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Helen, who in some editions of the play is known as “Helena,” is the heroine of the play. She is the namesake of Helen of Troy, the legendary beauty whose abduction by her lover Paris sparked the Trojan War. Yet whereas Helen of Troy boasted a “face that launched a thousand ships,” Helen of Rossillion is a somewhat humbler figure. The only child of a recently deceased physician, Helen has been commuted to the care of the Countess, who welcomes her as an adopted daughter. Though technically lowborn, everyone who meets Helen remarks on her innate nobility of spirit. She is beautiful and well-spoken, as though she’d been brought up at court. Helen’s primary conflict arises out of her infatuation with the Countess’s son, Bertram, which intensifies just as he’s sent off to become a ward to the ailing King of France. Though she worries that they can never be together, she concocts a plan to make the impossible possible. She uses her father’s medicines to cure the King of France in exchange for any courtier’s hand in marriage. When she successfully treats the King, she chooses Bertram, who immediately rejects her on account of her being lowborn. Thus begins Helen’s quest to change Bertram’s mind.
Throughout the play, Helen demonstrates an ingenious resourcefulness, and her plot to cure the king is only the beginning. When Bertram sets forth an absurd ultimatum for their potential union, Helen once again endeavors to make the impossible possible. Through a series of clever deceptions that involve disguising herself as a pilgrim, orchestrating a so-called “bed trick” with the help of a local girl, and feigning her own death, she eventually fulfills Bertram’s conditions and wins him once and for all. Her cleverness notwithstanding, it remains unclear why Helen employs her considerable resourcefulness in the pursuit of Bertram. Not only does he reject her publicly and dishonor her with the callous letter he sends to outline his conditions for marriage, he’s also generally revealed to be immature, dishonest, and manipulative. Shakespeare offers no substantive reason for her unwavering love, which has left many critics and audiences feeling unsatisfied when she finally captures Bertram. Though she is clearly the undisputed heroine of the play, her character arc arguably competes with the arc that moves toward the public exposure of Bertram’s dishonor. In the end, we’re left unsure how to interpret Helen and her seemingly shallow motivations.
