The Juristical Injustice in Tis Pity She’s a Whore

余思璟（云南大學外國語學院，云南 昆明 650500）

In John Ford’s play Tis Pity She’s a Whore, there are four murders or judgements, including Grimaldi’s manslaughter of Bergetto, Vasques’ poisoning of Hippolita, Putana’s death penalty,and Vasques’ exile. Considering the criminals or victims’ position in these cases, it’s not hard to find the trials and executions are not fair,as a result of judge’s harbour and moral law’s overriding of enacted law. By analyzing the causes and effects of the four cases from a legal perspective, this paper aims to reveal the juristical unfairness in Tis Pity She’s a Whore.

Cardinal’s shield for Grimaldi leads to Bergetto’s aggrieved death and Richardetto’s going unpunished, so it’s unjust for the three characters who bring about Bergetto’s catastrophe directly or indirectly to get away with murder. Bergetto’s death is an accident and let’s clarify its entire process firstly. Cuckolded by Soranzo,Richardetto makes up his mind to revenge and when he learns about Grimaldi’s rival in love to Annabella is Soranzo, he cunningly makes use of Grimaldi’s wooing psychology, intriguing to murder Soranzo with a borrowed knife from Grimaldi. Inciting by Richardetto,Grimaldi is ambushing Soranzo in a dark night. Unexpectedly, the target appears is not Soranzo but Bergetto, so he is killed by Grimaldi by mistake. Although Grimaldi never means to harm Bergetto, he does commit an attempted murder, in spite of the sufferer being Soranzo or Bergetto. However, he is not to blame because Cardinal abuses his power to protect Grimaldi. Confronted with such a “adjudication”,the victim’s uncle Donado exclaims “is this a churchman’s voice?Dwells justice here?” “Justice is fled to heaven and comes no nearer”, responds Florio. Besides Grimaldi’s impunity, Cardinal’s not investigating leaves Richardetto’s complicity a secret throughout.What is noteworthy in this case is that Grimaldi is a Roman nobleman,backed by the Cardinal who owns administrative jurisdiction but a corrupted one. Therefore, the appeal of Donado, an ordinary citizen of Parma, is rejected unequally, making innocent Bergetto’s death treated unfairly. Our modern law stipulates everyone is equal before the law,but in that dark age with prevalent religion force and social hierarchy,civilians are in an inferior legal status.

As Vasques’ poisoning of Hippolita is characterized as a justifiable defense instead of an intentional homicide, it’s unfair when we reexamine the “strategy” Vasques employs to cope with Hippolita’s vengeance. Betrayed by her lover Soranzo, Hippolita decides to poison Soranzo and induces Vasques, the servant of Soranzo, to conspire in the plot. Nevertheless, Vasques deceives Hippolita and passes her a cup of poisonous wine when she toasts Soranzo at his wedding banquet,so she is poisoned by the poisonous wine prepared for Soranzo. When she is dying, Vasques discloses her machination, arousing the “clap and cheer” from the guests:“Wonderful justice...Heaven, thou art righteous!” Yet if we think Hippolita simply a moral monster who get her just deserts, the juristical injustice hidden in this incident would be neglected. That is, though it’s criminal for Hippolita to premeditate the murder of Soranzo, Vasques can’t go so far as to poison Hippolita to death. Instead, he can expose her at the critical moment and give way to the legal verdict. What waits the evil woman would be a harsh sanction.“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”, Vasques retaliates Hippolita cruelly in the same way designed by herself, but taking the law into his own hands is illegal. Moreover, criminal plan and commitment are two different legal concepts, so the punishment Hippolita gets is unjustified.

At the end of the play, two guilty persons, Putana and Vasques, are brought to justice, whereas, they are not sentenced impartially based on their respective mistakes. To inspect Putana’s sins, she instigates Annabella to have the incest love with her brother and then betrays her master to leak out the “hero” in this immoral affair. Thus, her crimes are indeed some conducts denounced by morality and public opinion from the point of modern law. However, she is sentenced to death by fire for example’s sake. From this horrible punishment, we are made to know yenta and traitor are detested by that society so much that it can even execute them. Different from Putana, Vasques is just banished by Cardinal regardless of his bloodguilt. After contriving this murder and succeeding in stabbing Giovanni to death, Vasques is accused of killing,but he says “honesty and pity of his master’s wrongs” encourages him to do so. For the sake of his loyalty, Cardinal condemns him to exile rather than death. Hence, it is not the severity of the defendants’crimes but whether they are faithful to their masters that determines the sentences. Cardinal’s judge are more influenced by moral law or customary law than enacted law. Accordingly, legal inequity is applied to Putana and Vasques.

Coincidentally, the legal unfairness befalls two females in this play,so does gender affect the law enforcement? Nonetheless, what can be affirmed is that vitiated religion, people’s weak legal consciousness,and rudimentary enacted law are the reasons for the juristical injustice,which is reflected in the wrongful disposal of Bergetto’s death,Vasque’s unauthorized punishment upon Hippolita, and cardinal’s unequal weigh between moral code and enacted law. These legal inequities are probably produced by the playwright to stimulate the audiences’ emotion, but it’s still meaningful for us to learn about English history and law through these scenes. Furthermore, this paper provides a critical transdisciplinary angle to research Tis Pity She’s a Whore.

Works Cited:

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