Critical approaches to the main characters in 'Tis' Pity'

Giovanni
1. Italian meaning = "young man"
2. Seen as troubled from beginning. Original audience would have seen 2 reasons for this deterioration
  1. 1: he is a university student. His brooding melancholy, self-isolation, asceticism fit the stereotype of a student in Early Modern England
    1. Florio - "forsake this over-bookish humour"
    2. Student like Hamlet.
    3. Charles Spencer - "Like an undergraduate going through an unstable phase" Commenting of Jude Law as Giovanni in 1999
  2. 2: His tears, sighs, shunning of company would have been recognised as the behaviour of a unsatisfied lover
    1. Like Romeo
  3. Annabella sees this - "this is some woeful thing"
3. Original audience would have fround of his justifications of incest and adultery.
4. Giovanni is separated from society due to his practise and defence of incest
  1. This is represented on stage! Giovanni's physical isolation
    1. 1.1 Friar - "lock thee fast alone within thy chamber"
    2. rarely in the lively, bustling scenes
      1. Only in Annabella and Soranzo's wedding where he refuses to toast the couple..
    3. utters ASIDES a lot that only the audience can hear
      1. this places him within the position of an observer
    4. isolation explains his love for Annabella.. He prefers a secret, incestuoous love as it corresponds with his habits of seclusion and intropection
    5. he turns inward.. looking to the womb that birthed him to provide him a lover
      1. "nearness in blood doth but persuade a nearness in affection"
5. his insanity
  1. his jealously destroys his capacity for love and empathy
    1. e.g his violent behaviour towards Annabella
  2. Original audience would have seen madness as a punishment from God
    1. effect of his frustration and love
  3. symtom = not able to recognise family members..
    1. Annabella
    2. unborn child
    3. Florio
    4. metaphorically: doesn't realise his relations with Annabella.
  4. he is surprised by his father's horror of the incestuous relationships
Annabella
1. beautiful
  1. Giovanni - "great than art can counterfeit or nature frame
  2. Soranzo - "diviner cheeks"
  3. "Fair Annabella"
  4. "fair gentlewoman"
2. gregarious and truthful character
  1. opposes Giovanni's isolation
  2. found it hard to keep the affair secret...
    1. she is relieved when Soranzo finds out
3. Annabella repents twice.3.6 and 5.1
  1. both out of fear of God and his punishments
    1. Annabella is innconcistant. She continues to sleep with Giovanni after she has repented
4. Heroin?
  1. 4.3 she is ready to die to portent the identity of her lover but she succumbs to fear towards the end
  2. dies as a victim of Giovanni's revenge
  3. reduced to a mere piece of flesh.
    1. her body remains offstage
    2. Cardinal - "Tis' pity she's a whore"
5. Heroin!
  1. Remains at the emotional centre of the play. All plots move around her!
  2. Ford is victimising her. Making a statement of the cruel treatment of women.
Friar
1. figure obviously borrowed from Romeo and Julliett
  1. confidant to the male protagonist
  2. fails to save the lovers
2. Bonaventura = 13th century monk. Well known for being good and caring.
  1. by giving the Friar this background shows him as a positive figure
Putana
1. modelled on the Nurse in Romeo and Juliett
  1. has a more liberally attitude to sex
2. provides moments of comic relief
3. morally dark, Putana's damnation is brutal
  1. tourtured for telling Vasques the truth
    1. Vasques - "carry her closely to the coal-house and put out her eyes instantly
4. shocking reaction towards the incest for both a contemporary audience and original
  1. "let her take anybody, father or brother, all is one" 2.1
5. Keen to earn money..
  1. 1.2 accepts a bribe to leave Annabella alone with a suitor
  2. 2.6 Takes money from Donado to persuade Annabella to love Bergetto
  3. 4.3 betrays Giovanni and Annabella for money from Vasques
    1. reveals the secret in exchange for "everlasting love and preferment"
6. Cardinals order "burnt to ashes" aligns her with a witch whose punishment what the same
  1. Putana, as a female, is seen as the scapegoat
7. represents the liberal attitude towards the punishments of incest
Soranzo
1. little toleration for conventional morality
  1. happy to sleep with, marry and abandon Hippolita
    1. "the vows I made we wicked and unlawful, 'twere more sin to keep them than to break them." 2.2
2. he is vulnerable..
  1. Giovanni wants him dead
  2. Richardetto wants him dead
  3. Hippolita wants him dead
  4. Grimaldi wants him dead
3. He needs Vasques to protect and serve him
  1. couldn't kill Annabella 4
4. could be sympathised with.
  1. Annabella realises the power she has over Soranzo
    1. Annabella - "if I loved you, or desired your love, some way I should have given you better taste"
  2. 5.2 Vasques forces him to reflect on all the wrongs Annabella has done him
5. it is argued that Soranzo is Giovanni's opposite!
  1. Giovanni is obsessed with Annabella whereas Soranzo is fickle in his desire
  2. consistently up-staged by Giovanni
    1. as a lover
    2. as a revenger
Vasques
1. Spanish, lower-status yet is a large role
2. devoted servant to Soranzo
  1. double-crosses Hippolita
  2. a devoted servant was seen as a worthy job
    1. noble
    2. Soranzo - "I know thee now a trusty servant and never will forget thee
3. hard to sympathise with..
  1. takes sadistic delights from the torture of Putana
  2. full of glee when he discovers the incest
  3. does not question the killing of anyone..
    1. "what I have done was duty, and I repent nothing"
4. enigmatic.
  1. villainous yet virtuous
  2. transgressive yet obedient

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Critical approaches to the main characters in 'Tis' Pity'

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