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Act 5, 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
Theseus, Hippolyta, Emilia, and their attendants head toward the battlefield. Emilia refuses to go any further, not wanting to see which cousin dies and which prevails. She claims that every stroke of the sword “sounds more like / A bell than blade” and promises that hearing the battle will be punishment enough for her. However, Theseus insists that Emilia attend the battle to witness the “deeds of honor” that Nature has set in motion. Furthermore, Emilia needs to be there because she’s the victor’s prize. Emilia disagrees with Theseus and argues that it's no longer the cousins’ love for her that inspires them to fight: it's their hatred for each other. Hippolyta tries to convince her sister to accompany them. When Emilia refuses, the rest of the party continues without her.
When Emilia claims that the clashing of Arcite and Palamon’s swords “sounds more like / A bell than blade,” she means that she can’t see the battle as noble and exciting because she can’t separate the battle from the death that will follow it. In this case, the “bell” Emilia mentions refers to the Elizabethan practice of ringing a church bell to announce a death. Emilia’s refusal to witness the battle sets her apart from the rest of Theseus's party, even Hippolyta. Only she remains critical of the supposed “deeds of honor” that will take place there and sees them for what they really are: declarations of hate and the symbolic destruction of a once intimate friendship. Emilia's existence as a woman places her at the periphery of the dominant culture. Not allowed to participate in knighthood and honoring the chivalric code herself allows Emilia to develop an outsider’s critical gaze.
Themes
Alone, Emilia compares Arcite’s and Palamon’s portraits. She remarks on Arcite’s gentle but intense face and his “mercy and manly courage." In contrast, Palamon appears threatening and somber, and his “graved” face that seems to shift according to his thoughts. Nevertheless, Palamon’s melancholy is as noble as Arcite’s humor, and his sadness almost becomes a sort of laughter.
This scene parallels Act 4, Scene 2, where Emilia also anguished over Arcite’s and Palamon’s portraits in an attempt to pick one cousin over the other. That she still can’t decide whether she prefers Arcite’s “mercy and manly courage” or Palamon’s romantic, “graved” face might suggest her genuine disinterest in them. After all this time, she remains uncertain which man—if either—appeals to her. Her disinterest could also stem from her inability to separate the victory of the winner’s love from the tragedy of their dissolved friendship.
Themes
Emilia hears horns that signal the first charge, and she anguishes over the battle’s potential outcomes. For example, Arcite might win, but Palamon might disfigure Arcite’s beautiful face in the process. At any rate, Emilia decides, it’s good she's not there to distract them.
Emilia remains incapable of separating victory from tragedy. There is no possible outcome of this battle that can exist without its own set of tragedies and casualties. That Arcite defeats Palamon but suffers a scarred face in the process symbolizes the scar that losing Palamon will have on Arcite if he wins the battle.
Themes
A Servant enters and tells Emilia that the crowd is shouting “À Palamon,” which means Arcite has lost. Emilia offers her condolences to Arcite's picture. She realizes that she wore Arcite’s picture on her right side and Palamon’s on her left and wonders why before deciding that she “had no end in ’t else; chance would have it so.”
That Emilia superstitiously wonders whether the placement of the portraits has impacted the battle shows the extent to which she has internalized her responsibility for what will happen. In other words, she seems to blame herself for everything that has happened between the cousins.
Themes
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The Servant returns and tells Emilia that although Palamon nearly pressed Arcite’s body to the pyramid, Arcite fought back and remains in the game. Emilia briefly wishes that the cousins could be “metamorphosed / Both into one” but decides that the combined noble qualities of both men would render any lady undeserving of him.
Emilia’s wish for the cousins to be “metamorphosed / Both into one” reflects her frustration at not being able to decide between them. It also symbolizes her wish for the cousins to repair their relationship. She wishes the cousins could be close like they were before she entered the picture and inadvertently drove a wedge between them.
Themes
Emilia hears cornets blaring from the battlefield, and the crowd cheers, “Arcite, victory!” The Servant reenters to confirm that Arcite has defeated Palamon. Emilia recalls Arcite’s evident strength and realizes she’d predicted he would win and Palamon would lose, though she can’t figure out why she thought this. She states, “Our reasons are not prophets / When oft our fancies are.”
Emilia’s intuition that Arcite would win emphasizes the theme of divine Providence: without putting it into words, Emilia seems to accept that the battle’s victor came to her as an answer to her prayers, perhaps. Her observation that “Our reasons are not prophets / When oft our fancies are” draws a distinction between “reasons,” or logic, and “fancies,” or intuition. While logic cannot always predict the future, some things we intuitively know—perhaps through prayer and faith in divine Providence.
Themes
Theseus, Hippolyta, Pirithous, Arcite, and their Attendants enter. Theseus turns to Emilia and proclaims that the gods have given her a knight. Arcite addresses Emilia and tells her that although he has given up what he loves best (second to her) to be with her, it was worth it. Arcite recalls the battle that Emilia missed: Arcite and Palamon fought neck and neck for a long time, and their moves were as indiscernible as the songs of two competing Philomels. However, it soon became apparent that heaven had made one kinsman the winner.
Theseus attributes Arcite’s victory to divine Providence: he has won because he is the knight that the gods favor. Arcite’s comment about giving up what he loves best to be with Emilia refers to the loss of Palamon. Arcite recalls the battle for Emilia’s benefit and the audience’s benefit since they, like Emilia, were only privy to the limited sounds and secondhand observations conveyed to Emilia via messengers. “Philomels” refers to nightingales. Within the context of the Philomela Greek myth, Arcite’s comparison of the competing knights to nightingales symbolizes the intersection of love and violence at the core of the cousins’ pursuit of Emilia.
Themes
Literary Devices
Theseus orders Arcite to wear the garland he’s won and claim his rightful prize, Emilia. He orders the losers to receive their punishment, which is something they must surely want, for “their lives but pinch ’em” now. Theseus notices that Hippolyta is crying. Emilia questions whether this is really a victory and wonders what the gods have done with their mercy. She bemoans having to live with her “unfriended” and “miserable prince,” who would get rid of someone as noble as Palamon simply to be with a woman. Hippolyta agrees with Emilia and notes what an “infinite pity” it is “That four such eyes should be so fixed on one / That two must needs be blind for it.”
Arcite's garland symbolizes victory within the play's literary context and in reality: in ancient Greece, laurel wreaths were awarded to victorious military figures, poets, and athletes. Theseus rightfully claims that the losers will want death. His observation that "their lives but pinch 'em" refers to the unbearable shame knights like Palamon and Arcite would have attached to justly losing a battle and not accepting punishment. Palamon and his knights will eagerly await their execution because accepting punishment is the brave, noble thing to do. Furthermore, their loss is a sign that the gods have not favored them, which gives them further reason to look forward to receiving their punishment. After all, they wouldn't want to question the gods' judgment. Although everyone accepts that the gods have selected Palamon and his knights to die, they can't help but mourn the tragedy of the situation. Hippolyta's remark suggests that she, like Emilia, is particularly sympathetic to the tragic end of Palamon and Arcite's friendship. When she muses what an "infinite pity" it is that “four such eyes should be so fixed on one / That two must needs be blind for it," she means it's a shame that Arcite and Palamon let their obsession with Emilia come between them like this.
Themes
