Análise do poema The Rape of Lucrece de William Shakespeare

Abstract

This paper analyzes William Shakespeare's poem The Rape of Lucrece, focusing on the representations of rape, female honor, and Lucrece's suicide, exploring how these themes reflect Renaissance social and cultural norms. The main objective of the research is to understand how sexual violence and its consequences are addressed in the poem, as well as to investigate Lucrece's suicide as a strategy to restore family honor. To this end, the methodology used was a qualitative analysis of the poem, in which we sought to understand the symbolic and discursive constructions present in the narrative, taking into account the different interpretations of the myth of Lucrece, both in literature and in the visual arts of the time. The research confirmed the hypothesis that Lucrece's suicide, in addition to being a personal tragedy, also functions as an act of resistance and political revenge, highlighting the tensions between power, violence, and the position of women in Renaissance society. The representation of Lucrece in the arts, often associated with nudity and eroticism, reinforces the dichotomy between her purity and the objectification of her body. The results show that, when dealing with Lucrece's rape and suicide, Shakespeare addresses not only issues of violence, but also social pressures on women and their bodies, exploring the complexity of female suffering and its social and political repercussions. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of the poem as a critique of the social norms of the time and suggests that the analysis of these representations can enrich the understanding of gender issues and sexual violence, both in the historical context and in contemporary times.