Faculty Research: What pity meant to Shakespeare

Pity hasn't always meant what you think it means.

"The word 'pity' has negative connotations in modern English," said Dr. Shawn Smith. "It suggests some kind of inferiority and a power dynamic, but in Shakespeare's time it didn't really mean that. Then, it was pretty synonymous with compassion. In fact, Shakespeare uses the words 'pity' and 'mercy' pretty interchangeably."

Smith's latest book, Shakespeare and the Theater of Pity: Sinon's Borrowed Tears, published in 2023 by Routledge Press, is an exploration of how the great English playwright and poet uses the concept of pity in a number of ways to express love and forgiveness, and even cruelty and deception-some of human nature's most basic emotions.

One of the most enduring examples is from Othello. When the titular Moor comes to Venice and tells Desdemona's father about the suffering he has endured, Desdemona takes pity and weeps for him. Othello takes this as a sign that she loves him. He says in Act I, Scene 3:

My story being done,
She gave for my pains a world of sighs.
She swore, in faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange
'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful. …
She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
And I loved her that she did pity them.

Later, when Othello becomes convinced that Desdemona has been unfaithful, her pity and tears become a signal of her deception.

"It's a fundamental human emotion to have compassion for someone who is suffering," said Smith. "It's an emotion that humanizes us and creates a social harmony-but it can also be used for deception, if you pretend you are suffering. In fact, this is often the way it plays out in a courtroom: An appeal to pity is a common appeal that is made by someone in a courtroom seeking mercy from a judge or magistrate. Shakespeare knew all of this deeply and dramatized it."