Stanza 170 - Explanation

Original Stanza

'My honour I'll bequeath unto the knife
That wounds my body so dishonoured.
'Tis honour to deprive dishonour'd life;
The one will live, the other being dead:
So of shame's ashes shall my fame be bred;
For in my death I murder shameful scorn:
My shame so dead, mine honour is new-born.

🔍 Line-by-Line Analysis

Okay, let's break down Stanza 170 of Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece line by line and then consider the overall meaning.

Line-by-Line Breakdown:

• "My honour I'll bequeath unto the knife"

  • Meaning: Lucrece is saying that she will give her honour to the knife that will kill her. She is personifying the knife, giving it the agency to carry her honour forward.
  • Literary Device: Personification (giving the knife the ability to receive an inheritance).

• "That wounds my body so dishonoured."

  • Meaning: The knife will wound her body, which has been defiled (dishonored) by the rape. This reinforces the belief that her physical body is now irrevocably tainted.
  • Literary Device: Emphasizing the physical impact of the rape.

• "'Tis honour to deprive dishonour'd life;"

  • Meaning: It is an act of honour (right, noble) to take away a life that has been dishonored. Suicide, in this instance, is seen as a restoration, not a degradation.
  • Literary Device: Justification of suicide as a means of regaining honor, contrasting with modern viewpoints.

• "The one will live, the other being dead:"

  • Meaning: Honour (or reputation) will continue to exist/live, even though her physical life (the "dishonoured life") will be gone. This is the core of her argument: her death isn't an end, but a transformation.
  • Literary Device: Antithesis (opposite ideas placed together - life and death)

• "So of shame's ashes shall my fame be bred;"

  • Meaning: Out of the destruction of her shame (symbolized by ashes, a common metaphor for destruction), her good reputation (fame) will be born. Just like a phoenix rising from the ashes, her reputation for virtue will emerge from the ashes of the shameful act committed against her.
  • Literary Device: Metaphor (shame as ashes, fame being bred), Allusion (to the Phoenix myth)

• "For in my death I murder shameful scorn:"

  • Meaning: By killing herself, Lucrece believes she is killing the shameful disgrace that has been inflicted upon her. She is actively fighting back against the dishonor. This also implies that the act of suicide will destroy the power of future scorn as well.
  • Literary Device: Personification (giving 'scorn' the ability to be murdered).

• "My shame so dead, mine honour is new-born."

  • Meaning: With her shame dead, her honour is reborn or renewed. The act of suicide is a cleansing, a way to reclaim what was taken from her. It echoes the earlier line about fame being bred from shame's ashes.
  • Literary Device: Metaphor (honour being reborn, shame being dead).

Overall Meaning:

This stanza is a powerful declaration of Lucrece's intent to commit suicide as a means of restoring her honor. She believes that her honor cannot coexist with the shame of the rape. She views suicide not as a defeat, but as an act of agency and a way to triumph over the dishonor that has been forced upon her. By choosing death, she believes she can transform her shame into lasting fame and restore her good name. She portrays the act of suicide as a purification, a cleansing fire that will eradicate the stain of the rape and allow her honour to be reborn. The stanza is filled with a sense of grim determination and a complex understanding of honor, shame, and reputation within the societal context of the time. It also demonstrates her belief that her death will have a powerful message for others. The act becomes a means of reclaiming her narrative and controlling her destiny.