Conflict In All's Well That Ends Well example essay topic

The roles of women in Shakespeare's comedies tend to focus around love and relationships unlike the roles of men, which tend to revolve around power and ego. The roles of women specifically in Shakespeare's comedies As You Like It, Twelfth Night, All's Well That Ends Well, and Measure for Measure are few however; they are essential to establishing the play's story line. Firstly, the leading ladies' must create a conflict through the idealization of themselves and their respective male counterparts, which is used as the initial conflict that the play is based upon. Secondly, the women must endure some sort of transformation in order for the plot to continue. Thirdly, the women must use manipulation as the means of solving conflict or seeking some sort of revenge. By examining the dramatic function of women in the above four Shakespearian comedies one will observe that the roles of women are of vital importance to the development of the plot and the overall outcome of the play.

With the exception of Isabella from Measure for Measure many of the women in Shakespeare's comedies create the initial conflict in their respective plays through their views of themselves as well as their idealization and adoration for the leading male characters in the plays. Joseph Westlund states in his essay Longing and Sadness in All's Well, .".. the characters tend to elevate one another into models of perfection-or, in a similar and closely related move, to degrade one another for failing to live up to expected perfection". (Westlund, 190) For example, Helena from All's Well That Ends Well considers her betrothed Bertram the ideal husband because of what Westlund refers to as "a defense against her sense of being a lowborn and unworthy orphan". (Westlund, 191) The conflict in All's Well That Ends Well arises from the idea that Helena does not live up to Bertram's 'expected perfection'. Another example of a similar situation occurs in Twelfth Night only this time the conflict begins with the idea that the female character Viola must lure the idealist Duke Orsino from his distorted vision of the perfect wife into what Stanley Wells calls, "an acceptance of a more down-to-earth reality". (Wells, 23) In each of these cases the males exhibit little to no interest in the female characters at the start of the play and it is the dramatic role of the women to either transform themselves into the man's vision of the ideal woman or correct their idea of the perfect woman.

Interestingly Shakespeare chooses not to create the original conflict in the play Measure for Measure with the female's idealization of leading male character however, idealization still plays a major role creating conflict in this play. At the start of the play it is the character Angelo who believes Isabella to be the ideal woman, and candidate for spending the night in his bed. .".. you must lay down the treasure of your body to his supposed, or else let him suffer". (Shakespeare, II. iv. 96-97) Angelo attempts to blackmail Isabella it to giving up her virginity to save her brothers life. This play is different from the other four because it ends with another conflict, which is also caused by another man's idealization of Isabella. The Duke at the end of the play decides that Isabella is to be his wife, "Although his intentions appear honorable at first, in this own way he replicates Angelo's and Claudio's indifference to Isabella's desire to remain true to herself.

Like Angelo and Claudio before him, Vincent io sees in Isabella a reflection of his own needs". (Refer Poulsen, 164) It is because this play ends with another conflict, Isabella being forced to marry the Duke instead of following her own desires to become a nun, that this play may be considered a dark comedy. It does not end with the same happy way the other three plays conclude. After Shakespeare has used the female characters to establish the initial conflict in the play he then puts each woman through a process of transformation where the woman either takes on male characteristics and, or appearance, or is forced by the initial conflict to reexamine their beliefs and priorities. Viola, and the character Rosalind from the play As You Like It are both forced to physically become or appear to the audience and the other characters to have become males.

In order for Viola to get close to the Duke and the plot to continue, she must first disguise herself as a man because the Duke only has eyes for Olivia and will only surround himself with other men. Rosalind must disguise herself as a man in order for the plot to thicken so that when she runs into Orlando in the forest he does not recognize her and she is able to mould and manipulate Orlando into her ideal husband through 'love lessons'. The character Isabella is forced to reexamine her personal beliefs when asked to sacrifice her sacred virginity for her brother Claudio's life. In order for the plot in Measure for Measure to continue Isabella must put herself through the process of examining her priorities, and then take a stance on her approach to saving her brother. Similarly Helena must reexamine her priorities in order for All's Well That Ends Well to continue; however Helena chooses to proceed in a more manipulative way. Her transformation is different because she assumes the place of another woman Diana, in Bertram's bed.

In order for each play to come full circle each woman must manipulate the men in their play to achieve some sort of conclusion, or to seek revenge. As described above, Helena chooses to manipulate Bertram by using a technique called the bed trick. Bertram states that in order for him to consider Helena as his true wife she must among other things, .".. show me a child begotten of thy body that I am father to... ". (Shakespeare, . ii. 59-60) In order for Helena to consummate her marriage to Bertram she is forced to trick him into believing that she is Diana, the woman who Bertram wants to be with.

The idea of the bed trick is used to manipulate the male character Angelo in Measure for Measure as well. Isabella is forced to trick Angelo into believing that Mariana is she in order to restore Mariana with Angelo and to preserve her own virginity. Rosalind uses her disguise in As You Like It to manipulate her male counterpart and mould him into her ideal husband. Similarly Viola must use her disguise as a means of manipulating both Olivia and Orsino in order to reach the blissful end in Twelfth Night.

Viola uses her disguise to grow closer to the Duke and eventually convinces him that it is she he loves and not Olivia. Even the smaller character Maria manipulates the her co-worker Malvolio into believing that Olivia is in love with him, as a means of creating a comic revenge for his mistreatment of the other smaller characters in the play. In order for each play solve the problem created at the beginning through idealization; Shakespeare uses the women to manipulate the men into achieving their desires. The dramatic function of women in As You Like It, Twelfth Night, All's Well That Ends Well, and Measure for Measure is to first establish a conflict, usually caused by the woman's idealization of a male character, which must then be solved through the woman's transformation and eventually manipulation of male characters in order to reach some sort of conclusion, not necessarily a happy one as is the case in Measure for Measure. The roles of women in these plays are few however; they are of vital importance because it is the lives and life decisions of these women that each play is based upon.

Interestingly, the plot of Shakespearian comedies move from disorder to order and focus around the lives and outcomes of women, and Shakespearian tragedies move from order to disorder and center around the lives and outcome of male characters. Therefore it may be said that women create order in the imaginary 'Shakespearian world' and men are responsible for most of the disorder. Refer Poulsen, Marcia. "Female Power in Measure for Measure": Signet Classic Shakespeare. Measure for Measure (1988), 164. Shakespeare, William.

All's Well That Ends Well. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: Signet Classic, 1988.

Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. Ed. Stanley Wells. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Shakespeare, William.

Measure For Measure. Ed. S. Naga rajan. Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Ed. Stanley Wells.

Westlund, Joseph. "Longing, Idealization, and Sadness in All's Well That Ends Well": Signet Classic Shakespeare. All's Well That Ends Well (1988), 190..