Undone and forfeited to cares forever: The Plight of Bertram in All’s Well That Ends Well

Marriage under compulsion was a hot topic in the Renaissance: lawyers tried to regulate it, moralists railed against it, and playwrights dramatized it. Shakespearean works such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream use the threat of forced marriage to drive the plot, but through comic or tragic means this threat is averted. This is not the case in All’s Well That Ends Well, in which Bertram is compelled to marry Helena. However, Bertram gets little sympathy in the play and has not had much more from critics who have tended to focus on Helena’s experience. This article reappraises his situation by examining the play’s portrayal of the procedural steps of marriage (vows and consummation), digressing into discussion of the moral and legal issues involved at the points these issues arise, contrasting Bertram’s experiences against other Shakespearean characters, and considering how power and sympathy are managed to make Bertram’s subjection more palatable.