V-Card Controversies

PAROLES: Are you meditating on virginity?

HELEN: Ay…. Man is enemy to virginity: how may we barricado [barricade] it against him?

PAROLES: Keep him out.

(lines 105-109)

            All’s Well that Ends Well explores interesting angles on the concept of virginity, specifically in the dialogue between Paroles and Helen in Act I, Scene 1. There are several conflicting views shared between the two characters, and it feels as though what is expressed possibly reflects the views of Shakespeare at the time as well.

            Paroles and Helen begin their conversation comparing the concept of virginity and sex in general to that of war. Phrases like “barricado” (lines 107-108) and “military policy” (line 115) all use war as a metaphor for virginity: Helen asks Paroles for advice on how to keep her virginity away from unwanted lovers, and even admits a woman’s virginity needs a man’s help, apparently.  

HELEN: …our virginity, though valiant in defence, yet is weak. Unfold to us some warlike resistance.

PAROLES: There is none. Man, setting down before you, will undermine you and blow you up.

(lines 110-113)

            Basically, there’s no hope for women at this period in history in deciding when and where they decide to “lose” their virginity (which, the concept of “losing” your virginity is a bit strange to me—but none on that currently). In fact, just a bit later in the scene, Paroles urges Helen to “lose” her virginity so she can contribute to the increase in population because keeping her virginity makes her potential for reproducing “lost” (line 124). Here again is the concept of “losing” and also a strange, conflicting view in which Helen is encouraged to “lose” her virginity but only to be in line with the patriarchal, archaic view that Paroles offers, that of to bring children into the world. However, it can be said that it is still strange Helen would even be encouraged to lose her virginity at all. Wasn’t it prudent to most people back in the time Shakespeare wrote in to preserve a woman’s virginity is one of the most important things? We see in Titus Andronicus that Lavinia is considered to be “nothing” or “ruined” once she is raped and her virginity is stolen from her. Why the slight deviation in All’s Well, where losing virginity is considered to be a better than keeping it, if only for the aspect of producing offspring?

            Moreover, Paroles calls virginity “peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love—which is the most inhibited [prohibited] sin in the canon [scriptures]” (lines 134-136). So now virginity is considered a sin, when most religious texts preach the sanctity of it. Why has Shakespeare expressed such a different view on virginity in this play and not in the others? Possibly, this is a new interpretation of his developed over the years as he continued to write plays. That being said, this play feels neither comedic nor tragic in nature, but just bizarre in its material, almost like Shakespeare was going for something quite prematurely absurdist.

            Back to v-cards. Helen asks Paroles, “How might one do, sir, to lose it to her own liking?” (line 140). She wants to “lose” it on her own terms, but Paroles ignores this tender request by relating virginity to being sold: “Off with’t while ’tis vendible [salable]” (line 143). This, like all Shakespeare plays, objectifies women and paints their virginity as an object to be sold. Is Shakespeare really pushing for women to make their own decisions regarding their virginity or really just reinforcing gender roles of the time? I’d like to end with one more quote, at the very end of the scene. It feels, once again, this quote can both objectify Helen and women in general, but also hints at their little agency in being able to manipulate their husbands, perhaps. Whatever the meaning, Shakespeare has some controversies on virginity he never tied up. What do you all think?

PAROLES: …Get thee a good husband and use [treat] him as he treats thee. So farewell.

(lines 197-198)