The plot of All's Well That Ends Well is illustrated by what one character says (III.66), "The web of our life is a tangled yarn." Through all of the twists and machinations, justice triumphs, and loyalty is rewarded. The play is challenging, however, because of the somewhat inconsistent direction; it has been called a problem play. As Bevington states, "The web of human life remains a mingled yarn" (148).

The plot of All's Well That Ends Well is illustrated by what one character says (III.66), "The web of our life is a tangled yarn." Through all of the twists and machinations, justice triumphs, and loyalty is rewarded. The play is challenging, however, because of the somewhat inconsistent direction; it has been called a problem play. As Bevington states, "The web of human life remains a mingled yarn" (148).

The Western has become an archetype for the founding of a great portion of the United States. The behavior of the men and women who pioneered the great, vast prairies of the land west of the Mississippi set standards which continue today. Living on the outskirts of formal settlements, they governed their lives and their children's lives with a code that lives on today, irrespective of formal laws and which serves as an underpinning of a life lived morally and consciously, aware of one's environment, one's neighbors, and oneself. Of course it recognized personal and communal responsibility....

The Western has become an archetype for the founding of a great portion of the United States. The behavior of the men and women who pioneered the great, vast prairies of the land west of the Mississippi set standards which continue today. Living on the outskirts of formal settlements, they governed their lives and their children's lives with a code that lives on today, irrespective of formal laws and which serves as an underpinning of a life lived morally and consciously, aware of one's environment, one's neighbors, and oneself. Of course it recognized personal and communal responsibility....

Troilus and Cressida retells the epic story of the Iliad, but with an altered focus. The tale of these lovers (and Pandarus) was told earlier by both Homer and Geoffrey Chaucer. In Shakespeare, however, the epic proportions are reduced to the quotidian details of human passion, including quarrels and misunderstandings, which reduce the protagonists to a pitying level, including "calculation and manipulation" (Mowat, xv). The result has been called satire; unfortunately, it is satire without bite or humor.