Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1975 John Ford's Moral Perspective: a Reading of "The Broken Heart" and "'Tis Pity She's a Whore.". Mary Glenn Freeman Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Freeman, Mary Glenn, "John Ford's Moral Perspective: a Reading of "The rB oken Heart" and "'Tis Pity She's a Whore."." (1975). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2830. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2830 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Filmed as Xerox UniveraHy Microfilma aoo North ZMb Road Ann Artior, MIoNgam 481W Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 76,144 # % y 61«mn, 1939, TTie Loulstana State Ibilverslty and ^ i c u l t w l and Mechanical College Literature, modem XmOK University Mleiofllms,Ann Arbor, Mlohloan48l 0e © 1975 MARY GLENN FREEMAN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. JOHN FORD'S MORAL PERSPECTIVEt A READING OF THE BROKEN HEART AND 'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Mary Glenn Freeman B.A., Florida State itoiversity, 1961 M.A., University of Tennessee, 1965 August, 1975 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to express her deep appreciation to Dr. Don D. Moore for his guidance, encouragement, and patience throughout the protracted course of this study. She also thanks Drs. Lawrence A. Sasek and John J. W. Weaver for their helpful suggestions in completing the study, and Drs. Fabian Gudas and John H. Wildman for par­ ticipating as committee members. The author wishes to thank her University of Georgia friends and colleagues, especially Drs. Charles A. Beaumont, Elizabeth Irwin, and Patricia L. Stewart, for their en­ couragement and pertinent suggestions. Appreciation also goes to John L. Pierce for his steady encouragement and friendship during the uneven progress of this study. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.......................................... li ABSTRACT ................................................ iv CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................... 1 2. FORD'S RELATIONSHIP TO SENECA AND SOPHOCLES . 19 3. THE EARLY WORKS* CHRIST'S BLOODY SWEAT, THE GOLDEN MEANE, A LINE OF L I F E ............... 85 4. THE BROKEN H E A R T ................................... 119 5. 'T^ PITY SHE'S A W H O R E ...........................220 CONCLUSION ................................................. 310 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................ 325 VITA ....................................................... 332 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Remembering to be oautious in the moral outlook one assigns to Ford, we suggest in this study that Ford's moral perspective involves a clearly defined code of ethical be­ havior, a code rooted in Christian beliefs yet modeled in significant respects on a similar code discernible in Sopho­ cles' Oedipus the King. The Christian foundation for the ethical system appears in Ford's early religious poem, Christ's Bloody Sweat; the influence of classical Greek and Roman thinkers on the formulation of Ford's ethical precepts becomes evident in Ford's early prose pamphlet, The Golden Meane, zmd continues in a later, similar prose pamphlet, A Line of Life, which also indicates Ford's fusion of Christian and classical moral attitudes. This combination of Christian and classical ethical ideas coalesces into a unified system most clearly stated and dramatized in The Broken Heart; Ford's statement of his ethical system in this play echoes in important parallels, both moral and dramatic, a related ethical attitude perceptible in Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Ford's continuing preoccupation with this same moral approach to human behavior also dominates in his development of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, though here Ford's presentation focuses primarily on the pervasive ill effects resulting from man's contemptuous distortion of the code's moral intent. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In Christ's Bloody sweat Ford establishes the need for a guide for human conduct by emphasizing in Christian terms the uncertain nature of himan existence; then he pro­ vides a system of right conduct: achieving self-reformation by following reason's moderating guide and contritely fore­ going sinfulness and thereafter becoming a soldier in Christ despite pain and deprivation. An essential element in thus becoming spiritually worthy is dependent upon human pity, for Christ's suffering: man's reciprocal pity for Christ's man­ ifestation of compassion becomes an expression of religious reverence. In both The Golden Meane and A Line of Life Ford follows the same basic pattern although his approach here is secular rather than religious, though no less certain and didactic. The emphasis on pity becomes in the first work a reiterated emphasis on nobility and wisdom and in the second a largeness of spirit which incorporates both religious rev­ erence and human compassion. The assumptions and emphases in these early works become central to Ford's dramatic vision in The Broken Heart. Ford, continuing his didactic approach, develops a world of uncertainty, deceit and adversity, offers through Tecnicus an ethical standard based on religious reverence and human compassion, dramatizes the ill-effects resulting from abuse of this standard, especially through the characters Ithocles and Orgilus, and provides through Nearchus the spiritual hope inherent in following the code. In each step of this development Ford reflects striking parallels with Sophocles' Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. vl dramatization of the Oedipus story. In 'Tis Pity She's a Whore the pattern established in The Broken Heart reappears, but here the commonly acoepted code is distorted into a tool for human manipulation, thus becoming a basis for seeming virtue and honor based on a perversion of reverence. Here Ford creates an atmosphere of moral confusion; however, that confusion is not his own but rather that of the world of his play. Ford seems to View Giovanni and Annabella with a great sadness because in their world each seems the only viable alternative for the other and because their love eventually brings them both to the same degenerate level of the others; Giovanni does not re­ gain a worthy level, but Annabella does— through repentance. Ford makes clear, primarily through Annabella, that another way of the world, another code of behavior, is possible, and he seems both sad and angry that such a viable way is ignored or travestied. Reproduced