An Analysis Of Augustine's The Rape Of Lucretia

Augustine begins his work with a short prayer praising God. Augustine tells of his faith in God and his need to allow God to “live in” him. Augustine repents his childhood sins and asks God for forgiveness while continuously praising Him. Augustine describes his adolescent self as being “wild with lust” and consequently claims that fornication is purely for procreation between married peoples, an opinion expressed by his mother. Augustine tells of his father’s excitement regarding Augustine’s lust and his ability to create grandchildren as it contrasts with his mother’s advice “not to commit fornication and above all not to seduce another man’s wife.” At the time, he viewed his mother’s advice as “womanish” and did not adhere to it. Augustine

The history as a whole took over forty years to write. In the story of the Rape of Lucretia, Lucretia exists as the exceedingly virtuous wife of Tarquinius Conlatinus. The story begins as Conlatinus is bragging of his wife’s virtue among his peers. Eventually, eager to settle the debate of the better wife, Conlatinus exclaims, “young and vigorous as we are, why don 't we go get out horses and go and see for ourselves what our wives are doing? And we will base our judgment on whatever we see them doing when their husbands arrive unannounced.” While the other wives were discovered among friends, “preparing for a night of fun”, Lucretia was discovered “working on her spinning, with her servants.” This show of chastity was enough to garner the attention of Sextus Tarquinius. Several days later, Sextus Tarquinius returns to stay at the house of Conlatinus. Once everyone is asleep, Tarquinius gathers his sword and sneaks to Lucretia’s room, stating, “Quiet, Lucretia; I am Sextus Tarquinius, and I have a sword in my hand. If you speak, you will die." Supposedly unafraid in the face of death, Tarquinius resorts to threatening Lucretia’s reputation by creating a rumor of a servant affair upon her death. With his fear tactics proving successful, Tarquinius rapes Lucretia and quickly leaves. Lucretia sends messengers to both her husband and father, begging them to come “at once, with a

The play takes place during the Peloponnesian War and details a woman of the name Lysistrata. Lysistrata has concocted a plan to end the war through the unrecognized influence of women. She arranges a meeting between the wives of the men fighting for Sparta, Thebes, and other surrounding areas. In this meeting, Lysistrata plays on the women’s emotions regarding their “children’s fathers” going “endlessly off soldiering afar in this plodding war” and promptly states that Greece will be “saved by women” through their refraining “from every depth of love.” The women quickly refuse, exclaiming that they would rather “let the war proceed”, before being convinced that a “sex strike” is within the best interests of Greece. Thusly, a battle of the sexes ensues with the “Chorus of Old Women” proving to be the winners. The attempts to arrest the women are thwarted, leaving the men speculating “how this ferocity [could] be tamed.” Lysistrata continues to berate the men, detailing her silence though “well all the while [Lysistrata] knew” of the politics of war. She commands the men to “hold tongue” and “listen while [the women] show the way to recover the nation.” She compares the repair of Greece to the tasks daily preformed by women, those “trivial tricks of the household, domestic analogies of threads, skeins and spools”, in order to “unwind such political problems.” The men retreat, pride intact but slowly