The Rape Of Lucretia

The society of Rome during Shakespeare’s time period established a social order in which the lives of women held little to no value, and were often forced into inevitable situations like that of Lucretia’s in The Rape of Lucrece. The poem takes place in the mid-Sixth Century, BC. Lucius Tarquinius, referred to as Tarquin in the poem, has murdered his father-in-law to become King of Rome. He is an arrogant, despotic ruler, traits that prove to be accurate in his actions that follow in the story. After hearing one of his officers, Collatine, speak of his wife in the most eloquent of ways, Tarquin finds himself aroused by the description of the woman, and sets off to find her. He arrives at Collatine’s home and meets his wife, a woman by the …show more content…
In Roman society, although women did have virtue, they were not seen to be as nearly as important as men. They were objectified based on physical appearance, and often only served purpose in accompanying their spouses in social settings. After Lucretia had been raped, she felt as though her life was over. She no longer held a value to her husband, and when word would get out of the crime, she would damage her family name. Because she felt trapped, she decided to take her own life. It could be said that situations like this are now handled differently. If a woman is raped or sexually harassed in today’s society, there are outlets she can go to, or at the very least she can stand up for herself and avenge the crime on her own. Suicide is no longer the only option. But how much of our society is actually different from that of Shakespeare’s Rome? Women may not have to die, but they still have to live with the trauma. And no matter how much of a horrid act it may be, men still choose to rape women, perhaps even more so now than before. The societal trap set up for women has essentially never gone away, and when comparing the two cultures, it is impossible to ignore if it ever will.
Through the objectification of women and how they are portrayed to society, Collatine essentially sets up his own wife’s murder through his bragging to his fellow soldiers of his wife’s surpassing beauty. He …show more content…
In Saint Augustine’s City of God, the question is brought up of suicide caused by fear of punishment or disgrace. It is written with the following judgments:
“Some women killed themselves to avoid suffering anything of the kind, and surely any man of compassion would be ready to excuse the emotions which lead them to do this… For it is clear that if no one has a private right to kill even a guilty man (and no law allows this), then certainly anyone who kills himself is a murderer…” (City of God, Book I, Chapter