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“women Are Poised Between Perpetrator And Victim” How Do The Authors Present Women In ‘tis Pity She’s A Whore’ And ‘paradise Lost’

An explorative comparison between Tis Pity She`s a Whore and Paradise Lost

Date : 17/06/2017

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Tayo

Uploaded by : Tayo
Uploaded on : 17/06/2017
Subject : English

        

In ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’ and ‘Paradise Lost’, women are placed in the setting of a patriarchal society and their actions then reflect the way they see best fit to navigate within such an environment. Whilst Eve battles with her subordination in the Garden of Eden, Annabella strives to control her own fate in 17th Century Parma and it is in this way that setting dictates the boundaries of their victimisation. Lomax explains that in ‘Tis Pity’, Annabella’s “incestuous relationship emerges as an inevitable response” and such an idea can be extended to the perception of Eve, in that she sees the tasting of the forbidden fruit as a remedy for her apparent inferiority. Thus, whilst both can be considered perpetrators, it is still with them that our sympathies lie because, in trying to escape societal constricts, they succumb to moral depravity.

            A similarity that Milton’s’ epic and Ford’s play share is their fixation on female beauty and that whilst, temporarily, it empowers our female protagonists, it is also used by the respective tempters to justify moral transgression. Satan, on first sight of Eve is rendered “stupidly good”, the juxtaposition of two such contrasting words used to characterise Satan’s shock. He is then described as “of enmity disarmed”, demonstrating that Eve’s beauty, for a moment, neutralises Satan because not only does the word “disarm” conjure the image of harmlessness, physically, the fact that it is of enmity shows that he is also disarmed of intent. Eve’s beauty, temporarily, not only makes Satan less destructive but, takes away his desire to destroy, a far more significant feat. Ford also presents Annabella’s beauty as a source of power through Giovanni as he professes “for sweet perfumes, her breath for jewels, eyes for threads of purest gold, hair”. In his atomisation of Annabella, her features are replaced with some of the world’s most valuable commodities, things that in themselves have immense power because of people’s desire to posses them. Thus, whilst Satan is “disarmed”, Giovanni is incensed by Annabella’s beauty, because his endeavour to posses her drives him to the most extreme of measures.

A key aspect of Satan’s rhetoric is to place emphasis on Eve’s beauty because he uses it as a platform from which to reassure her of her status. Satan uses phrases such as “universally admired”,” thy celestial beauty” and “resplendent Eve”, the effect of them being that he plays upon people’s propensity to associate morality with appearance. The mention of the word “celestial” is significant because whilst it panders to Eve’s aspirations of a higher status, it also plants the seed that, like a celestial being, she is morally incorruptible. Thus, Satan fuels the thought that because she possesses a god-like beauty, her moral compass is equally superior and so she becomes convinced that even if she does eat the fruit she will receive no moral indignation. Whilst Satan uses female beauty as a source of external justification, Giovanni uses Annabella’s beauty to justify his own sins. For example, Giovanni asks the Friar, “Must I not praise the beauty which, if framed anew, the gods would make a god”. Much like Satan, Giovanni employs this idea of “celestial beauty” as he tries to blur the lines between what appears to be sacred and what actually is. Furthermore, in doing so, he tries to reconcile Annabella’s beauty with the Catholic faith and in this way, he sees himself as conforming to what he recognises to be a very religious society. Giovanni persists in using Annabella’s beauty to justify his affair to the Friar as he explains that “My sister’s beauty, being rarely fair, is rarely virtuous”. This sentence is particularly effective because it is so beautifully balanced and oddly, the fact that it is pleasant on the ear gives it the masque of being perfectly logical. This is symbolic in that, whilst he is unsuccessful in justifying his affair to Friar, the smoothness with which he is able to express this idea demonstrates that, internally, Annabella’s beauty is complete justification for his actions. Female beauty is portrayed by both Milton and Ford to have very powerful effects, however, it is the male protagonists that exploit female beauty to justify both internal and external moral transgression. Thus, in this case, Annabella and Eve’s presentation leans more towards that of victims because they possess great beauty, the power of which they don’t actually have access to.

            In ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’ and ‘Paradise Lost’, women, within the scope of the texts, are invariably condemned to moral indignation and in most cases it is their death that naturally follows. However, it is within the subtleties of the text that the reader is able to grant them absolution. After Annabella’s death, the last lines of the play hear the Cardinal lament “so rich in nature’s store…Tis a pity she’s a whore?”. The tone of these lines radiate a moral eminence and especially significant is the fact that the play ends on a rhyming couplet. This connotes that Annabella’s death was a fitting conclusion to an otherwise tumultuous play. The reason why these words must be uttered by the Cardinal is because such a figure represents the corruption, not just in the patriarchal society of 17th Century Parma but, also the corruption of religious society right the way throughout history. As one recalls his pardon of Grimaldi and just before, sees him “confiscate” the family’s gold and jewels, one questions the ability of the symbol of such an institution to administer any sort of opprobrium. Thus, when A.Bacon suggests that Ford was asking the impossible of his audience by requesting that they sympathised with the protagonists, the task seems a little more realistic. For whilst Annabella cannot be completely absolved, we must sympathise that incest may have been the “inevitable response” to a society, permeated by corruption.

The reception of Eve in ‘Paradise Lost’ differs from Annabella’s because, whilst in some spheres, she is forgiven and almost admired for her rebellion against authority, from a moral point of view, both inside and outside the text she, alone, is heavily criticised for the fall The criticism that Annabella does receive, she is allowed to share with Giovanni. Whilst C.S. Lewis argued that it was a mistake to find rebellion admirable in its own right the reproach within ‘Paradise Lost’ that Eve receives comes both from Adam and within Milton’s descri ptive lines. For Adam, soon after the realisation of their joint shame speculates that they might not have fallen “Would thou hadst hearkened to [his] words and stayed with [him]”. You feel a little sympathy for Eve because when Adam says this, he separates himself from what was ultimately a joint venture. Furthermore, in Eve leaving the Garden to gain a higher status, by her fall, Adam presents himself as another layer of authority. Whilst before, Eve’s subordination to Adam was, to an extent, ambiguous, the fall solidifies her place at the bottom of the Garden’s hierarchy. Milton contributes to this perception of Eve as morally inferior by the use of the simile, “So rose the the Danite strong herculean Samson from the harlot lap of Philistean Dalilah”. Before this, Milton also states that Adam is “overcome with female charm”. In both instances Milton depicts Eve as Adam’s temptress, “harlot”, a word placing even more emphasis on her moral degradation. Moreover, the manner in which Milton points out Eve’s use of “female charm” evokes the image of a Siren, a female creature prevalent in Classical Mythology for luring men to their deaths, preserving both Adam’s moral and intellectual position as he describes him as “not deceived”. It could be argued that this is intentional from Milton because the indignation Eve receives at the end of the epic justifies her desire to venture out into the garden in the first place: The inequality between Adam and Eve is clear. Thus, Mccolley is well founded in her assertion that Milton “uniquely gave [Eve} responsible motives for her independent movements”. Women in ‘Paradise lost’ and ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’ receive the inequitable judgment of a Patriarchal society and so within the texts they must be seen as victims, however, they are absolved to a certain extent in that both Milton and Ford illuminate the various injustices at the hands of which they suffer.

Women in ‘Paradise Lost’ and’ Tis Pity She’s a Whore’ are shown to strive for the intellectual freedom that they are so often deprived of and the methods by which they endeavour to attain this, often sees them grace the realms of immorality. In ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’, Societal constricts are presented through Philotis because, despite doing nothing wrong, she is condemned to live out the rest of her life in a nunnery, her father professing that “who dies a virgin lives a saint on earth”. This is evidence that society’s paradigm of women leaves them with an impossible dilemma: To preserve their soul, women must conform to male ideas of how they should behave. This lack of freedom presents itself in the Friars instructions to Annabella as he advises that it is “first for your honours safety, that you marry the lord soranzo”. Marriage, much like a nunnery is significant because, again, it displays the narrow confines that religious society provides for women. Whilst marriage is contractual, a nunnery limits freedom by means of seclusion, thus, women must submit to being property or be sectioned off from society altogether if they want to be accepted into heaven. To an extent Eve is confronted with this lack of freedom as Adam encourages her to “study household good and works in her husband promote”. The word order here is interesting because the verb promote comes at the end of the sentence, indicative of a very passive role. Such a role limits Eve of her intellectual freedom and thus, validates her conquest for independence. Moreover, the fact that Eve, as well as being victim to rhetorical devices, uses them for her own gain, signifies the fact that, after the fall, Eve revels in her ability to wield influence in a society that she was not able to before. As she lauds “O sovereign precious of all trees”, whilst her reason is deeply flawed, inside her head, she has changed the hierarchy of the garden, of which the tree is now on top. Eve displays that with the intellectual freedom she now has she is able to live out, temporarily, the fantasises that the reality of God and Adam would not allow. After Adam’s fall, as she delights, “O glorious trial of exceeding love”, we see, not that she is right by her actions but, that there is a sort of internal triumph because in distorting their fall to be positive, Eve has demonstrated that for a moment, her experience of venturing out into the garden alone granted her intellectual power over Adam. In ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’ Annabella demonstrates the hunger for such power in the moment she first sees Giovanni. For in describing him as “wrapped up in grief, some shadow of a man”, she reveals what she seeks in a suitor. Rather than have a man whom her father has chosen for her, she desires a blank canvas, a man lacking the compliance of her father’s choices and thus, an intellectual challenge. Annabella consciously wants to escape societal convention and the method by which she does this is to avoid the platitudinous options that seem to be placed in front of her. In this way, we sympathise with Annabella’s curiosity and just like her, we are also drawn to Giovanni, in turn, making Langbaine’s accusation that Milton “paint[ed] the incestuous Love between Giovanni and his Sister Annabella in too beautiful Colours”, all the more relevant. Putana also adds to Annabella’s character in that she acts as an extension to her thoughts and feelings. For when Putana expresses to Annabella that “If a young wench feel the fit upon her, let her take anybody”, it is clear that she seeks to live her life vicariously through Annabella. Here, Ford, in Anabella being able to defy societal constricts as boldly as she does, presents a fantasy that the other women in the play would love to indulge. Women in ‘Paradise Lost’ and ‘Tis pity She’s a whore’ must operate within the narrow confines that society sets and that is the only way by which they will preserve their souls, however, to acquire various forms of independence, they see it necessary to deviate from the norm and venture into immorality, which sees them, to a small extent, perpetrators.

Women, in ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’ and ‘Paradise Lost’ are inherently victims of society and the Patriarchal model, compounded with the ever present shadow of religion, provides very little margin for individual expression. Across the two texts, many women make the sacrifice of their eternal souls for the ability to exert some control over the life they live on earth, however, in their desperation they resort to immorality. By the definition, women are perpetrators but, both Ford and Milton construct environments where there is little alternative thus, we must conclude that whilst women are inherently victims, their perpetration is a product of society.

 

 

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