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Act 4, 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
The Jailer, Wooer, and Doctor enter. The Doctor asks if the Jailer’s Daughter ever shows signs of improvement. The Jailer says that his daughter always appears mad—she’s constantly dreaming about a perfect fantasy world and rambling on about Palamon.
The Jailer’s Daughter remains fully immersed in her fantasy world, completely discombobulated and out of touch with reality because of her unreciprocated love for Palamon.
Themes
The Jailer’s Daughter enters and utters nonsense about Emilia’s schoolmaster, Geraldo. She claims that Dido will see Palamon in the afterlife, fall in love with him, and leave Aeneas. The Doctor looks on the Jailer’s Daughter with pity. The Jailer’s Daughter rambles on about a silver coin Palamon needs to board a ferry, spirits, and lovesick maids. She and these maids, she explains, will spend their days picking flowers with Proserpine. After this, she’ll give Palamon a nosegay he can use to claim her as his own.
The Jailer’s Daughter’s fantasy world isn’t completely separate from reality. A lot of what she rambles about recalls her recent past. For example, her mention of the Schoolmaster alludes to her coincidental participation in the Morris dance in the woods. The Jailer's Daughter's comment about Palamon needing silver to board a ferry alludes to the Greek myth of Charon, the ferryman who carries souls across the river to Hades (the underworld). Having accepted that she and Palamon are not fated to be together in this lifetime, the Jailer’s Daughter concocts a new fantasy where she and her beloved reunite in the afterlife: she picks flowers with Proserpine, the Roman goddess of spring, nature, and the underworld, and gives Palamon a nosegay he can use to claim her as his beloved.
Themes
The Jailer’s Daughter continues to ramble. She talks about her miserable existence in the other world full of fire, flames, and suffering. People who kill themselves and who impregnate maids also go to this world. The Doctor starts to see the Jailer’s Daughter’s affliction as “melancholy” rather than simple madness. The Jailer’s Daughter launches into a song about stars and fate and exits the room.
The Jailer’s Daughter portrays a vivid depiction of hell, implying that she feels guilty about the destruction her foolish, love-driven actions have imposed on her father. The Doctor’s observation that the daughter might be suffering from “melancholy” rather than simple madness recasts her affliction as an actual medical illness (melancholy was thought to be caused by a surplus of black bile). This suggests the seriousness of her condition.
Themes
The Jailer asks the Doctor what he thinks of the Jailer’s Daughter. The Doctor asks if the Jailer's Daughter loved anyone before Palamon, and the Jailer gestures toward the Wooer. The Wooer explains that the Jailer’s Daughter did love him once, and he claims that he’d forfeit half his fortune for them to be on the same page again.
The Wooer demonstrates his noble character by supporting the Jailer’s Daughter through her madness.
Themes
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The Doctor suggests that the Wooer disguise himself as Palamon, invite the Jailer’s Daughter to share a meal with him, and confess his love for her. He instructs the Wooer to bring flowers to the Jailer’s Daughter and sing her the songs Palamon sang to her while he was imprisoned. The Wooer should also find the Jailer’s Daughter’s friends and ask them to visit her with gifts they should claim come from Palamon. In short, they must combat the Jailer’s Daughter’s fantasy life with additional fantasies. The Doctor has successfully used this strategy on other patients, and predicts it will work on the Jailer’s Daughter, too.
Flowers symbolize sexuality and rebirth. Both meanings apply here: the flowers the Doctor instructs the Wooer to bring reflect the intimacy of their relationship and the possibility of a new start they could experience together if the Doctor’s strategy is successful.
Themes
