# Scene II explained — The Two Noble Kinsmen

> Chapter companion for The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare.

## What happens

Emilia, alone with two pictures of Palamon and Arcite, struggles to choose between them, vacillating wildly in her affections. She is interrupted by news that the knights have arrived for the tournament. Theseus, Hippolyta, and Pirithous enter, and messengers describe the six knights in detail. Emilia laments that her beauty will cause bloodshed, and the scene ends with her sorrowful resignation.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Madness

Emilia's soliloquy reveals love as a maddening force that confuses her reason, making her 'sotted' and 'utterly lost' as she swings between favoring Arcite and Palamon.

### Fate and Free Will

Emilia laments that her beauty is the 'sacrifice' to an unhappy fate, while the tournament is framed as an inevitable outcome of the lovers' rivalry, blending choice and destiny.

### Honor and Chivalry

The detailed descriptions of the knights emphasize their noble bearing, martial skill, and honor, reflecting the chivalric code that governs the impending combat.

## Character check-ins

### Emilia

Emilia is torn between Palamon and Arcite, first favoring Arcite's beauty, then Palamon's manly face, lamenting her own indecision and the impending bloodshed.

### Theseus

Theseus eagerly anticipates the tournament, ordering Pirithous to prepare the field and expressing his desire to see the knights.

### Hippolyta

Hippolyta wishes to see the fight but laments the cause, calling love tyrannous, and comforts her weeping sister Emilia.

### Pirithous

Pirithous describes the knight leading with Palamon in detail, praising his noble appearance and valorous demeanor.

### Messenger

The messenger describes the knights, including the one with Arcite and a freckle-faced knight, providing vivid accounts of their appearances and qualities.

## Key lines

> Yet I may bind those wounds up, that must open And bleed to death for my sake else: I’ll choose, And end their strife

I can still prevent the wounds that will otherwise bleed out because of me; I will make a choice and stop their conflict.

_Emilia resolves to choose between Palamon and Arcite to avoid their deaths._

> What a mere child is fancy, That, having two fair gauds of equal sweetness, Cannot distinguish, but must cry for both!

Desire is like a child who, faced with two equally beautiful toys, cannot choose and cries for both.

_Emilia compares her indecision to a child's inability to choose between two attractive options._

> My unspotted youth must now be soil’d With blood of princes, and my chastity Be made the altar where the lives of lovers... must be the sacrifice To my unhappy beauty

My pure youth will be stained by the blood of princes, and my virginity will become the altar on which lovers' lives are sacrificed to my unfortunate beauty.

_Emilia laments that her beauty will cause the deaths of noble men._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_two_noble_kinsmen_se/chapters/act-iv-scene-ii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_two_noble_kinsmen_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_two_noble_kinsmen_se/chapters