292 ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
Helen registers what an impossible
situation she is in when she has to
choose Bertram: “I dare not say I
take you, but I give / Me and my
service ever whilst I live / Into your
guiding power” (2.3.103–105).
If Bertram was not enamored
with Helen before, he certainly
will not be now. It is no
coincidence that the woman he
does actively desire, Diana, is
named after the goddess of
chastity. She inspires his lust
precisely because she seems
impervious to love herself.
Furthermore, the play implies
an unflattering parallel between
Helen and Paroles. Both are
ambitious, lower-class characters
whose designs on Bertram promise
to be socially advantageous to
them. More specifically, Helen’s
use of the bedtrick is morally
suspect, in that she forces
Bertram to have sex with
someone against his will, and
uses Diana as a public scapegoat
for her own desires.
Social mobility
A further ethical debate centers
around the meaning and
importance of class distinctions.
Bertram insists that he will be
shamed, and his noble lineage
degraded, by uniting with the
lower-class Helen. The King
argues that all titles were once
bestowed for worthy service,
and so he can make Helen
Bertram’s social equal on the
basis of her virtue.
Although this sounds very
progressive, it is at odds with
assumptions elsewhere in the
play, and beyond it. One of the few
guidelines for wardship was that
the ward was not supposed to be
married to anyone socially beneath
him. Furthermore, the King may
argue that everyone’s blood is
ultimately the same, but he would
hardly be in his own position of
royal privilege were that the case.What the play tries to do toward the
end is to argue that, rather
than jeopardizing Bertram’s class
status, Helen actually preserves
it. He carelessly gives away his
ancestral ring, but Helen takes
it into her own safe-keeping.
Equally, Bertram thinks he is
wasting his noble seed in an
illicit sexual encounter, but
Helen takes possession of this,
too, and nurtures it into an heir
to honor him.Held up high by his comrades,
Bertram (Alex Waldmann in a 2013
RSC production) wins praise for his
bravery in war. By contrast, the war
reveals Paroles to be a coward.Wars is no strife
To the dark house and
the detested wife.
Bertram
Act 2, Scene 3