SOURCE: “Motive and Meaning in All's Well That Ends Well,” in “Fanned and Winnowed Opinions”: Shakespearean Essays Presented to Harold Jenkins, edited by John W. Mahon and Thomas A. Pendleton, Methuen, 1987, pp. 26-51.

In the following essay, Nevo asserts that All's Well That Ends Well should not be classified as a problem play since its structure resembles that of Shakespeare's earlier maturation comedies.

All's Well That Ends Well has been classified among the problem comedies, perhaps mainly because Bertram has failed to captivate; he has been found even more devoid of charm than Angelo in Measure for Measure, the companion ‘problem’ comedy. Bertram is, as my students invariably inform me, a creep. And in this they have the critics on their side: that he is ‘a thoroughly disagreeable, peevish and vicious person’ (Lawrence, 61) seems to be the consensus. One is hard put to it, indeed, to think of...