, and idiom:
Truly, Fortune’s displeasure is but sluttish if it smell so strongly as thou speak’st of. I will henceforth eat no fish of Fortune’s butt’ring. Prithee, allow the wind.
The Fool employs smell imagery here to liken Parolles’s current unfortunate situation to a repugnant smell. He doesn’t just smell bad: the aroma is akin to bad fish. This vivid imagery is instrumental in painting a picture of the distasteful condition Parolles finds himself in. It highlights his decline from his previous position of respect to one of ridicule. Through the smell imagery, Shakespeare imparts to the audience a tangible sense of Parolles’s disgrace.
Moreover, the Fool utilizes personification by giving human characteristics to “Fortune.” The Fool refers to Fortune’s “displeasure," implying that it’s Parolles’s new state of being that stinks so horribly. The Fool's comparison of Fortune's “displeasure” to a cook saucing fish also appeals to the audience’s sense of smell. Fortune’s “sauce” smells so bad that the Fool has to ask Parolles to “allow the wind” (air himself out).
The word "sluttish" is used in an idiomatic manner here. It doesn’t mean “sexually promiscuous” in this context. Rather, it takes on its older meaning: “sluttish” here means “messy” in a way that was typically used to criticize women.
