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Act 1, Scene 2
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
Pirithous, Hippolyta, and Emilia enter the temple. Before Pirithous leaves, Hippolyta asks him to send her best wishes to Theseus. Emilia seconds Hippolyta and tells Pirithous to let Theseus know they are praying to “the great Bellona” to aid in his victory. Hippolyta remarks how their concern for Theseus makes them soldiers themselves. She insists that they must not weep when their army goes to war, nor when they come back and tell of the atrocities they've seen in battle. Finally, Pirithous wishes them peace while he leaves to join his friend in war.
“Bellona” refers to the Roman goddess of war. The play references gods and goddesses from Roman and Greek mythology in a seemingly arbitrary way. The point of evoking mythology is not for historical accuracy so much as to emphasize the play’s theme of divine Providence. Here, Hippolyta and Emilia pray to gods associated with war to aid in Theseus’s victory. They trust that the gods will hear their prayers and ensure that the rightful army is victorious.
Themes
After Pirithous leaves, Emilia asks Hippolyta if she’s noticed how Pirithous has lost interest in everything since Theseus left: he seems distracted and indifferent about whether Athens wins or loses. Hippolyta agrees with Emilia. She explains that Theseus and Pirithous have been together through thick and thin. Although they’ve “Fought out together where Death’s self was lodged,” fate has kept them alive. This shared history has made them so close that they almost share a brain. While this might be true, Emilia contends that Hippolyta is still Theseus’s number one love.
The hardships Pirithous and Theseus have endured together strengthen their friendship. Their close bond makes them almost the same person: two bodies sharing one brain or soul. The play borrows this logic from ideals of friendship espoused during the Renaissance, which were themselves borrowed from Classical ideals of friendship. The idea of close friends existing as one soul in two bodies comes from Aristotle.
Themes
Emilia remembers her close childhood friend, Flavina, who died when they were only 11 years old. Her friendship with Flavina was not as developed as Pirithous’s and Theseus’s love and was more innocent. She recalls how she liked whatever Flavina liked and mimicked her behaviors—if Flavina plucked a flower to pin to her breast, Emilia would do the same. Likewise, if Emilia hummed an original tune, Flavina would sing it in her sleep. Emilia observes how "the true love ’tween maid and maid may be / More than in sex dividual.” Hippolyta sees how fervently Emilia speaks of her lost friend and predicts that Emilia, like Flavina, will never love a man. Emilia agrees.
In the play, flowers symbolize virginity, fertility, and sexuality, so one can interpret Flavina and Emilia's flower pinning as having romantic or sexual undertones. When Emilia observes that "the true love 'tween maid and maid may be / More than sex dividual," she suggests that friends' love is superior to romantic love, or that female-female love (romantic or otherwise) is more potent than female-male romantic love. This scene might hint at Emilia's homosexuality, though this is only one way of interpreting her words.
Themes
Literary Devices
Although Hippolyta believes Emilia will change her mind about marriage, she adds that if she “were ripe for [Emilia’s persuasion]," Emilia’s impassioned speech would be enough to win her away from Theseus. Still, Hippolyta prays for Theseus, knowing that she (and not Pirithous) is his number one love. Finally, Emilia tells Hippolyta that she won’t argue anymore, though she stands firmly behind what she just said.
Hippolyta believes that Emilia's "persuasion" toward female-female love is a phase she will grow out of, but Emilia remains certain she will never want to marry. Hippolyta seems to have adopted a practical stance toward what is expected of her in society. In mythology, Hippolyta was an Amazon (mythic female warrior), so there’s a symbolic hint that she seems to have compromised a lot to marry Theseus. On the other hand, her sister Emilia remains resistant to these expectations. Whether this is a testament to Emilia's innocence or a veiled hint at her homosexuality is subject to debate.
Themes
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