In his play, 'Tis Pity She's A Whore, John Ford explores themes of desire, religion, incest, and betrayal . The show analyzes the dynamics between family relationships, servant-master relationships and man's relationships with religion. Ford ensures that the human body is the focus of the audience's attention throughout the play, both through its depiction of violent revenge and through sexuality and desire. The show mainly focuses on the confusing and repugnant relationship between lovers and siblings, Giovanni and Annabella. Their sexual and familial relationship is at the forefront of the play and determines the climax of the plot. Elements of the human body serve as symbols throughout the work, referencing the key themes Ford uses to tell the twisting story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Annabella's body is at the center of the characters' desire in the play and, as such, comes to the attention of the audience. From the beginning of the play we understand that Annabella is essentially being sold to the most suitable suitor. Her virginal virtue is essential to the male characters and, as such, her body is the trophy that each suitor attempts to obtain as the play progresses. Women are viewed in a sexual manner throughout the play and are treated as objects to the male characters, at their disposal and easy to remove. All three central female characters are murdered by male characters; Hippolita is poisoned, Annabella is stabbed, and Putana is tortured and burned. Not only is Annabella's body used as an object of desire for the male characters, but in the play she is subjected to incestuous sex, pregnancy, and violent murder. Her body is a vessel that carries her brothers' unborn child, the secret of their copulation, and the promise of marital union to her suitors. Annabella's body in the short play acts as a means to demonstrate the circle of life. a daughter, becomes a lover, becomes pregnant and dies shortly after. His body is the most important object of Act 3, Scene 2, Soranzo's language, although intended as affectionate, is misogynistic. He refers to Annabella as a "mistress", using phrases such as "chaste" and "fruitless". However, the scene obviously ends with the protagonist “starting to get sick” due to the pregnancy. The language used by Soranzo is ironic, since Annabella is everything he says she is not. Furthermore, his dialogue foreshadows the death of the protagonist, who twice in the scene talks about his heart, claiming to be "sick, and sick of the heart", when it is Annabella who is "sick" in the scene. He also wishes Annabella could “see his heart,” but later in the play he is the one who physically sees Annabella's heart. In contrast, Soranzo mirrors Annabella. The names of the characters in the play are significant to how the audience views them and their bodies. The fact that there is a lover called Hippolyta is symbolic, as the goddess Hippolyta in ancient Greece would have been involved in an incestuous relationship with her grandfather, Zeus, and became pregnant, like Annabella. As well as the motifs, the names are a subtle nuance throughout the work that alludes to the aforementioned overarching themes that dictate the progression of the work. The fact that Annabella's tutor is called Putana is obviously incredibly significant to how the audience sees her. Putana in Italian translates to a series of swear words, namely slut, prostitute and slut. Two of the names of the central female characters connote incest or prostitution and therefore we can denote that the charactersfemale characters are not regarded with the same respect as male characters. For a contemporary audience, the double standards are clear, although Soranzo is initially portrayed as genuinely caring for Annabella, he laments her for the actions she has also committed. In Act 5Scene 3, he describes the female protagonist as a "trumpet, famous whore!" who is an “adulterer”. Yet, Soranzo himself had an affair with Ippolita when she was married to Richardetto. The male characters' bodies are not judged or denied by their immoral actions. Furthermore, in Act 4, Scene 3 Putana is captured by the Banditti, with Vasques ordering them: "Come, gentlemen, take this damned old witch from me, gag her instantly and put out her eyes, quickly, quickly!". Vasques condemns her for having condoned this incestuous relationship and for not reporting it. However, Ford shows the irony in this, as the friar, who also knew from the beginning of the courtship between John and Annabella, was not punished. Vasques violates Putana's body, disabling her and removing one of her bodily senses as punishment. The violent nature of the male characters leads to the female characters appearing vulnerable throughout the play, they could be killed for their lewd behavior and, as such, we are constantly aware of their whereabouts and their movements. Throughout the play the characters offer their hearts in numerous dramatic ways. Hearts are a central motif and prop, representing love and loyalty. In his essay The Heart and the Banquet: Imagery in Ford's 'Tis Pity and The Broken Heart, Donald K Anderson Jr states that the action of Giovanni tearing out Annabella's heart in the fifth act “is foreshadowed throughout the play, for the heart. . . appears in a figurative sense." Giovanni refers to himself and Annabella as sharing "one heart", and in the same scene states: "I will tell her that I love her with my heart", concluding his speech, stating: "Rip my breast, there you will see, A heart, in which the truth I speak is written. It is as if he sees their hearts as connected and therefore when he admits his love, it is shared, and when he kills her, he knows that he will soon die too. However, the reason of the heart it is not only used to connote love, but also to connote betrayal. Upon learning of his wife's incestuous betrayal in Act 4, Soranzo states, "I'le ripp vp your heart." Annabella's fate. It is as if she is more vulnerable, her heart is both the metaphorical and physical target of her male suitors, and the audience can evaluate it. Furthermore, the heart is used to repent of the same sins that she conjured up his sins to the friar, John is asked to “Cry to your heart; wash every word you speak, with tears (and if possible) with blood.” From the beginning of the play, Ford repeats the symbol of the heart and blood. John's heart is filled with incestuous desire, and as such he must use his own heart to repent of his "unbridled (almost) blasphemy." Alan Dessen, in his essay, The Raw and the Cooked in Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, recounts how during a performance of the play at Yale, the audience “bursts out laughing when someone in the auditorium is heard whispering loud enough audible: “My God, there is a heart on his dagger!””. Dessen argues that this “moment risks comedy to confront the audience with the disjunction between imaginary and real female bodies.” Ford uses gory props and gruesome imagery to bring the audience back to the female body, in its dismembered form. Ford would have used an animal heart during the stage production, but this would have been a striking and confronting prop indicating the brutal nature of the.