Male dishonor as guilt and shame in The Rape of Lucretia To the extent that a woman's virginity or chastity is imagined as an object that can be " possessed", rape becomes a property crime, consisting in the theft of the woman's "virtue" from its rightful "owner", her male guardian. Bernice Harris articulates this view with respect to Titus Andronicus: "The definition of the word is based on ownership: 'rape' is an appropriate term only if what is taken is not rightfully possessed" (388). The man who can claim ownership of a woman is subsequently "disgraced" when she is violated: "Honor, then, is a function of property" (389). While it is tempting to see Shakespeare's concept of rape entirely in this way, such a view is inadequate to explain the complex interactions of dishonor, shame, and guilt found in The Rape of Lucretia. Carolyn Williams, by contrast, focuses on the tensions in modern thought between a culture of "shame" and one of "guilt," two codes that differ not only in their description of the nature of crime, but also in its consequences for life. the victim and the importance of his statements in determining his status. In the “culture of shame,” rape is “a property crime” (as Harris defines it) and “the victim's refusal of consent…is irrelevant: her physical condition determines her status” ( 94). In the culture of "guilt", however, women are seen as a "responsible human agent". Therefore "her statement is critically important. Lack of consent defines rape. . . . Her ability to tell her story afterward vindicates her honor" (95). More generally, it is possible to see the opposition between "guilt" and "shame" as representing a broader tension in modern thought between Christian and p...... middle of paper ...... seen as a murder at the hands of Tarquin, and therefore the exhibition of his "bloody body" (1851) testifies more eloquently than any words to his guilt. This reconfiguration of suicide as murder, however, is only possible if the men themselves understand its death as the logical and, indeed, only possible consequence of rape. Therefore, for blame to be assigned correctly and explicitly, men must implicitly accept the code of shame that forces Lucrece's choice. Works Cited Harris, Bernice. “Sexuality as a Significator for Power Relations: Using Lavinia, from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus” Critcism 38 (1996): 383-407.Watson, Curtis. Shakespeare and the Renaissance Concept of Honor Princeton: Princeton UP, 1960.Williams, Carolyn. "'Silence, like a knife by Lucretia: Shakespeare and the meanings of rape." English Studies Yearbook 23 (1993): 93-110.