Tis Pity She's A Whore Sparknotes

John Ford’s play, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, deals with matters of adultery, corruption, incest, murder and revenge. Whilst these behaviours make for a sensationalist play, they also make an underlying commentary on the female behaviour, marriage and church law. During the Renaissance, incest or near incest was common among dynastic families to ensure bloodline purity. Widely practised in royal and wealthy circles, the Church did not condone such behaviour and considered it an abomination. Setting ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore in Parma gives Ford’s play greater notoriety because of its associations with the corrupt and incestuous Borgia’s and Habsburg’s. Throughout the play, examples of corruption and sexual misdemeanours that go against the norm allude …show more content…
Despite wishing “no happiness on earth / More than to call [Hippolita] wife” (2.2.72-3) and vowing to marry her, Soranzo turns on Hippolita, demanding she “Learn to repent and die; for by my honour / I hate thee and thy lust; you have been too foul” (2.2.101-2). This and her later betrayal and poisoning by Vasques are stark punishments compared to those meted out to the higher classes, the “abandoned mistress of the language of courtly love becomes the whore” (Wiseman 218), a term Soranzo readily applies to Annabella when he discovers her pregnancy. Soranzo’s attitudes toward women is duplicitous, he can have adulterous affairs but they are forbidden the ‘lusty widow’ Hippolita and Annabella, the “famous whore” (4.3.1), in this world women carry the …show more content…
Hippolita’s death represents the end “Of lust and pride” (4.1.108) and alongside the violent death enacted against Putana signifies what the men see as the problem with female desire. In this patriarchal world, where women can be wives or whores not both, they acted knowingly and willingly, and so go to their deaths “for example’s sake” (5.6.141). Although Annabella “dies forgiven by a priest and with some distinct imagery of holiness and martyrdom clinging to her” (Hopkins The Female Hero, 119), their deaths carry the underlying message of what happens to those who break away from sexual normality. At the same time, they also point to the corruption that has surrounded them. Giovanni lied about the Church’s stance on incest, Soranzo made false promises of marriage and Vasques lied about marriage and protection. In this world of corruption and falsehood, women become the scapegoats to exculpate the men, morality loses sight of itself and sexual normality becomes the