ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Helena. The play’s heroine. The orphan daughter of a great doctor, she is the ward of the Countess of Rousillon, and hopelessly in love with the Countess’ son, Bertram.

Detailed explanation-2: -Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well is the story of its heroine, Helen, more so than the story of Bertram, for whose love she yearns.

Detailed explanation-3: -She is a remarkably active and powerful female character in a society where women are assumed to be weak and inferior to men. She takes her fate into her own hands by boldly betting her own life on her ability to cure the king’s illness, and thereby winning Bertram’s hand in marriage-against his will.

Detailed explanation-4: -Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Helena, the heroine of All’s Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare’s ‘loveliest character’ while the Victorian actress Ellen Terry called her ‘despicable’ and a ‘doormat’. Samuel Johnson went so far as to compare Parolles, the play’s chief comic character, with the mighty Falstaff.

Detailed explanation-5: -Helena, the daughter of Nedar, is the lifelong friend of Hermia (to whom she often compares herself). Before the events of the play, Helena was betrothed to the nobleman Demetrius, but she was jilted when his affections turned to Hermia.