Character Analysis info

Helena - The play's heroine. The orphan daughter of a great doctor, she is the ward of the Countess of Rousillon, and hopelessly in love with the Countess' son, Bertram. Her good qualities are attested to by nearly every character in the play, and events prove her a resourceful and determined woman, who is not easily discouraged by setbacks.
SparkNotes.com. “Characters.” All’s Well That Ends Well. 2009. <http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/allswell/characters.html.>

According to this book, Helena can seem, on the page, to be single-minded and shameless; especially when she tricks Bertram into staying with her by fooling him into impregnating her. She ends up behaving like Bertram at the end of the play when she does this to him. Also according to the book, although these actions show Helena in a bad light, they completely contradict her actual nature entirely. Helena is “radiantly beautiful” and is loved by everybody that she encounters (except Bertram). Helena acts loving and dutiful towards the Countess and warm and friendly towards the Widow and her daughter, Diana. The play’s balance and radiance comes from the character of Helena and her showing up at the end to wrap everything up is a very common thing among theatre.
McLeish, Kenneth, and Stephen Unwin. A Pocket Guide to Shakespeare’s Plays. Chatham, Kent, Great Britain: Mackays of Chatham P.L.C., 1998.

This book states that Helena’s role is not a new one; it is in fact a reversal of a very old role. There have been thousands of stories told about a young man who is faced with some sort of “impossible quest” and is rewarded with a beautiful Princess, way out of the young man’s league. This is clearly reversed in the way that Helena cures the King and wins Bertram. This introduction to the play discusses mainly this theme and the effects it has on the play itself. It also says that Helena (as well as Bertram) “push the envelope” with their generic gender types. No other character before Helena had been publicly rejected by the man she loves. Because of this, no other female character has had to resort to such drastic measures to seek a remedy.
Greenblatt, Stephen, et al. The Norton Shakespeare: Volume 2: Later Plays. Oxford University Press and W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2008.