Themes

Themes

Transgression
1. Annabella wants to break free from the normal traditions of a woman her age.
2. Eve does exactly want she was told not to and eats from the tree, being tempting by Satan and then being outcast from Eden.
3. Giovanni goes against what "the holy counsel" told him and still sleeps with his sister.
Order
1. The Cardinal and the Friar are desperately trying to keep order throughout the play but, neither of them succeed.
2. God wants to keep order - casting Satan out and telling Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree.
  1. Doesn't try every hard?
Temptation
1. Giovanni temps her sister into loving him and participating in an incestious relationship
2. Giovanni's plea with his is sister is one-sided - he is guilt tripping her.
3. Satan wants to tempt Mankind into eating form the Tree so that he can have his revenge against God.
4. Satan goes for Eve because he believes that she is the weaker sex and that she will drag Adam too.
5. Satan's temptation is complicated and well thought out showing his dedication to what he wants to do,
6. Temptation is shown as a bad thing in both texts as they both have bad after effects.
Fall
1. Adam and Eve's literal fall from Eden.
2. Giovanni and Annabella's fall from society and their death.
3. Both the falls are foreshadowed throughout the text - deaths of characters, assonance.
4. Ford does not offer any opinions to whether the characters are good or bad, when Milton wants to "justify the ways of God to man".
Punishment
1. Both the texts have a destructive ending, where the two main characters are punished.
2. Adam and Eve fall.
3. Giovanni and Annabella's punishments are their deaths (bloody ending).
4. The punishments are because they have done something wrong - Eve and Adam are literally being punished by God.
5. The punishments are foreshadowed throughout the texts - repetition of down, and Hippolita's death.
Pride
1. All the characters have lost their pride because they have become obsessed with another aim.
2. Annabella has no pride when she goes mad in Soranzo's chamber.
3. Hippolita has no pride when she agrees to murder the man that she had once loved.
4. Satan has no pride - he uses trickery and deception to get what he wants.
5. Adam possibly manages to retain some pride as he is not tricked by Satan, but he gives that up when he falls with Eve.
Desire
1. Satan's desire for revenge.
2. Giovanni and the other suitors have a desire for Annabella - Giovanni will do anything do get hold of her.
3. Eve's desire for the tree and for the fruit that Satan promises her.
4. Adam's desire to be with Eve so much so that he gives himself up and falls with her.
5. Hippolita's desire for revenge against Soranzo.
Passion
1. Giovanni and Annabella
  1. Giovanni feels very passionately about his sister.
  2. He wants to totally own her: ripping out her heart is his final possession.
  3. Their relationship is driven by sex and desire, even though it goes against what is acceptable for the time.
2. Eve's femininity and sexuality
  1. She uses a "sweet accent renewed" to persuade Adam to let them work alone.
  2. She finds the tree "alluring" implying that she is being seduced by it.
  3. The language that Satan uses, assonance, repetition of 's', is seducing her.
  4. Adam and Eve have a passionate relationship, they are going to have children and Adam will give everything up for Eve.
Relationships
1. Giovanni and Annabella
2. Annabella and her suitors
3. Eve and Satan
4. Adam and Eve
Women
1. Philotis
  1. "shall I resolve to be a nun?"
  2. Representing everything that a woman was expected to be when it was written.
  3. She is virtuous, good, honest and does what the male characters to do.
2. Hippolita
  1. Bitter older character who becomes obsessed with the idea of revenge which eventually ends in her death.
  2. Representing what Annabella might become - disrespected "old mole" that no one wants to be around.
3. Annabella
  1. Rebelling against the typical stereotypes of a woman.
    1. Florio is going to allow to pick any husband that she wants - "I would not have her marry wealth"
  2. Young and naiive - believing what Giovanni tells hers and going along with the relationship even though it will end in her death.
  3. Sticking up for herself against Soranzo, not giving away who Giovanni, and not wanting to marry her suitors.
  4. Subverting the traditional idea of a woman.
4. Eve
  1. Satan views her as the inferior sex, which is why he decides to tempt her, but she does show some strength.
  2. She manages to persuade Adam to let them work together and she does hold her own against Satan for a while.
  3. Seen as naiive because she is the reason why Mankind is doomed after them.
  4. The way Milton describes her is very feminine - she hidden by a cloud of perfume, and Satan calls her "empress"
  5. She is also the perfect wife - she works with her husband, and is going to provide him with children.
Setting
1. Eden
  1. Makes Satan's presence feel wrong and alien.
  2. Adam and Eve are being cast out of somewhere wonderful making their sin seem even worse than it was.
  3. Eden becomes all dark and miserable after the tree - their fall literally hurting the setting.
2. Foreign Setting
  1. Used to make the audience feel better about where they lived.
  2. Showing the corrupt Catholic religion in other countries.
  3. Context with Romeo and Juliet - "fair Verona"
  4. Makes the play feel exotic and exciting for an audience - escaping from their normal lives.
Tragedy
1. 'Tis Pity' is set in another country and shows the corrupt nature of that country mainly through religion.
2. The end of the play has many deaths fitting with the revenge tragedy.
  1. Annabella's heart being ripped out would be shocking to an audience.
3. Subplot - Hippolita and Vasques have the subplot which clashes with the main plot at the end of play.
4. Although the end of Paradise Lost does not fit with a traditional tragedy, because of what happens with Adam and Eve it could still considered tragic.
5. Because Satan wins and God fails.

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	Created by eleanor.gregory almost 11 years ago