“‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore,” by John Ford uses many of themes we’ve seen in the plays we’ve read earlier in this semester. We see that this play is very similar to the revenge tragedies we’ve read which are: “Titius Andronicus,” by William Shakespeare, and “The Spanish Tragedy,” by Thomas Kyd. Some of the crucial themes that surround this play are: revenge, deceit, greed, and prejudice. As we discussed in class each of these themes comes to play an important part in the shaping of this story, and the message it is trying to send.

Revenge and deceit can be seen in the play vividly through the trio of Giovanni, Annabella, and Soranzo. Giovanni and Annabella’s relationship results in the pregnancy of Annabella, and in order to avoid being ashamed publicly she listens to the Friar advice and repents and marries Soranzo. However, she deceives him by not telling him of the pregnancy. Eventually when Soranzo realizes he has been lied to he wants to get revenge. At the same time, as we discussed in class, when Giovanni realizes that Annabella has repented he wants to get revenge on her since she has betrayed him by doing so. After that eventually Giovanni also stabs Soranzo and Giovanni gets killed by Vasques. All in all this fulfills the type of scenes we see in the revenge tragedies where basically everyone dies.

However, in the background there are many things that go on to the minor characters of the plot that reveal that greed and prejudice also play a role in this play. Greed was portrayed very well by the Cardinal in the play, and we see that most clearly at the end where he says “All the gold and jewels, or whatsoever,/Confiscate by the canons of the Church,/ We seize upon to the Pope’s proper use,” (V.vi.145-147). Prejudice can be seen when we see what happens to Putana. Her eyes get gouged out, and she gets “burnt to ashes” (V.vi.132) and this is all because she knew of the relationship between Annabella and Giovanni. While at the same time Grimaldi murders Bergetto in an attempt to murder Soranzo but he gets off free.

What other motivations did the characters have for behaving the way they did? Sometime it seemed that they were being extreme just for the sake of it.