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Discuss Aristophane's lysistrata as feminist play
Discussing the history and purpose of War Poetry
Discuss Aristophane's lysistrata as feminist play
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The True Role of Women During the Time of Lysistrata
Aristophanes’ significant contributions in the development of the theater arts and his standing in the Athenian community are well documented. His hilarious comedy, Lysistrata, reflects the disgust with war prevalent at Athens after the disastrous expedition to Sicily. It is ripe with sexual innuendo and provides much insight into the timeliness of human sexuality, desire, and the war of the sexes, yet it was intended to make a political statement regarding the folly of Athenian military aggression. Aristophanes was not suggesting that a sex strike might be an effective means of ending the Peloponnesian War, more likely that the reasons for the war itself were suspect. Lysistrata’s scheme to force the men of Greece to the peace table could never have been successful. Property concerns, gender roles, and the sexuality of Athenian men prevented Athenian women from exerting the necessary political influence.
Logistically, it would have been quite difficult for Lysistrata to enlist the aid of the women of Athens in her scheme. Greek society imposed standards of decorum that restricted a woman’s freedom of movement and required her to be escorted by a slave woman or an elderly relative when in public (Gulick 54). These restrictions were designed primarily to limit a wife or daughter’s contact with men outside her family and served men’s goal of avoiding uncertainty about the paternity of children, however they did allow women friends and relatives to socialize freely in each other’s homes. Even the scene of Lysistrata waiting to meet with Kalonike, Myrrhine, and Lampito doesn’t seem particularly out of the ordinary. Still, the coordination required would necessitate that Lysistrata be of substantial means. Only the wealthiest of women could successfully deploy couriers across battle lines, initiate a relationship with a Spartian woman of significant influence, and arrange for Lampito’s visit to Athens. Since, as Charles Gulick writes, "every woman of good family was under the guardianship of a man" (56), it seems unlikely that Lysistrata could managed such a feat.
Wives, in ancient Greece, were strategically selected for the purpose of producing legitimate heirs and maintaining control of property (Gulick 57). They were typically not the objects of their husband’s sexual desire. "Marriage was a matter of good family, good dowry, and good health. Given the differences in ages, education and experience, there were no real grounds for companionship.
In her essay on, “Athenian Women,” Sarah Ruden points out that Aristophanes in Lysistrata portray women as supportive of Athenian institutions and eager to save them. But she cautions, “To do this now they must flout law, religion, and every notion of public decency – and this is definitely no reflection on women’s attitudes, but mere satirical farce and fantasy” (Ruden 107). An important element of “satirical farce” in this spirit would be a heavy use of repetition to make people laugh at the weakness being satirized. One example would not be enough, and the audience might not be amused by less than three or four examples. So in important episodes that fill out the action of the play, we have 4 examples of women beating guards,
" While this view may have been extreme even for the Greeks, they were convinced of the physical and intellectual inferiority of women. Thus, they believed that it was better for all--the woman included--that a wife should stay in the home far removed from the complicated business of the "man's world."... ... middle of paper ... ...
In a modern day production of Lysistrata, a director’s role would involve the overseeing of the whole play making course and ensuring that all the cast members realize the vision of the production. This role covers all the steps of production from the interpretation of the script to the final performance. This means that the director has a say over a range of disciplines and has to have artistic vision. Lysistrata was produced in 411 B.C., at a time when Athens and Sparta had just concluded a two-decade long war and the general population was in despair. Comedies such as these were used then to communicate instructions to the people (mbc.edu). This essay will focus on the scene where Lysistrata has gathered all the women to convinces the to withhold sex from their husbands until they sign a peace treaty.
With a household comes the responsibilities of maintaining a happy and stable family. The duty of having a secure family involves financial security, which ensures a household has enough to eat, stays properly nursed, and clothed. The level of happiness relies on the dynamics of the family itself, such as how supportive and attentive a family is to one another, but often times happiness is blindsided by money. Financial security and happiness can be confused and overshadowed by the aspiration of money and consumerism. Families provide their household’s financial needs, but neglect the emotional aspects. The overpowering need for money takes a toll on families. D.H Lawrence’s short story explores the dynamics of money and its psychological toll. The story’s unhappy family in D.H Lawrence’s short story, “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, demonstrates the adverse psychological effects that derive from the insatiable desire of money and mindless consumerism.
This paper examines the struggle African American students are more likely to face at a predominantly white institution (PWIs) than at a historically black college or university (HBCUs). Each author has his or her own take on this hypothesis; most of the author’s studies suggest that African American students have a hard time adjusting to an environment at a PWI (Littleton 2003). However, African American students at HBCUs tend to be at ease with their learning environment. Though many of the author’s agree with one another there are other authors whose studies come to the conclusion that race is not a factor in college education anymore. That being the case on average African American population is approximately four percent at PWIs (Littleton 2003).
According to research, the role of women in classical Greece was extremely limited. Men and women were segregated all over in the Greek society, even in the home (Source 9). Women were secluded in their homes to the point of not being able to leave their own quarters except on special religious occasions or as necessity dictated (Source 10). All women were tightly controlled and confined to the home to insure that their husbands were provided legitimate male heirs. Beyond this, women had no true value (Source 6). Clearly, male domination in Greek society was like enslavement to women. A marriage contract dated 92 B.C. can be located in Women's Life in Greece & Rome by Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant which defines unacceptable behavior within the union of marriage. The document requires that both husband and wife be chaste within the context of the household, but although nothing prevents ...
The Rocking-Horse Winner is a complex story that is best understood if one examines it through the 5 Elements of Fiction: setting, character, plot, point of view and theme. This story is about a little boy named Paul who is trying to gain love and affection from his greedy mother. One day he told his mother that he had luck and he knew his mother did not believe him. This compelled him to go out and find luck on his own. He set off on his rocking horse on a journey to find luck. When Paul would come back from his journeys the horse would tell him who the winners of the horse races would be. By this he won money and thought if he gave a large amount to his mother that she could finally be happy and would love him. Until one day he went crazy on his rocking horse, screaming ?Malabar!? He had fallen off, hitting his head and was knocked unconscious. Later in the night he had died, never meeting his needs for love from his mother. Through the 5 elements of Fiction the reader is able to better understand the story The Rocking-Horse Winner.
First, Lysistrata is clearly identifiable as a leader for Athenian women. In the beginning of the play, Lysistrata secretly organizes a meeting between all the women of Greece to discuss a strategy to end the Peloponnesian War "if the women will meet here - the Spartans, the Boeotians, and we Athenians - then all together we will save Greece" (Page 468, 40-42). During the meeting, which Lysistrata leads, Lysistrata suggests to the women of Greece to withhold sex from their husbands. The women are hesitant and some refuse "I won't do it! Let the war go on" states Myrrhine, an Athenian woman (Page 470, 132). However, with Lysistrata' encouragement, the women swear an oath to withhold sex from their husbands until a treaty of peace is signed. Also, throughout the play, Lysistrata continuously directs, instructs and coaches the women of Athens on how to behave. Furthermore, the men call upon Lysistrata to make the treaty between Sparta and Athens "Only Lysistrata can arrange things for us; shall we summon her?" (Page 494, 1...
In Greek classics, it is common knowledge that in that era women and men were considered unequal. Men were superior, and in most cases women were not even fit for citizenship. It is in this atmosphere and time period that Aristophanes wrote Lysistrata. The play itself is supposed to be a comedy, although the actions of the women do not seem amusing. Instead, the women’s actions, especially the main character Lysistrata, seem incredibly brave. Lysistrata rounds up her “troop” of all the women in Athens and a Spartan woman. They take charge of the acropolis and refuse to settle for anything less than a peace treaty to end the war. The only problem with this is, in ending the war, they will be bringing back the men from their duty and end up in the same social caste system as they were from the beginning. Aristophanes seems to make the point that – the only power women hold is their sexuality (Rex Par. 7). The Athenian women can withdraw from their husbands for however long they like, they still end up givi...
With Lampito returning to Sparta to secure the agreement of the Spartan women, Lysistrata and the other women remain with her to make plans to join the w...
If you were to see Rocky for the first time and you were anything like most people, you would be overcome by a feeling of repugnancy and disgust. This is because he is a homeless person. His real name is Jack but people call him “Rocky” because of his 6’2” body and his somewhat larger than normal muscles. He doesn’t have the body of any average man. The combination of his light green eyes, his long brown beard, and his long mocha hair falling down from his winter hat, which he wears in every season, reminds me of a depiction of Jesus. But that’s just pure physical appearance. Most of the time, the hair around the rim of his mouth is covered by whatever food he just ate. Sometimes it’s white rice, sometimes it’s powder like that from a donut, but most of the time it’s just a mess and I can’t tell what it is. He’s a homeless clown, for lack of a better word. He likes to make people laugh, and often jokes around. As he smiles he displays a naked mouth. His two front teeth are missing and most of the others sit rotting away. He mumbles words almost to the point where it’s incohe...
The second obvious moral to The Rocking Horse Winner is that often one does not realize what they have and how they we feel about it until it is gone. Early on within the story we learned that Paul’s mother had attractive, bonny children. Yet, “when her children were present she always felt the center of heart go hard”. She knew “that there was a place in the center of her heart where she could not feel love for anybody, not even her children”. Later on in the story, the mother goes on to show her emotions and love when she has “seizures of uneasiness” about Paul and finds him fiercely riding his rocking horse into unconsciousness and finally plumaging to his death. When she is presented with losing her child, she realizes what she had, a little too late. (Lawrence p.980, 988)
Lysistrata is portrayed as a typical commander of war that gives orders and does not take part in the war. While being the mastermind behind the sex strike, she is able to separate her self from the other women in her ability to resist her attraction for men. The women are used as pawns by this cunning and powerful, Lysistrata, who is victorious in establishing peace in Greece.
Medea and Lysistrata are two Greek literatures that depict the power which women are driven to achieve in an aim to defy gender inequality. In The Medea, Medea is battling against her husband Jason whom she hates. On the other hand, in Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the protagonist Lysistrata plotted to convince and organize the female gender to protest against the stubbornness of men. In terms of defining the purpose of these two literatures, it is apparent that Euripedes and Aristophanes created characters that demonstrate resistance against the domination of men in the society.
... convey deeper themes of life and death, the struggles between power and class structure and also the societal differences between men and women. Aristophanes uses humor to hook his audience into his play, and then undermines the surface humor with much bigger thematic issues. If this play had simply been about women withholding sex for other reasons such as wanting more money for shopping or other frivolous ideas it would not then be considered a satiric comedy. Satire requires more than physical humor. An issue must be raised such as the life and death theme that is seen in the war in Lysistrata, and a solution must then be made. Aristophanes created the women in the beginning to be bickering, unintelligent, and self-centered people. But in the end it was their idea and compromise that ended the war.