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Act 3, Scene 6
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
The Jailer asks his friends if they’ve heard any more village gossip about him related to Palamon’s escape. First Friend tells him that—with a few conditions—Theseus will pardon the cousins due to Hippolyta, Emilia, and Pirithous’s urging. However, there’s nothing new to report regarding the Jailer’s fate. Second Friend announces that Palamon has cleared the Jailer by identifying the Jailer’s Daughter as the person responsible for breaking him out of prison. Theseus pardoned her, too, and Palamon will give her a dowry as thanks for helping him escape.
Palamon makes amends for the dishonorable behavior he exhibited earlier when he exploited the Jailer’s Daughter’s feelings as a way to escape prison. Still, he won’t give her the one thing she actually wants from him: love.
Themes
The Wooer enters and asks if the Jailer’s Daughter’s condition has improved, and the Jailer informs him that his daughter is still behaving strangely. The Jailer suspects that his daughter’s love for Palamon has caused her madness. The Wooer recalls finding the Jailer's Daughter: he was fishing when he found her hiding in the reeds and surrounded by freshwater flowers. She’d been singing a nonsensical song about Palamon, her father, and a willow tree. The Wooer rescued her and brought her to land, but she slipped away and ran toward the city. Luckily, the Jailer’s Brother intercepted her before she could escape again.
The Wooer remains committed to the Jailer’s Daughter despite her feelings for Palamon. Even though the Wooer is a commoner, he appears to have a more noble character than Palamon, who is actually a nobleman. The flowers surrounding the Jailer’s Daughter when the Wooer finds her evoke love and fertility. She appears to have descended deeper into madness and now believes she is involved in a fantasy romance with Palamon.
Themes
Literary Devices
The Jailer’s Brother and the Jailer’s Daughter enter. The Jailer’s Daughter sings a nonsensical song. She asks about her wedding gown and insists she must lose her virginity by daybreak. Then, she breaks into song once more. The Jailer’s Brother tells the Jailer it’s best if he simply humors his daughter’s madness—she lashes out otherwise. The Jailer’s Daughter asks the men if they’ve heard of Palamon, and they tell her they have. She then insists that all the maids in town are in love with Palamon and that he’s impregnated at least 200 of them. She also claims that all these babies will be boys who must become castrati to sing for Theseus’s wars. “This is strange,” remarks Second Friend.
The full extent of the Jailer’s Daughter’s madness becomes clear once she enters the room. Now, not only is she obsessed with Palamon, but she seems to believe in the absurd fantasies she’s concocted about his sexual prowess. Her insistence that Palamon begets male children who must become castrati (boy singers who are castrated to preserve their higher-pitched voices) is particularly absurd. Theseus’s friend’s comment, “This is strange,” is a comical understatement.
Themes
Literary Devices
The Jailer’s Daughter doesn’t recognize the Jailer as her father and asks if he’s the master of a ship; the Jailer humors her and says yes. She orders him to point his compass to the north, to the woods—where Palamon is waiting for her. The men pretend to sail aboard a ship as the daughter sings another song.
It’s possible to interpret the Jailer’s Daughter’s inability to recognize her father as a sign of her suppressed guilt about freeing Palamon and putting her father’s life at risk. According to this viewpoint, she doesn’t recognize him because she can’t bear to face him after how carelessly and foolishly she put his life in jeopardy.
Themes
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