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William ShakespeareThe Rape of Lucrece
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1594A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Various Aspects of the Female Body
“The Rape of Lucrece” is deeply concerned with the (biological) female body. It is described using monetary terms and holds the (corrupted) power of beauty. Lucrece’s body, though abused, is also responsible for banishing royalty and, ultimately, the downfall of the monarchy.
The diction of stealing—specifically hoarding treasure—categorizes Tarquin’s abuse. In the third stanza, Collantine’s descriptions of Lucrece that inflame Tarquin utilize the language of wealth and ownership. Collantine speaks of “the treasure of his happy state, / What priceless wealth the heavens him had lent / In the possession of his beauteous mate, / Reck’ning his fortune” (Lines 16-19) when discussing Lucrece among the men at the encampment. When contemplating violence in his bedroom, Tarquin frames his thoughts with this lucrative imagery: “great treasure” is the prize he seeks (Line 132). After raping Lucrece, Tarquin is compared to a miser, who “coffers up his gold” but is too ill to enjoy it: “scarce hath eyes his treasure to behold” (Lines 855-857). Tarquin’s sin of adultery is a kind of greed; the figurative treasure of Lucrece’s body could be considered cursed gold because it ultimately causes Tarquin’s banishment.
Beauty is central to the descriptions of Lucrece (and her painted Trojan counterpart, Helen); is it what Tarquin blames for his uncontrollable lust. From the second stanza, female beauty is equated with the colors red and white as well as celestial imagery. Collantine praises “the clear unmatched red and white / Which triumphed in the sky of his delight, / Where mortal stars as bright as heaven’s beauties” (Lines 11-13) when talking about Lucrece. These motifs run throughout the poem, appearing many times. Tarquin cites colorful and heavenly beauty when Lucrece asks why he is attacking her: “Only he hath an eye to gaze on beauty, / And dotes on what he looks, ‘gainst law or duty” (Lines 496-497). Like Paris in the Trojan War, Tarquin cannot control himself around a beautiful woman. Lucrece references this rationale when telling her husband and his men about the rape; she explains that Tarquin said her “poor beauty had purloined his eyes” (Line 1651). Beauty, here again, is a cursed treasure.
After her suicide, it is Lucrece’s body that rallies the Romans against the monarchy. Collantine, Lucretius, Brutus, and their men “did conclude to bear dead Lucrece thence, / To show her bleeding body thorough Rome, / And so to publish Tarquin’s foul offense” (Lines 1850-1852). The publicizing of the corpse turns the people against the prince; Lucrece’s body incites the political action of banishment by the end of Shakespeare’s poem. In the end of his “Argument” that prefaces the poem, Shakespeare mentions the greater impact of Lucrece’s corpse: “the people were so moved that with one consent and a general acclamation [...] the state government was changed from kings to consuls.” In death, Lucrece’s body has more power than it had in life.
Interconnectedness of Public and Private Life
Marriage, as a union between families and the vehicle for the production of heirs, is a public affair; a sexual assault behind closed doors has large-scale political implications in “The Rape of Lucrece.” There are several moments in the poem where the intersection of the public and private spheres is directly discussed. After being raped, Lucrece curses the abstract quality of opportunity, saying that it is responsible when “secret pleasure turns to open shame, / Thy private feasting to a public fast” (Lines 890-891). She returns to this theme when looking at the painting of Troy, thinking about how Paris’s rape of Helen started a war: “Why should the private pleasure of someone / Become the public plague of many moe” (Lines 1478-1479). Non-consensual adultery breaks political alliances and interferes with inheritance.
Tarquin’s abuse of Lucrece reflects abusing his position of power as prince. Lucrece must offer him hospitality due to his station: Tarquin is of a higher rank than Collantine, as well as his comrade-in-arms. When Tarquin gazes on Lucrece’s body, he sees a kingdom to be overtaken: “These worlds [her breasts] in Tarquin new ambition bred, / Who like a foul usurper went about / From this fair throne to heave the owner out” (Lines 411-413). This is ironic because, in the end, it is Tarquin’s royal family that is overthrown. In this private moment, Tarquin’s violence destabilizes Collantine’s “throne”: his wife’s sanity, as well as his reputation in the public eye.
Reputation is a key component in bridging private and public lives. After someone dies, their reputation remains. Tarquin considers this when debating whether or not to leave his bedroom and violate Lucrece: “Yea, though I die the scandal will survive” (Line 204). Lucrece tries to appeal to this concern when she debates Tarquin in her room before he assaults her: “king’s misdeeds cannot be hid in clay” (Line 609), speaking to how his violent act will resonate even more when he succeeds his father in becoming king. Reputation is also a part of Lucrece’s rationale for suicide. She says, “Let my good name, that senseless reputation, / For Collantine’s dear love be kept unspotted” (Lines 820-821). Names outlive bodies, and Lucrece wants her name to be the one associated with revenge on Tarquin.
The Choices That Lead to Violence
Shakespeare’s poem, unlike his source material and some other works about Lucrece, focuses on the moments when characters choose violence towards others and themselves. Tarquin acts more rashly and has less internality than Lucrece, but the psychology of both characters is presented at length before they act.
Tarquin tries to talk himself out of sexual violence but, in the end, is controlled by lust. He calls his desire for Lucrece a “shame to knighthood and shining arms” (Line 197); he and Collantine are “dear friend[s]” (Line 237), like Arthur and Lancelot were. Tarquin is initially concerned about his posthumous reputation, that his “digression is so vile, so base, / That it will live engraven in [his] face” (Lines 202-203) even after his death. However, Tarquin decides that “desire my pilot is, beauty my prize” (Line 179) and his fear is “almost choked by unresisted lust” (Line 282). The poetic motif of eyes versus heart is used to illustrate how lust is produced by sight. When Lucrece tries to talk Tarquin out of sexual violence, he says, “strive I to embrace mine infamy” (Line 504); Tarquin is running towards ruining his reputation.
After her rape, Lucrece is also concerned about reputation. Lucrece is often referred to as “chaste” (Line 7) and, as a married woman, chastity refers to fidelity rather than virginity. When this chastity is violently taken from her, she says, “that is gone for which I sought to live” (Line 1051), so she no longer fears death and will give a “dying life to living infamy” (Line 1055). Lucrece believes killing herself will spare her a life of shame, and will save the reputation of her family. Her reasoning resembles the seppuku of Japanese samurai; she says: “in my death I murder shameful scorn / My shame so dead, mine honour is newborn” (1189-1190). Suicide is an honorable choice to Lucrece.
Also, Lucrece rationalizes suicide by considering it a mechanism that will prevent any illegitimate children. She says, the “bastard graft shall never come to growth. / He shall not boast who did thy stock pollute, / That thou art doting father of his fruit” (Lines 1071-1073). This connects with Shakespeare’s veil of Arthurian anachronisms that covers the entire poem, in that it is Arthur’s illegitimate child, Mordred, who kills him in many versions of the legend. Lucrece is concerned that not only will Tarquin will mock Collantine after cuckolding him, but also that Collantine’s heir might be able to be turned against him.
Finally, Lucrece decides that her suicide will ensure that Tarquin’s violence is avenged. Simply telling the men what happened may not be enough; she considers how “to see sad sights moves more than hear them told” (Line 1324). The act of suicide is both a method of persuasion and a model for retribution. Lucrece thinks of her husband: “Myself, thy friend, will kill myself, thy foe; / And for my sake serve thou false Tarquin so” (Lines 1196-1197). Her violent act is not simply a response to trauma, but also a way to leverage power in a male-dominated world.
Related Titles
By William Shakespeare
