The Jailer’s Daughter Character Analysis

The Jailer’s Daughter is an impressionable young woman who helps her father, the Jailer, operate the jail where Theseus imprisons Arcite and Palamon. After Theseus frees Arcite, the Jailer’s Daughter continues tending to Palamon and eventually falls in love with him. She hatches a plan to free Palamon and hide him in the woods in a misguided effort to make him love her, ignoring the grave danger such a plan will create for her and her father once her foolish actions come to light. In this way, the Jailer’s Daughter’s love for Palamon is just as irrational and deluded as Palamon’s love for Emilia. Moreover, when the Jailer’s Daughter returns to the woods and sees that Palamon has disappeared, she slowly descends into madness. Heartbroken and delusional, she longs for death. Although the Wooer, her former suitor, saves her from drowning and returns her to her father, she continues to entertain delusions about her and Palamon’s nonexistent romance. Eventually, the Doctor devises a plan for the Wooer to disguise himself as Palamon and court the Jailer’s Daughter as though he is her absent lover. The method works: The Wooer’s courtship restores the daughter’s sanity, and the couple makes plans to marry. Furthermore, Palamon redeems himself by ensuring that Theseus doesn’t punish the Jailer and his daughter for his escape. He even rewards the daughter with a generous dowry.