The Moral Failure of the Women in John Ford ’ s Love ’ s Sacrifice

John Ford (1586-1639), who was among the final tragedians of the late English Renaissance, started his career with non-dramatic works and after various dramatic collaborations with Dekker and Heywood, he created three solo tragediesnamely ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, the Broken Heart and Love’s Sacrificeall of which gave clues about the human psychology. Ford employed the themes of love, adultery, desire and death in the afore-mentioned pieces and he always struggled to give his women the freedom their society depraved them of. In Love’s Sacrifice (1633), John Ford produces five women characters all of whom can fearlessly voice their feelings. The typical sixteenth/seventeenth century woman was supposed to be silent and submissive standing only in the domestic sphere allotted to her but Ford’s female characters have been given a certain amount of freedom: the characters to be discussed never hesitate to externalize how they feel or they act in accordance with their wishes. On the one hand, the women can express their desires and Ford seems to favour them. On the other hand, however, he represents them with their defects and all of the women experience moral failure. * Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Education, Department of Foreign Language Education. Tarih Kültür ve Sanat Araştırmaları Dergisi (ISSN: 2147-0626) Journal of History Culture and Art Research Vol. 2, No. 2, June 2013 Revue des Recherches en Histoire Culture et Art Copyright © Karabuk University ةينفلاو ةيفاقثلاو ةيخيراتلا ثوحبلا ةلجم http://kutaksam.karabuk.edu.tr/index.php Özel Sayı/Special Issue (English Studies)


Introduction
Ford is especially interested in the human heart and rather than representing the society, he focuses upon the individual lives.Thus, in his plays, he deals with the themes of love, sexuality, jealousy, desire and revenge.He is very much influenced by Shakespeare's Othello particularly when composing Love's Sacrifice but he revitalizes the revenge tragedy genre with his brave treatment of taboo subjects such as incest.He quite often portrays himself as a man obsessed with love through his plays while he is also equally good at observing and understanding the human nature.Therefore, Ford's plays are commonly studies of passion which is inclusive and destructive […] His lovers may talk of passion in ideal terms, but there is always in them a full drive towards coition: it is this which commonly destroys them.(Leech,10) Ford is the keen observer of the people around him.Although he both seems to be ahead of his time thanks to his equal understanding of both sexes and struggles to give his women the freedom their society depraves them of, he is also a man of the seventeenth century and he is driven by its social rules.The aim of this study, thus, is to show the ambivalent attitude of John Ford towards his women in Love's Sacrifice.Given the portrayal and consequences of the women's behaviour, it will be concluded that Ford poses himself as a man of patriarchy and although he appears to side with his women characters, he reinforces the patriarchal order in the play representing his female figures as moral failures.
In Love's Sacrifice, set in Italy, Ford categorizes his characters under two headings, the women following the men: Bianca as the Duchess, Fiormonda as the Duke's sister, Colona as Petruccio's daughter, Julia as Nibrassa's daughter and Morona as the old lady constitute the female cast.They share a common point in that all of these women can fearlessly voice their feelings and act in accordance with their wishes.
Ford creates space for each of them to taste freedom and their characterization is suggestive of their being beyond the age as the typical sixteenth/seventeenth century woman was supposed to be silent and submissive standing only in the domestic sphere allotted to her: "In theory, all household relationships were binary ones and these binaries were unequal: husbands and wives, with husbands over wives" (Orlin,67).The women, still bearing the burden of the Original Sin, were considered the weaker vessel and they were thought to be lusty, irrational, and unreliable particularly in sexual matters.These prejudices were also reinforced with the help of religion: St. Paul remarked the husband to be the head of the wife (Ephesians, 5.23) and John Calvin preached that the woman and man are inseparable from each other.In Calvin's view, the females represented the body while men were associated with mind and reason.In this context, what was expected of a wife/woman was to be chaste as she was also the one who was responsible for the good reputation of the house.The women had to be obedient since the female sexuality and male honour were interdependent.
Women's position was unquestionably inferior in the society and in the conduct manuals the ideal woman was presented as chaste, silent, obedient, nurturing and serving.
The portrayal of the women in Love's Sacrifice seems quite the opposite of what would be decent and acceptable for them in the era the play was written.Ford attempts to allow his women freedom since they act in accordance with their wishes regardless of the consequences.Yet, he represents all his female characters quite negatively in the seventeenth century terms.For instance, Fiormonda is portrayed as a jealous, disloyal, vindictive, manipulative woman; Morona-Colona-Julia turn out to be easily seducible, vengeful murderers and Bianca commits adultery.

The Portrayal of Women
Among Fiormonda's negative characteristics, hypocrisy precedes the others.Although she has been recently-widowed, she still pursues pleasure.She mourns for her dead husband in public yet she is after Fernando in private.Fernando tries to remind her of the dead husband to stop her advances yet Fiormonda does not hesitate to confess her feelings and offers her ring as a token of love.The ring belongs to her husband symbolizing loyalty but Fiormonda proves herself ready to give in to Fernando's love.Indeed, she claims that "her blood is not yet freezed" (I.II.154) and kisses Fernando on the lips.She is a woman driven by her passion, she is sexually aroused and she does not feel shame trying to seduce his brother's best friend.On the surface, Ford might attempt to show that she is still young and that it is natural that she needs to be loved.However, Fiormonda does not approach Fernando with innocence.Ford tries to create an active, single-minded woman conscious of what she is doing but Fiormonda stands out as a voluptuous, inconsiderate one.Besides, she shatters the sanctity of the marital bond with her offering the ring.She is meant to be autonomous yet she ends up being irrational, disloyal and unreliable.
Fernando's rejection arouses jealous feelings in her, which the Christian moralists considered as the cauldron of hatred, death and evil.Juan Luis Vives thought that jealousy has "the capacity to transform humans into most ferocious beasts" (Wagschal,7) and Fiormonda demonstrates such a jealous attitude.She cannot accept the fact that Fernando does not like her and she does not face the reality with dignity.If Fiormonda were a mature and an understanding woman, she would be able to appreciate Fernando's decision.
However, her jealousy and over ambition urge her to search the reasons.Learning that Fernando is in love with another woman inflames her motives of jealousy and revenge.She tries to destroy the man she cannot possess; she desires to capture him dead or alive.
Fiormonda should have respected Fernando's feelings but far from doing so she decides to take "brave revenge" (II.II.221) because of her unrequited love.Fiormonda resolves To stir up tragedies as black as brave, And send the lecher panting to his grave.(II.III.127-8)Fiormonda takes a vow of revenge and, to achieve her aim, she does not hesitate to manipulate her cuckolded brother.Reminding him of the Italian blood they have in their veins and of their great ancestors, Fiormonda triggers her brother to seek vengeance because he has been a cuckold by his wife with the man she loves.Calvin preaches that the woman represents the body while the man represents the mind but Fiormonda reverses the situation acting as the mind directing her brother what to do.It may be applaudable that Fiormonda can even control her brother-the head of the dukedom-with her eloquent, persuasive speech yet she is out of reason merely driven by her blood-thirsty instincts: . . .Now boys will sing thy scandal in the streets, Tune ballads to thy infamy, get money By making pageants of thee, and invent Some strangely shaped man-beast that may for horns Resemble thee, and call it Pavy's duke.(IV.I.34-8) Fiormonda might have been a typical seventeenth century woman nurturing, serving and silent but Ford creates a self-sufficient, powerful one who serves only for her own benefits.It might be possible to celebrate her strong disposition yet Fiormonda's exaggerated, revenge-thirsty characterization only makes her a repulsive woman.Ford seems to address the question whether it is better to be silent or powerful through building her personality.He degrades the character he has created portraying her like an arrant femme-fatale.
To reinforce his indistinct argument against women, Ford creates three easily seducible characters-namely Julia, Morona and Colona as well.These women -the female murderers of Love's Sacrifice-fall prey to Ferentes' advances principally because of their unreliable sexual inclinations.Even from the beginning, Ferentes has been depicted as the wanton courtier "whose pride takes pride in nothing more than to delight his lust" (I.I. [97][98] but the women just seem to ignore this fact and he can easily seduce them all with the discourse of fake love.Ferentes never believes in genuine love, rather he considers it as a trade but he can impregnate three women because they are so naively taken in by his sweet promises of marriage.For instance, Julia is suspicious of Ferentes' profligacy yet she still prefers to believe in his love.The fact that the women are so easily deceived by Ferentes can be associated with Calvin's sermon.In Julia-Colona-Morona case, the women are defeated by their passionate side and they are unable to use their reason in deciding how to behave.
They contribute to the assumption that the female sex is easy to seduce, lusty and sexually unreliable.
If the women did not seek vengeance or they repented, they could have created pity now that they have been victimized by a lustful man.The reader might have sympathized with them thanks to Ford's composition.For instance, he might have sent the penitent women to a convent or he might have added some scenes showing their prayers to be forgiven.
However, Ford's depiction shows them neither repenting nor feeling sorry for what they have done.Contrarily, they decide to seek revenge with their fathers' encouragement.Indeed, Ford deliberately gives the women freedom to act as they wish and the fathers allow them to behave with their own will.The women, however, cannot make a rational decision and plots against Ferentes.Bloodshed is a greater sin than adultery, and rather than bitterly regretting for their sin, they also defy God's rule preaching that "thou shalt not kill" (Exodus, 20.13)Thus, the three victims, who are so easily taken in by his charming love, turn out to be the cunning schemers to murder Ferentes.On the one hand, they subvert the common belief of the age considering women to be weak, passive creatures since they display their ability to plot, their strength to retaliate just as Hopkins remarks that "[Ford] represents women with