Objectification Of Women In The Rape Of Lucretia

The Rape of Lucretia exhibits the objectification of women through the emphasis of how a virtuous woman is the ideal wife. The story displays a wife’s role in society, which is to be a subservient housewife for her husband to take pride in. Although, in the story, Lucretia’s work ethic as a housewife is acknowledged, that is not the determinant of her value as a woman. In fact, according to the story, a woman’s value is solely based on her unimpeachable loyalty to her husband’s ownership of her, through her chastity. A virtuous woman is put on a pedestal so high that once her virginity is lost, so is her purpose in life.
The story emphasizes that a woman’s place is at home. For instance, the drunken men decided to have a playful competition about whose wife …show more content…
This is displayed through the actions taken against Lucretia’s rape and the diction that was utilized. After Sextus Tarquinius had become cognizant of his ephemeral passion towards Lucretia, the author states that he was infatuated by the thought of violating “Lucretia’s chastity” (1). Through the connotation of the words, it sounds as if he is attacking her virginity rather than Lucretia. In a way, it implies that he is more interested in being the one to take her virginity rather than take any carnal pleasures from her. Lucretia’s chastity is put on a pedestal because it is constantly referred to as her “honor”. After Sextus Tarquinius raped Lucretia, she felt degraded and unworthy of her husband, expressing to him that she was a disgrace. This indicates that women cared about their worth to men, and unfortunately that is credited by whether or not they were virgins. The prominence of a woman’s celibacy being her only value is implied when Lucretia commits suicide because she could not live anymore, if she was no longer a virtuous woman, even though she did not lose her virginity