John Ford's Tis pity She's a Whore

Tis Pity dating

first performed 1629 and 1633

How extensive is the religious crisis in Tis Pity

all-encompassing - characters are cognizant and uncaring to their own depravity.

What do characters discuss the morality of incest as

the ultimate violation of biblical and famlial structure

How is Annabella and Soranzo’s marriage shown to be doomed

not a “Happy couple” that will “long prosper” 4.1

Also audience and friar know this as Annabella is pregnant with her brother’s son

WHat specifically happens in the wedding entertainments that suggests the wedding is doomed

Poisoning of Hippolita in the wedding entertainments

She curses that “thy bed/ of marriage be a rack unto thy heart” 4.1

WHat does the friar observe about the wedding between Annabella and Soranzo

“Marriage seldom good/ where the bride banquet begins in blood” 4.1

How is the other quasi marriage between Annabella and Giovanni presented

more romantic - sister and brother kneeling and vowing to each other “love me, or kill me” 1.2 - but this is still sinister

How does Giovanni express his commitment to their unity

“One soul, one flesh, one love, one heart, one all!” 1.1

WHat does Giovanni vow to make of his love w annabella - notions of idolatry, fetishising Annabella into his own religious idol.

“to make our love a god and worship it” 1.2

Giovanni with Annabella’s heart, making it a relic - makes himself quasi-priest

“A heart, a heart, my lords, in which is mine entombed” 5.6

Amtower - Giovanni’s self criticism? - condemns onlookers for inability to worship god but he has similar struggle

“cannot read beyond the carnal nature of the sign” - 1998

what is the ultimate failure of marriage, what does it always encode

suffering!!!

faisl to restrain the forces it purports to celebrate - love becomes obsession and idolatry, a replacement for the failing religious institutions proposed by the state

How does Ford encode criticism for catholicism?

through portraying reliquary

furthered as Cardinal claims the riches left behind after the bloodbath 5.6

What does the cardinal declare as the moral of play

That Annabella is a “whore” 5.6 - laughably inadequate attempt to read a moral from the suffering and bloodbath. while Annabella’s incest is a pressing concer, Giovanni’s usurpation of erligious order and his deranged reliquary is a more pressing concern.

What is the irony of the cardinal trying the confine the corruption within Annabella’s body and whoredom

her body has been opened up and any corruption contained within it has been made contagious in the bloodbath of the final scene

as much as TP criticises a catholic impulse towards idolatry it also criticises the ontological lability of accusations of whoredom.

Bevington et al - how Annabella is constructed by the end of the tragedy

2002 - “A figure of almost pure pathos, scaegoat for a brother and a husband, both of whom purport to love her”

How does Giovanni’s reaction to Annabella’s death make her echo Jesus Christ - echoes crucifixion darkness that follows Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.

“The glory of my deed/ Darkened the midday sun, made noon as night” 5.5

Why is it marked that Annabella (and the Duchess) are so stoic facing death

death seems kinder than the current world in which they exist

Annabella commonplace facing her death

morendo in gratia Dei, morirei senza dolore 4.3

In contrast to The existence of the echo in Webster, is there any such notion of religious afterlife or calmness in Ford

NO - instead a bleak perpetuity of suffering. Few characters are introspective about religious beliefs - survivors blind to the ruin around them. in DoM there are characters like Bosola who strive towards redemption and others w good intentions like Antonio and Delio, but Tis Pity has no characters with which the audience feel completely morally comfortable - even Annabella as the perennial victim is a woman engaging in incest and premarital sex.

Ford questions to notion of whether religious salvation still exists - destroys the notion of tragic catharsis.