62 pages • 2-hour read
Pericles
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Act IIChapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section includes discussion of death and child sexual abuse.
Act II, Chorus Summary
Gower returns to tell what has transpired between Acts I and II. Pericles is still at Tarsus, where he has endeared himself to the citizens with his good deeds. So happy are the people of Tarsus with Pericles that they want to erect a statue to honor him. In time, Pericles will become a far mightier king than Antiochus, but for now, Pericles has to undergo more travails. Gower points to a “dumb show,” or a mime, in which a messenger brings a letter to Pericles, who is in conversation with Cleon. After reading the letter, Pericles rewards the messenger. He shows the letter to Cleon and the two depart the stage in opposite directions.
Gower tells the audience the letter is from Helicanus, asking Pericles to leave Tarsus, as Thaliard is on his trail. Pericles leaves shortly after, but meets trouble at sea where “there’s seldom ease” (II.Chor.28). Caught in a terrible thunderstorm, Pericles’s ship splits. Pericles is tossed into the water and washed onto the shores of a strange land. What happens next, Pericles himself will tell the audience.
Act II, Scene 1 Summary
A wet and bedraggled Pericles enters the stage, begging the heavens to cease their angry display. The heavens must remember that Pericles is a mere mortal, who has already accepted the power of the elements. Since Pericles has lost everything, he hopes the skies are satiated and will let him die in peace on land.
Three fishermen enter the stage, discussing the shipwreck they just witnessed. The first fisherman remarks on the pitiful cries of the drowning, while the third fisherman says that he knew a storm was coming when he spotted a dolphin in the sea: The dolphin is said to be an ill omen since it is half-human and half-fish. The third fisherman wonders how fish survive in the sea. The first fisherman responds with a satirical allegory involving landowners. Just like landowners and wealthy men survive by consuming the entire parish and church, bigger fish live by eating the little fish of the sea. The third fisherman continues the analogy, remarking that if he were a sexton swallowed by the whale, he would ring the bell of the church so much, the whale would be forced to vomit him up. He is sure King Simonides would agree with his approach.
Pericles, who has been listening to the exchange, reveals himself after Simonides is mentioned. He asks the fishermen for help, comparing himself to a tennis ball tossed around by the wind and water. The first fisherman offers Pericles his gown so he can get warm and invites him home. As the other fishermen leave for the sea, bantering with each other, Pericles notes how their jokes make light of their heavy labor. The first fisherman informs Pericles that he has been washed ashore in Pentapolis, ruled by the wise and just king Simonides. Simonides is holding a tournament for the hand of his beautiful daughter tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the other fishermen return with their catch, which includes rusty armor. Pericles is delighted to see that the armor is his, gifted to him by his father as a blessing. Finding the armor raises Pericles’s spirits, and he decides to enter the tournament for the princess’s hand, dressed in the suit. The fishermen promise to take Pericles to the court the next day.
Act II, Scene 2 Summary
King Simonides, his daughter Princess Thaisa, and the lords of the court survey the knights who have gathered for the tournament. Simonides praises his daughter’s beauty. Thaisa gently chides her father for exaggerating her virtues, to which Simonides responds that he loves to show her off, as she is his prized jewel.
Simonides asks Thaisa to describe each knight’s coat of arms to him so he can assess them. Simonides is most impressed by the motto of the sixth and last knight, who is Pericles. Pericles’s coat of arms is a dead branch with little leaves sprouting on the top, while his motto is “In hac spe vivo” (II.2.52), or “this hope keeps me alive.” The motto and coat of arms, as well as Pericles’s graciousness in going last in the queue, show Simonides his humility. The lords make fun of Pericles, calling his armor a piece of junk. Simonides tells them that appearance is not everything. The group proceeds to the stadium for the tournament.
Act II, Scene 3 Summary
Cheers for Pericles are heard off-stage, indicating he has won the tournament. Simonides, Thaisa, the knights, and others enter the stage. Simonides invites the knights to a feast, referring to them as his honored guests. Thaisa privately tells Pericles that he is her guest and gifts him the victory crown. Pericles says with humility that his victory was a matter of luck, rather than skill. Overhearing Pericles, Simonides asks him not to be so modest, as the day belongs to Pericles. Simonides calls Thaisa the queen of the feats and seats her at the high table. When Pericles moves to sit elsewhere, the knights and Simonides insist he sit at the high table as well.
Pericles notes in an aside that he can hardly eat the delicious feast, as he is consumed by thoughts of the beautiful Thaisa. Similarly, Thaisa observes that all foods are bland to her now; she only wishes Pericles were “my meat” (II.3.35). Simonides teases his daughter that Pericles is not worth pining over as he is just another knight. Thaisa counters that Pericles is a diamond compared to the glass of the others. Meanwhile, Pericles is also impressed by Simonides, who reminds him of his own father, the late king. Much like Pericles’s father, Simonides glows like the sun around whom his subjects orbit. Compared to his father and Simonides, Pericles is just a firefly.
While the knights joke and enjoy the feast, Pericles is lost in contemplation. Simonides once again teases Thaisa, asking her if she has noticed Pericles’s melancholy. Thaisa pretends indifference. Simonides suggests she talk to Pericles to cheer him up. On Simonides’s instruction, Thaisa asks Pericles his name and antecedents. Pericles reveals that he is from Tyre, and shipwrecked on the island.
Simonides throws open the ball. The knights and ladies dance. After the dance concludes, Simonides asks the servants to show the knights to their rooms. He tells Pericles he was the best dancer and will be given the finest room in the palace.
Act II, Scene 4 Summary
In Tyre, Helicanus receives news of Antiochus’s death. He tells his lord, Escanes, that Antiochus and his daughter were struck by lightning in their chariot, their bodies burnt away. Since everyone knew of the incest they had committed, no one in Antiochus came forward to bury them. Antiochus’s death shows that greatness cannot save anyone from divine retribution for their sins.
Meanwhile, a group of courtiers approach Helicanus, asking him for Pericles’s whereabouts. They have the right to know if the king is dead or alive, so that they can plan for the future. If Pericles is indeed dead, Helicanus should be appointed the next ruler of Tyre. In the absence of a king, the country is suffering like a house without a roof.
Helicanus confesses that even he doesn’t know the fate of Pericles. However, he promises to set sail to find the prince. If Pericles is not found within a year, Helicanus will accept the mandate of the people of Tyre and rule instead of Pericles. He invites the lords to also sail in different directions to look for the prince.
Act II, Scene 5 Summary
Back in Pentapolis, Simonides announces to the knights that Thaisa has decided not to wed anyone for at least a year. Her letter says she has locked herself up in her chambers and will remain a virgin. The disappointed knights disperse. Simonides reads the rest of the letter, which says Thaisa will only break her vow for the stranger knight (Pericles). Simonides is happy for Thaisa to wed Pericles, but since his daughter took the decision unilaterally, he will pretend to oppose her for a while.
Pericles approaches Simonides. Simonides compliments him on his singing the previous night, calling him a “master” at music. He then asks Pericles what he thinks of Thaisa. Pericles replies that the princess is exceedingly beautiful and virtuous. Pleased, Simonides declares that Thaisa wants Pericles to be her “master” (punning on his earlier description of Pericles as a music expert), and shows him Thaisa’s letter. Pericles grows suspicious that Simonides wants to blame him for corrupting Thaisa and insists that he never intended to steal Thaisa’s heart, but only to honor her. In turn, Simonides tells Pericles he tricked Thaisa. The argument grows heated, with Simonides calling Pericles a “traitor” (II.5.57), a word to which Pericles takes great exception. Just then, Thaisa enters the stage.
Pericles requests Thaisa to tell her father that he never declared his love to her. Thaisa parries that she would not have been offended if Pericles had told her he loved her. A happy Simonides briefly pretends to be angry with Thaisa (as was his plan), discouraging her from marrying a stranger. However, he soon relents and tells the couple they may get married. Thaisa asks Pericles if he loves her. Pericles swears his love to the princess. Giving the couple his blessings, Simonides decides to wed them immediately.
Gower enters the stage and tells the audience that the wedding is completed and the marriage feast over. Deep in the night, the house is quiet, the satiated wedding guests snoring. Pericles and Thaisa go to their wedding bed and conceive a baby. What happens next will be shown to the audience in a dumb show and explained later by Gower.
In the mime, a messenger brings Pericles a letter, which Pericles shows to Simonides. The lords kneel to Pericles. A pregnant Thaisa enters with Lychorida, her nurse. Simonides shows her the letter. The group rejoices. Pericles and Thaisa say goodbye to Simonides and exit.
Act II Analysis
The second act highlights the play’s emphasis on patterns, mirror-images, and doubling, illustrating Appearance Versus Reality. Plot points and relationships are repeated throughout the narrative, knitting together the play’s themes. For instance, the father-daughter pairing of Antiochus and his daughter the princess is mirrored in the Simonides-Thaisa pairing, while Pericles’s voyage to Tarsus is paralleled with his journey to Pentapolis. The mirror-images often showcase a recto/verso flip between similar relationships. As an example, the Antiochus-princess relationship is the more corrupt version of the “good” bond of the Simonides-Thaisa pair.
Like Antiochus, Simonides too holds a test for his daughter’s hand in marriage, deepening the text’s exploration of The Importance of Chastity and Political Virtue. However, while Antiochus’s test is a mere pretense, Simonides’s tournament is genuinely meant to win his daughter a husband. Further, while selfish Antiochus wants his daughter all to himself, Simonides genuinely wishes for Thaisa’s happiness, taking pride in her beauty and virtue instead of seeking to corrupt it through abuse and control. When Thaisa tells him she wants to marry Pericles, Simonides is pleased, but he carefully tests Pericles first to ensure that Pericles’s intentions are sincere and virtuous. In these ways, Simonides proves himself a virtuous father, whose commitment to sexual propriety ensures that his daughter is treated with respect and care, both as his daughter and as Pericles’s intended spouse.
Simonides is a foil to Antiochus in political ways as well, once more reinforcing the text’s linking of sexual propriety to virtuous rulership. While Antiochus is described as a tyrant, Simonides is known as a good king who “[d]eserves so to be called for his / peaceable reign and good government” (II.1.101-02, emphasis added). The description of Simonides as a good king shows the play’s preoccupation with able governance: Simonides treats the knights at the tournament with affability and respect, suggesting that he knows how to rule with mercy and kindness, in a strong contrast to Antiochus’s arbitrary violence and selfishness.
Pericles is still maturing and learning and is seeking political role models to emulate, as becomes obvious when he observes Simonides during the victory dinner. Pericles’s vocabulary in describing Simonides is steeped in hero-worship and filial piety. Simonides, like Pericles’s own deceased father, is compared to the sun. Pericles recalls his father as the solar deity, around whom “princes sit, like stars” (II.3.42). In comparison, Pericles is a “like a glow-worm in the night / The which hath fire in darkness, none in light” (II.3.46-47). While the light of Simonides and Pericles’s father cannot be dimmed by the stars themselves, Pericles is still just a “glow-worm” whose light is visible only in utter night. Thus, the extended metaphor establishes the glory of good kings while emphasizing Pericles’s own comparative inexperience.
Pericles’s humility and modesty are key aspects of his characterization in this act; his modesty in affairs of love as well as politics once more reinforce his qualities as a good ruler and knight. When Pericles tells Thaisa that his victory in the tournament was, “More by fortune, lady, than by merit” (II.3.12), he shows that he is aware that luck played a role in his performance, instead of arrogantly crediting his victory to his skill alone or denigrating his rivals. The rusty armor Pericles wears is a symbol of his modesty, as is the coat of arms he bears. The insignia of the other knights throws into relief the honesty of Pericles’s motto: The motto of the knight from Antioch is “Me pompae provexit apex” (II.3.35) or “I will wrest my way to the apex,” while that of the Spartan knight aims to flatter Thaisa by claiming “Lux tua vita mihi” (II.3.22), or “Your light is my life.” Pericles’s motto, by speaking of “hope,” once more speaks to his modesty in humbly attempting to win Thaisa’s hand without acting as though it were a foregone conclusion.
Similarly, Pericles’s response to Simonides testing him as a suitor speaks to his sexual propriety. He is offended at the suggestion that he may have been too forward with Thaisa, protesting that he would never dare to overstep the bounds of propriety or offend her modesty by pressing his suit too openly with her. His determination to treat Thaisa with the respect owing to her high rank and unmarried state once more characterizes Pericles as someone committed to upholding sexual mores instead of undermining them, as Antiochus did. Simonides’s eagerness to give the couple his blessing shows that he values Pericles for such qualities, implying that Simonides also unites sexual and political virtues in his approach to ruling.
Pericles’s arrival in Pentapolis draws upon the motif of shipwrecks in the play, once more speaking to The Tensions Between Fortune and Free Will. The play shows how people are powerless in the sheer face of the sea’s power, with the storm once again changing Pericles’s fortunes. Shipwrecked in a strange land, Pericles cries to the sea and skies to stop their wrath since he has already admitted that “Earthly man / Is but a substance that must yield to you” (II.1.2-3). Later, he uses the simile of a tennis ball to describe himself as a mere toy for the wind and water to play upon. Just like “earthly man,” which implies a creature made of clay, the tennis-ball analogy emphasizes Pericles’s lack of agency. However, the fact that Pericles chooses to act despite his despair and actively participates in Simonides’s tournament shows the importance of free will, as he once again responds to misfortune by doing what he can to better his circumstances through his own agency.
Pericles is now regarded as one of Shakespeare’s more experimental plays because of its use of unusual narrative conventions. One such convention is the pantomime, or the “dumb show” present in nearly every act. While Shakespeare uses the pantomime in other plays as well, such as Hamlet, the preponderance of the dumb show in Pericles is unique. The mime is a way to solve the problem of the play’s jumps in time and space, condensing large sections of plot in manageable ways. For instance, the “dumb show” in Act II summarizes the arrival of Helicanus’s letter and Pericles’s departure from Tarsus with narrative economy. Another experimental aspect of the play is its metafictional elements, with characters frequently drawing attention to acts and performances. For instance, in this section, Simonides puts on a mock-show of being angry with Thaisa, while Pericles hides his true feelings for the princess.
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