Tag: The Rape of Lucrece

The panel concludes with an examination of Lucrece’s central role as a Shakespearean protagonist, addressing her attitude towards the conflict between Roman shame and the natural law, and how her speech is situated across historical contexts.

The panel reads the second third of Shakespeare’s Lucrece, with particular attention to the paradoxical presentation of light and darkness, and to the dual nature of guilt and shame in the poem, as situated within a putatively historical Roman context.

In the first of a three-part series on Shakespeare’s Lucrece, the panel explores the Roman history and sources for the poem, before reading and examining its metaphors with a focus on Sextus Tarquinius’ internal debate and final, abhorrent resolution.