'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).
The tragedy of 'Tis Pity She’s a Whore reaches its zenith in Act 5, Scene 5 as Giovanni grows increasingly desperate in the face of Annabella’s repentance and Soranzo’s discovery of their illicit affair. Finding himself presented with ever-dwindling options, he determines that killing Annabella will function as the best means of preserving her reputation. Just before he pulls out his dagger, Giovanni metaphorically describes the deed he is about to commit:
Be dark, bright sun,
And make this midday night, that thy gilt rays
May not behold a deed will turn their splendour
More sooty than the poets feign their Styx.
In this multi-layered metaphor, Giovanni compares his imminent act of murder to the poisonous pollution that characterizes the Styx, one of the five mythological rivers of the underworld described by the ancient poets. As he does so, Giovanni also personifies the sun, asking it to aid him in turning day to night so that his guilt may be alleviated in the shadowy comfort of darkness. Knowing that he is about to commit a grievous wrong against the one he loves most in this world, Giovanni seeks the sympathy and assistance of whatever higher power he can think to invoke, resorting to old myths as a substitute for his loss of faith in Christianity. Thus, with this plea Giovanni demonstrates the degree of his utter heartbreak and desperation.
