The Power of "Parity" in Ford's'Tis Pity She's a Whore

Susannah B. Mintz, Skidmore College

Readers of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore have long agreed that the social milieu of John Ford's tale of sibling incest is one of profound hypocrisy and deceit. The play openly examines brother-sister incest (it is the first English drama to do so) within the context of several intricate subplots involving adultery, revenge, and murder, none of which the city's authorities do anything to ameliorate-indeed, both the ineffectual Friar and "opportunist" Cardinal manage to exacerbate Parma's difficulties. As Verna Foster writes, the decorous veneer of Parmesan society masks a propensity toward "illicit sex and the violence of revenge," so that incest can be said to stem from the effort to achieve integrity of purpose in a world in which "it is demonstrably impossible to live uncorrupted."