SOURCE: Williams, Carolyn D. “‘Silence, like a Lucrece knife’: Shakespeare and the Meanings of Rape.” The Yearbook of English Studies 23 (1993): 93-110.
In the following essay, Williams analyzes the rapes of both Lucrece in The Rape of Lucrece and Lavinia in Titus Andronicus, and concludes that although little resolution may be reached regarding Shakespeare's treatment of rape, some understanding of the confusion of Shakespeare and his contemporaries concerning the issue of rape may be achieved.
