Pity in Passion

            In I.U. Tarchetti’s novel Passion, a paradox exists in that those who pity others are ultimately pitied. Two of the main characters, Giorgio and Clara, both love out of pity and compassion. However, in the end, they both end up drained, weak, and unhealthy. They sacrifice themselves to provide happiness for another. Pity is responsible for the fatigue and illness that enter the lives of Clara and Giorgio.

            Clara, the lover of Giorgio, gradually deteriorates from her original state of beautiful liveliness, as her love affair with Giorgio grows deeper. She is originally described as “tall, pure, robust, serene” and ”so manifestly strong” (Tarchetti 20; Tarchetti 23). She is attracted to Giorgio, who is struggling with a “deep depression” (Tarchetti 14). This depression evokes a motherly response from Clara, and “pity led her to love” (Tarchetti 19). Her desire to console and comfort Giorgio, an emotionally wounded man, takes precedence in her life. Her sole concern is providing for his happiness. In doing so, Giorgio regains his health and love for life. However, “(he) felt as if everything now added to (him) had been taken from her. She did not droop, but slowly wilted. She appeared transformed, not the woman she once was” (Tarchetti 21). Clara’s pity for Giorgio directs her actions to the point where she neglects herself. Initially, she is the one pitying Giorgio. In a paradoxical turn of events, Clara becomes weak, a shell of her former self. She assumes the role of the one to be pitied. Clara’s pity leads to compassion, inspiring sacrifice and selfless attention to Giorgio. Ultimately, her desire to be the source of someone else’s happiness causes her to forget her own needs. Pity is the reason she becomes depleted.

Giorgio, too, experiences the transition from the one pitying to the one pitied. Fosca, a woman with  “horrendous ugliness,” falls fatally in love with Giorgio (Tarchetti 41). Deformed and scarred by an unknown illness, she strives only for returned affection and tries to secure his love. Upon his rejection, she becomes deathly ill and cannot be cured unless she receives the attentions of Giorgio. Out of pity, he gives her these attentions, fulfilling her commands, as “the fear of killing her enabled (him) to undertake any sacrifice whatsoever” (Tarchetti 123). However, his constant attendance at her bedside and his efforts to improve her happiness drain his energy and cause him to fall ill. He states, “Twenty days after Fosca’s convalescence, I no longer had any health, courage, or hope of surviving my misfortune.” (125). Once again, pity has caused weariness and illness. Giorgio’s compassion for Fosca leads him to sacrifice his own needs to ensure her happiness. Initially, he pities Fosca, but, later, Fosca begins to pity Giorgio (Tarchetti 137). Consequently, pity is the cause of Giorgio’s descent into illness and discontent.