Lavatch Lavatch is a cantankerous, pessimistic clown and servant of the Countess of Rossillion. He provides some comic relief in the play, usually in somewhat lascivious prose that espouses his gloomy world view. He is the lowest character on the totem pole in the play, so unscrupulous that even Parolles calls him a knave. He…
Tag: All’s Well That Ends Well
Character Analysis of Duke of Florence, King of France & Lafew in All’s Well That Ends Well
Duke of Florence The Duke of Florence welcomes Bertram and Parolles when they escape Paris to fight the war. He is allied with France in a war against Sienna, another province of what would later become Italy. King of France The King of France represents a dying breed of nobility, one in which honor and…
Character Analysis of Helena in All’s Well That Ends Well
Helena Helena is the daughter of the recently deceased court physician, Gerard de Narbon, from whom she has learned his healing secrets. She has become the ward of the Countess of Rossillion, with whom she has a very maternal relationship, though she has fallen in love with the countess’s son, Bertram. She is disturbed by…
Character Profiles of Countess of Rossillion & Diana in All’s Well That Ends Well
Countess of Rossillion The Countess of Rossillion is Bertram’s mother, and she is still mourning the recent death of her husband. She has also willingly become Helena’s guardian since the young woman’s father, a physician of local renown, has also recently passed away. Kind and generous, the countess exemplifies the best of the noble tradition…
Character profiles of Bertram (Count of Rossillion) & Brothers Dumaine in All’s Well That Ends Well
Bertram (Count of Rossillion) Bertram is the Count of Rossillion. His father has recently died, and his mother, the Countess of Rossillion, is still in mourning. Bertram is quite young, perhaps no more than twenty, and he is eager to join the king’s ranks in Paris and then go off to battle in Florence. Bertram’s…
All’s Well That Ends Well – Meaning – Short Summary
Act 1, Scene 1 All’s Well That Ends Well opens at the palace in Rossillion, a region in France that borders Spain and the Mediterranean Sea. Here, the Countess of Rossillion mourns her recently deceased husband and the imminent departure of her son, Bertram, the Count of Rossillion, who has been summoned to Paris by…
William Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well: A Brief Introduction
All’s Well That Ends Well was probably written sometime between 1600 and 1605, and many experts date the work to 1603. Others believe that the play is the lost Shakespearean drama titled Love’s Labour Won, which was written before 1598. The first written mention of the play under its current title appeared in 1623, when…