Previous
Prologue
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Two Noble Kinsmen, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Irrationality
Fate, Fortune, and Divine Providence
Chivalry, Honor, and Pride
Friendship
Gender and Power
Summary
Analysis
Music plays, and a boy dressed in white enters, tossing flowers as he sings. Hymen enters next, carrying a burning torch, and a Nymph wearing a “wheaten garland” follows Hymen. After this, Theseus enters, flanked by nymphs. Hippolyta, his bride, enters next, escorted by Pirithous and wearing a garland on her head. Emilia enters after Hippolyta, followed by their attendants. The boy sings a song about the flowers he scatters around the bride and groom's feet. These flowers will bless the couple, ensuring that their marriage remains harmonious.
Flowers symbolize rebirth, renewal, and fertility. The boy scatters flowers around Theseus and Hippolyta to celebrate their marriage as a new beginning. His actions also bless their new union, ensuring that Theseus and Hippolyta will give birth to many children and enjoy many happy years together. In ancient Greece, garlands—or wreaths—symbolized victory and fertility. The garlands several people wear in this scene emphasize the celebratory, harmonious mood of the scene.
Themes
Just then, Three Queens dressed in black and wearing veils enter and kneel before Hippolyta’s sister, Emilia. The First Queen begs Theseus to hear their request, and the Second and Third Queens appeal to Hippolyta and Emilia, respectively. The Third Queen begs Emilia to help them “for the sake / Of clear virginity.” The wedding party orders the Queens to rise, and Theseus agrees to hear the First Queen’s request. The First Queen explains that “cruel Creon” defeated their kingdoms and won’t let them cremate their husbands’ ashes. She asks for Theseus’s pity and help in retrieving their dead husbands’ bones so they might have a proper funeral for the fallen men.
The entrance of the Three Queens dressed in their mourner’s clothing immediately destroys the festive mood of the wedding. The Three Queens’ need to give their fallen husbands a proper burial underscores the theme of honor: they can’t end their mourning period until they’ve performed the respectful funeral rites their noble husbands deserve. That the queens consult Theseus to help them defeat Creon suggests that Theseus has a reputation for being a brave, just leader.
Themes
Literary Devices
Theseus feels for the Three Queens and regrets making them kneel in light of their hardships. He recalls meeting the First Queen’s husband, King Capaneus, “by Mars’s altar” on their wedding day. Theseus also remembers that the First Queen was a lovely bride whose long locks of hair were finer than “Juno’s mantle,” and on whom Fortune smiled. Theseus tells the Queens that he's heard of their fallen kingdoms and pities them.
Theseus's invocation of pagan imagery underscores the central role of the gods in the characters' lives. Accepting the gods' role in determining humanity's fate is part of their worldview. Mars is the god of war, and Juno is Mars' mother, known as a protector of nations. For Theseus to associate the First Queen and her fallen husband with these deities illustrates his belief that they are noble people favored by the gods—people who, therefore, he must defend against the comparatively corrupt Creon.
Themes
The First Queen begs Theseus to be merciful. The Second Queen praises Hippolyta for her strength and military prowess. She remembers how Hippolyta would have defeated the male sex had not her husband captured her force and her heart. But the Second Queen knows that Hippolyta has just as much power over Theseus since has captured his strength and heart, too. The Second Queen begs Hippolyta to use her womanly wiles to convince Theseus to help them defeat Creon. Hippolyta ensures the Second Queen that she and Theseus are moved by their suffering and want to help. She promises that Theseus will let them know his decision soon.
The Queens see the power Hippolyta has over Theseus, recognizing that she can influence his opinion. Women in this ancient society hold little power independently of men, but they can indirectly exercise power through manipulation. The queens base their strategy of getting to Theseus through Hippolyta on the assumption that women are more merciful than men. If the Queens can’t convince Theseus to extend mercy toward them, they might have a better chance of eliciting sympathy from Hippolyta.
Themes
Literary Devices
Get the entire The Two Noble Kinsmen LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Second Queen rises, and the Third Queen kneels to address Emilia. Emilia sees the Queen’s tear-streaked face and orders her to rise. The Third Queen tells Emilia her grief is deeper than anything her face can possibly express. Emilia replies that “Being a natural sister of our sex,” she feels a natural sympathy for the Third Queen and promises that she will transfer some of this pity to Theseus.
Emilia might be a noblewoman, but she’s still quite humble: she asks the Third Queen to rise because she wants to eliminate the hierarchical distinction between the two of them. In asking the Queen to rise, Emilia allows the Queen to address her as an equal. Since humility is a big part of chivalry, Emilia’s actions portray her as a noblewoman not only in title but in practice, as well. Emilia’s comment about feeling like “a natural sister” to the queens suggests that there’s a closeness that develops between mutually oppressed women living in a sexist society. Denied many of men's rights, women have discovered that they can partially make up for that lost power if they join together as a unified force.
Themes
Theseus is eager to resume the wedding proceedings and tries to usher the party into the temple, but the First Queen begs him to think of her and the other Queens’ dead husbands, who were all good kings and didn’t deserve their fates. She explains that being able to give their husbands a proper burial will at least bring the women peace. Furthermore, Theseus will have the best chance at defeating Creon if he attacks immediately, while Creon and his army are still distracted by their recent victory. Theseus asks Artesius to assemble an army while Theseus resumes his wedding. The Second Queen apologizes for coming to Theseus at a bad time but reminds him what little power and control anyone has when tragedy strikes.
Theseus seems more concerned with moving forward with his wedding than helping the Queens. He’s a noble leader, yet the intoxicating allure of new love represented in his marriage is persuasive enough to make him forget his chivalric duty to help the Queens. The Second Queen’s comment about what little control anyone has when tragedy strikes alludes to the powerlessness of humanity to control the whims of the gods, who dole out good fortune and tragedy alike.
Themes
Literary Devices
Theseus tells the Queens that his wedding is more important than any war. The First Queen worries that Theseus will be too distracted by his new marriage to help them, since the amorous emotion Theseus is feeling would persuade even Mars to drop his weapons. The Second Queen asks Hippolyta to imagine what she would do if it were Theseus whose body was rotting away in a field.
Theseus's remark that his wedding is a higher priority to him than helping the queens avenge their husbands' death is confirmation that his love for Hippolyta distracts him from upholding his chivalrous duty to help them. By suggesting that even Mars, the god of war, would be distracted by a new marriage, the First Queen presents love's all-consuming, irrational nature as a universal experience.
Themes
Hippolyta says that postponing the wedding will only deepen her and Theseus’s desire. She urges him to strongly consider helping the Three Queens as soon as possible. The Queens beg Emilia to appeal to Theseus, as well. Emilia tells Theseus that she’ll never ask him for anything again—or get married herself—if Theseus honors Hippolyta’s request.
The Second Queen’s strategy of forcing Hippolyta to put herself in the Three Queens’ shoes is successful: Hippolyta urges Theseus to extend mercy to the Queens and help them retrieve their husbands’ remains. The Queens’ consultation of Emilia yet again shows how the women join forces to cleverly achieve the power society refuses to afford them as individuals.
Themes
Theseus gives in. He orders Pirithous to escort Hippolyta to the temple to pray to the gods for victory. Next, he tells Artesius to meet him at the banks of Aulis and assemble an army. Finally, Theseus kisses Hippolyta and instructs Pirithous to carry out the wedding festivities as planned–he’s confident he will return to Athens before the scheduled events are over.
The women have managed to sway Theseus, who now prepares to travel to Crete to defeat the corrupt king Creon. Theseus is confident that he'll return in time to catch the tail end of his wedding celebration because he believes the gods favor him to be victorious in battle. Moreover, Theseus's faith in the whims of the gods provides him with an air of reassurance that he, an ignorant mortal, would otherwise lack.
Themes
The Queens praise Theseus, and the Second Queen proclaims that he’s “Equal with Mars.” Theseus humbly replies that it’s only right for him to help the Queens, since “being sensually subdued, / We lose our human title.” Everyone exits.
The Queens praise Theseus as “Equal with Mars,” or godlike, for agreeing to help them, but Theseus counters this with the explanation that “being sensually subdued, / We lose our human title.” What this means is that if humans allow themselves to be “sensually subdued,” or unaffected by the suffering of others, they “lose [their] human title,” or give up their humanity. In other words, helping the women is humane—not the godlike thing to do. Theseus isn’t so much a god as a noble, virtuous human who concerns himself with the suffering of others.
Themes
