The Easy Way Out

Set in Rome, before the founding of the Roman Republic, The Rape of Lucrece is Shakespeare’s narrative poem about the rape and resulting suicide of the title character. Dazzled by her beauty and virtue and his overwhelming desire to "own" her, Tarquin sneaks into Lucrece's bedroom and does the unthinkable. In an attempt to silence her after the act, he threatens not only to take her life her but claims that he will kill a slave and place him next to her thus proclaiming to the world that they were engaged in a sexual relationship and thereby destroying Lucrece's honor. Tarquin places Lucrece in, what seems to her, an impossible situation. Though Lucrece begs Tarquin to come to his senses and consider his own honor, he gags her with her nightgown and carries out the rape. Afterwards, Lucrece writes to her husband and father to come home quickly and when they do, recounts the atrocity and then stabs herself. Collatinus and Lucretius, then declare Lucrece’s tragedy to the people of Rome, which in turn leads to the downfall of the Tarquin regime and the rise of the Roman Republic. The true tragedy in the story of Lucrece is not the rape itself but the fact that Lucrece feels that suicide is the only option she has as a result. After raping Lucrece, Tarquin expresses a 'blame the victim' mentality. “Thus he replies: ‘The color in thy face, / That even for anger makes the lily pale, / And the red rose blush at her own disgrace, / Shall plead for me and tell my loving tale. / Under that color am I come to scale/ Thy never-conquered fort; the fault is thine, / For those eyes betray thee unto mine” (476-482). In other words, Tarquin blames Lucrece's beauty for the attack he has carried out and sees himself as a victim of Lucrece's sensuality. Lucrece as well, placed some of the blame on herself, reiterating Tarquin’s earlier claim that her “beauty has ensnared” her: “My bloody judge forbade my tongue to speak; / No rightful plea might plead for justice./ His scarlet lust came evidence to swear/ That my poor beauty had purloined his eyes;/ And when the judge is robbed the prisoner dies” (1648-1652). She also seems self-aware that her ignorance about the 'true nature' of men's sexual desires made her vulnerable to the attack and whereas it might be logical to blame her father and husband for keeping her in the dark on these matters, she does not. It is disturbing that Lucrece actually sees herself as contaminated by her rape. After Tarquin leaves, Lucrece constantly refers to her own “foul-defiled” (1080) or “stained blood" (1232), that somehow her own body shares in the sin that Tarquin has committed. Lucrece feels stained and although she did not intend or cause the act to happen, she feels guilty and responsible. When she finds herself victimized, the idea of pregnancy being a result suddenly comes to her mind and terrifies her. She comes to the conclusion that taking her life will somehow erase the sins she feels she is guilty of because she was incapable of preventing the attack. During the fourth century some believed that a women should commit suicide rather than summit to rape because her virtue was destroyed by the act. If she could not kill herself before the crime than she should kill herself afterwards rather than live as a dishonored woman. Lucrece’s motives for suicide are presented in the context of the Roman concept of honor and it is the fear of dishonor and shame that seems to motivate her to act as she did, "My honour I’ll bequeath unto the knife/ That wounds my body so dishonoured./ ’Tis honour to deprive dishonour’d life;/ The one will live, the other being dead. (1184-1187). It has been argued that if Lucrece was so chaste and pure, she should have either defended herself to the death or killed Tarquin, and that her suicide after the rape does not absolve her of any implied complicity. However, Shakespeare presents her as having had no other option but to surrender when Tarquin threatened that her attempts to resist would only lead to a further debasement of her image and her family's. Her exit from life, as in other Shakespearean works, has tragic dignity largely motivated by the Roman concern for honor called pietas which stressed the importance of maintaining honor and dignity for both the State and the family. The Elizabethans also cherished honor so it was a common theme in the works of Shakespeare. Not all scholars believe that Lucrece's suicide was inevitable due to the Roman concept of honor. Stilva for example argues that there is no evidence that Roman Pagans encouraged women to commit suicide circumstances such as this one and although suicide was accepted in Pagan philosophy in some situations, the prevention of rape was not one of them. As an innocent victim of rape, there was no need for Lucrece to commit suicide. The expectation of death before dishonor, or suicide after rape, as proof that a woman was virtuous was a Christian idea dating back to the martyrs and was not rejected by Christians until Saint Augustine developed the Christian view condemning suicide. There is a saying in Spanish "el hubiera no existe" that means; 'What if' doesn't exist. Although this is undoubtedly true, it is hard not to question what would have happened if Lucrece had been strong enough to stand up to her attacker and publicly accuse him instead of taking the 'easy way' out. Would she have gone down in history as a defender of her gender, one of the first women to publicly accuse a rapist and take a stand against women being 'owned' by men and only being as valuable as her 'virtue' was to them? Or would she be an obscure royal figure with a tarnished reputation, as she so obviously feared?

Works Cited-

Belsey, Catherine. “Tarquin Dispossessed: Expropriation and Consent in ‘The Rape of Lucrece’.” Shakespeare Quarterly 52.3, Autumn, 2001: 315-335
Shakespeare, William. "The Rape of Lucrece"
Stivala, Joan. "Death Before Dishonor!” Eras, Edition 13, Issue 1, December 2011