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Act 3, Scene 3
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
Elsewhere in the forest, the Jailer’s Daughter wanders around in the dark, cold, hungry, and lost. She cries out for Palamon before remembering that he’s probably dead. She spots the sea and watches a ship crash against a rock hidden beneath the sea's surface. The ship develops a massive leak, and the Jailer’s Daughter calls out to the ship’s crew to hoist the sails or face certain death.
It's unclear whether the Jailer's Daughter has actually witnessed the ship crash or if she's dreaming or imagining it. Either way, one may interpret the violence and destruction of the sinking ship as a reflection of the inner turmoil that gnaws at her as she suffers in her heartbroken, lonely state of mind.
Themes
The Jailer’s Daughter wishes she could find a frog to tell her the world’s news, and she imagines sailing atop a cockleshell to have the King of Pigmies read her fortune. She realizes that the Jailer likely will hang tomorrow morning but vows that she’ll “say never a word.” The Jailer’s Daughter sings a nonsensical song about riding a white horse to search for Palamon and about piercing her breast with a thorn like a nightingale in order to sleep.
The Jailer’s Daughter’s nonsensical rambling confirms her worsening psychological condition. What’s more, she no longer seems to care about her father’s welfare. Lastly, the Jailer's Daughter's song about a nightingale references a story from medieval Persian literature in which a nightingale presses herself against a rose and is pricked by the rose’s thorns. In the story, the nightingale symbolizes a lover and the rose symbolizes the idealized, unattainable object of the lover's affection. When the Jailer's Daughter sings about a nightingale, then, she laments loving Palamon in vain. The nightingale is also a symbol found in other cultures. Greek mythology associates the nightingale with Philomel, a young woman whose brother-in-law, Tereus, assaults her before turning her into a nightingale to prevent her from speaking out about the attack. In general, the nightingale evokes a mood of grief and lamentation, which definitely applies to the Jailer's Daughter's current situation.
Themes
