Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Second Shepherd’s Play, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Earthly vs. Spiritual
Christian Charity
Suffering and Redemption
Song as a Means for Transformation
Summary
Analysis
Coll, Gyb, and Daw awaken from their deep, spell-induced sleep. After quickly checking that Mak is still with them, Daw reveals a dream he had during the night, where Mak dressed in a wolf skin and stole one of their sheep.
Daw’s dream conflates Mak with a wolf, implying that Mak is similarly sneaky, cunning, and dangerous. It is interesting that it is the youngest shepherd who has the prophetic dream—not an older, presumably wiser shepherd like Coll or Gyb.
Themes
Pretending to groggily awaken, Mak claims to have had a dream that his wife gave birth to yet another child in the middle of the night, even though they already have too many mouths to feed.
Mak’s fake dream is part of his plan to make his wife’s birth seem more believable, and it’s also another chance for Mak to draw attention to himself and gain the shepherds’ sympathy by playing the victim.
Themes
Before Mak returns home to his wife, he tells the shepherds to search him to prove that he hasn’t stolen from them. As Mak departs, Daw tells Coll and Gyb that they should go check on their sheep just in case.
The shepherds are able to see through Mak’s ploy despite his sweeping claims to innocence. This echoes the way the shepherds immediately saw through Mak’s disguise earlier in the play.
Themes
