'Tis Pity She’s a Whore begins with a portentous conversation between Giovanni and the Friar that introduces some of the central themes of the play—in particular, the tensions between desire and duty. Their argument in Act 1, Scene 1 as they debate the ethics of Giovanni’s incestuous love for his sister Annabella foreshadows Giovanni’s eventual death as a result of his inappropriate and lustful desires:
O Giovanni, hast thou left the schools
Of knowledge to converse with Lust and Death?
For Death waits on thy lust. Look through the world,
And thou shalt see a thousand faces shine
More glorious than this idol thou ador’st.
Leave her, and take thy choice; ’tis much less sin,
Though in such games as those they lose that win.
In the quote above, the Friar warns Giovanni of the grievous path that awaits him should he not correct his sinful ways. As the clergyman does so, he personifies Lust and Death, emphasizing the stakes of Giovanni’s transgressions by increasing the scale of his descent into sin. This warning lays the groundwork for the essential tragedy of the play, establishing Giovanni as a man with a great reputation, much to lose, and ample time to correct his path—time he does not take. By the end of the play, the Friar is proven right many times over, as Giovanni’s lust eventually claims the lives of many of the characters (himself and his sister included).
In Act 1, Scene 2, Florio happens upon a duel between Grimaldi and Vasquez (fighting on behalf of Soranzo) over the affections of Annabella, his daughter. He puts a stop to the fighting with fury and issues a declaration that indirectly foreshadows the extreme bouts of bloodshed that will unfold later in the play:
Vasquez: Yet the villainy of words, Signor Florio, may be such as would make any unspleened dove choleric. Blame not my lord in this.
Florio: Be you more silent!
I would not, for my wealth, my daughter’s love
Should cause the spilling of one drop of blood.
By proclaiming that he cannot abide the idea of even one drop of blood being spilt by any suitor in their efforts to win the hand of his daughter, Florio speaks the very possibility of such an event into existence. Thus, his statement functions as a prescient moment, as those who know the plot of this play are all too aware of just how much blood will be spilled for Annabella’s hand in marriage. Florio’s words serve as a cautionary warning of the terrible stakes at hand for each of these men—and for Annabella herself— in their quests for love and honor.
In Act 3, Scene 6, the Friar foreshadows the depth of Annabella’s regret and repentance regarding her incestuous affair, as well as her untimely demise:
There stands these wretched things,
Who have dreamt out whole years in lawless sheets
And secret incests, cursing one another.
Then you will wish each kiss your brother gave
Had been a dagger’s point. Then you shall hear
How he will cry ‘Oh, would my wicked sister
Had first been damned when she did yield to lust!’
In this scene, Annabella comes to the Friar weeping and penitent, seeking redemption. Unlike her brother Giovanni (who has, by his own admission in Act 1, Scene 2, already lost his soul), the Friar sees that Annabella may still have a chance at earning God’s forgiveness. Hoping to steer her towards the right path, he lectures Annabella on good and evil, right and wrong, and the pitfalls of her dangerous choices in love. The words of warning he delivers in the passage above echo throughout the rest of the play. The Friar’s foreboding statement that Annabella will “wish each kiss [Giovanni] gave / had been a dagger’s point” comes to pass in the most horrifying of ways during the play’s tragic climax: his prophetic words play out on stage in a gruesome display as Giovanni stabs Annabella through the heart with his dagger.
During Act 4, Scene 1, Giovanni speaks in an aside, lamenting to himself about his feelings of betrayal at Annabella’s wedding. In doing so, Giovanni foreshadows the dire lengths he will go later in the play to ensure that he and his sister can preserve their incestuous relationship:
Oh, torture! Were the marriage yet undone!
Ere I’d endure this sight – to see my love
Clipped by another – I would dare confusion,
And stand the horror of ten thousand deaths.
Giovanni’s sorrowful remarks are akin to those of a grieving man, for that is how he effectively views himself in light of Annabella’s nuptials. He outlines his determination and resolve to give or do anything (including risking damnation) to see a world without Annabella married to Soranzo or any other man, and this determination serves as an ominous foretelling of the remaining events of the play. The “horror of ten thousand deaths” that Giovanni so poignantly invokes to illustrate the depth of his devotion and despair directly foreshadows the death and destruction that awaits not only himself, but every character who stands in the path of his love. Unfortunately, it is Giovanni’s single-minded jealousy that eventually dooms Annabella, the very person he loves the most.
