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Act 5, Scene 4
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 Epilogue enters. He’d like to ask the audience what they thought of the play, but he’s afraid of criticism. The Epilogue promises the audience that he won’t be upset if they didn’t like the story his theatrical troupe performed. Moreover, if the audience enjoyed the story at all, then the troupe’s efforts were successful. The Epilogue predicts that the audience will return to the theater to see many better plays in their lifetime. With these parting words, the Epilogue bids his audience goodnight.
The Epilogue interrogates the audience to gauge whether or not the performers were successful in honoring Chaucer’s memory with their play. The Epilogue’s lightheartedness ensures that the play ends on a somewhat humorous note. While Arcite’s death complicates the typical conventions of a comedy (in a comedy, there are no deaths, and often there is more than one marriage), the overall mood of the ending is one of relief and reassurance, not bleakness and tragedy.
Themes
Literary Devices
