How Does Desire Disrupt the Representation of Unified...

How does desire disrupt the representation of unified identity in John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore? Representations of sexuality in Early Modern literature reveal a variety of attitudes, but they can be characterised by the ambivalence which they display towards the subject of desire and its consequences for the self. The destructive potential of desire is revealed in John Ford’s Tis Pity She’s A Whore, widely considered to be one of the most radical works of Jacobean theatre, not only for its frank and nuanced portrayal of incest, but for its reworking of the theme of ill-fated love from Romeo and Juliet into a dark rumination on the fundamental incommunicability of desire and the impossibility of mutual understanding. Arguably†¦show more content†¦Her tut’ress Putana draws attention to her lack of agency in the matter, to her status as mere object in a society which valued economic necessity and kinship ties over affection: ‘you’ll be stolen away sleeping else shortly’ (I.2.70.). Annabella’s response: ‘such a life gives no content to me’ (I.2.71-2) indicates her wish to avoid this system entirely, which the prospect of a mutually loving relationship with Giovanni seems to offer. When Soranzo interrogates her on the father of her child, as Lisa Hopkins has pointed out, she compares her unborn child to the immaculate conception, and by inference herself to the Virgin Mary, describing Giovanni as ‘angel-like’ and worthy of ‘true worship’(IV.3.37-41)[10]. While she takes pleasure in teasing Soranzo here, her real intent is to express the communion which she feels in her relationship with Giovanni that the strictures of conventional marriage cannot offer. Susannah Mintz writes: ‘the fact that Annabella and Giovanni occupy unequal social positions...suggests that their motivations toward incest may also be different’[11]. The very different ways in which the two characters are constructed by society inescapably shapes their desire as much as their desire shapes them. Annabella’s expectations for her incestuous relationship are no more evident than in the moment, when, following a long period of separation,