Helen in Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends
Well is a strong, intelligent, and goal-oriented woman. In order to get the
man that she loves and move up the ranks in society, she is willing to do
whatever it takes. In the beginning of the play we get the King of France that
is dying of a fistula, and all the male physicians can’t seem to find a cure for
him. Helen, the late daughter of a doctor, and taken in by Bertram’s mother, is
able to gain an audience with the king to deliver a cure in exchange for the
means to marry whomever she wishes. What is hard core about Helen is that she
is willing to sacrifice her life, if the cure does not work, and that she is
unapologetic in her abilities to obtain her goals. This of course, our “dear”
Bertram has a serious problem with. What I found interesting is the exchange
between Helen and the King when she is trying to convince him to accept her
father’s cure. One would think that the King would be up for anything in order
to live, but this is not the case. The King blatantly admits that her
credibility as a physician is considerably less to non-existent due to her
gender. When Lafeu enters and addresses the King, he notifies him that there is
someone there that can cure him, it is the king that automatically assumes that
the physician is male.
This kind of sentiment is nothing
new. Since the nineteenth century women have been fighting for the rights of
women, and the destruction of female gender constraints. Gender inequality in the workplace has been a
long struggle for women trying to break into a male dominated arena. This is especially
true in the field of medicine. “The entrance of women into American medical
practice during the mid-nineteenth century was a direct outgrowth of the social
reform movements that characterized the period.” – http://www.hws.edu
the early female physicians faced many
struggles in order to achieve success and acceptance. This is still a problem
for women and the LGBTQA in the workplace. Females in male dominated
professions still make less money on the dollar to their male counterparts, and
members of the LGBTQA are harassed in the workplace, and denied jobs based on
their sexuality. This is evident in All’s Well That Ends Well.
In 2.1 of the play Lafeu has to remark on Helen’s qualifications and
credibility, and makes it seem like a major accomplishment considering that she
is female. “With one that in her sex, her years, profession.” (2215) Even
though Helen is not a physician herself, she is obviously intelligent enough to
interpret her father’s work, and deliver a cure to the king. The king tells
Helen that he is not going to put his trust in her ability when all the male
doctors before her that are among the Assembled College of Physicians (2215)
have declared that medicine cannot beat nature, and that he fully expects her
to fail (2216). Helen hearing this tells the King that she is willing to put
her life on the line, and offers up her price for healing him. If it had been another male who had offered a
cure to the King and the price would have been a wife, and not a husband, it is
Bertram that would have received no resistance, and Helen would have submitted
to being a prize against her wishes. 