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Lysistrata as a feminist play
Lysistrata as a feminist play
Lysistrata as a feminist play
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Life before we knew it had changed. Near 400 BCE,, plays from Aeschylus and Aristophanes were going in depth about the great wars and their rulers. For the two plays, Agamemnon and Lysistrata, both had opposite oppositions. In some cases, the gender roles played a huge issue for that time, but the women seem to have had a lot of the control in these plays. Many of the different themes, tones, and time periods had a major effect on the plays, which is what made them so diverse from each other. The women of Lysistrata are only seeking peace from the war. Their husbands have been away for many decades and they have finally decided that it has been long enough. “My husbands been away five months in Thrace. Somebody’s gotta watch the general.
In The Iliad the most predominant portrayal of women is rather negative. Many of the female figures in the book are subjected to one of the lowest roles possible. Occurring quite often in the text is the referral of women as “war prizes” or “concubines.” These women are degraded down to nothing more than mere pieces of property and their bodies are objectified. The men have the option to do as they please with these women as if they have no say and are just another fancy jewel or sparkly piece of gold amongst the other things the men plunder. For example, in book 1 when Agamemnon must give up his war prize, he then spitefully demands Achilles war prize from him to make up for his loss, this in turn causes a dispute between the men. This just shows how belittled Achilles war prize, Briseis, becomes. The two grown men fight over her as if she is a stolen horse. Similarly, the whole war is kind of over the fact that Helen runs off with Paris, prince of Troy, and leaves her husband, Menelaus, behind. Menelaus views Helen as stolen property and is w...
The poetic tone of Aristophanes' Lysistrata differs greatly from the poetic tone of the Greek tragedies we have read in class. However, after analyzing this Greek comedy, it seems to share some of the main characteristics of Euripides' Medea. Within these plays, we meet shrewd, powerful masculine women who use the art of manipulation to get what they want from others and to accomplish their goals. This theme of manipulation is employed through various means and techniques. The women of these plays also seem to contradict the stereotypical woman and have characteristics similar to the Homeric Greek warrior.
Lysistrata is characterized as courageous and articulate, which are traits associated with the ideal male leaders of Ancient Greece. On the other hand, the common women who interact with Lysistrata conform to the subservient gender role of caretaker by “hanging round their husbands, waking up the servants, putting the baby to sleep or washing and feeding it…” (Aristophanes Lysistrata 18-19) Through this masculine characterization, Aristophanes grants Lysistrata the power to thrust herself into the world of politics to end the ongoing Peloponnesian War. In contrast to Lysistrata, the other women do not have the power to enter politics and must turn to the leadership of Lysistrata.
In Euripides' Medea, the protagonist abandoned the gender roles of ancient Greek society. Medea defied perceptions of gender by exhibiting both "male" and "female" tendencies. She was able to detach herself from her "womanly" emotions at times and perform acts that society did not see women capable of doing. However, Medea did not fully abandon her role as a woman and did express many female emotions throughout the play.
In the time of Aristophanes, women were “universally legal minors; citizen woman participated at best indirectly in the political and intellectual life of the city” (Slater). Rarely did they emerge from their secluded quarters, except for marriages, funerals, and some civic festivals. It is quite ironic that during a time where woman’s lives were almost entirely directed by political circumstances and strict social norms, traditional Greek drama encompasses the life of woman and is intensely female centered, more so than any other western literature. In the play Lysistrata, Aristophanes essentially swaps the gender roles in Ancient Greek society and uses it as a tool of humor, as well as to provoke universal thought about gender roles.
“Lysistrata,” written following the trouncing of Athenian forces in Sicily in 413 BC, harkens back to this time of war. As is traditional in Athenian theater, males in drag played all of the female parts. This ritual increases the play’s absurdity. The play begins with the streets empty as the men are at war. The women speak to each other of both emotional and sexual starvation. They both
Lysistrata has planned a meeting between all of the women of Greece to discuss the plan to end the Peloponnesian War. As Lysistrata waits for the women of Sparta, Thebes, and other areas to meet her she curses the weakness of women. Lysistrata plans to ask the women to refuse sex with their husbands until a treaty for peace has been signed. Lysistrata has also made plans with the older women of Athens (the Chorus of Old Women ) to seize the Akropolis later that day. The women from the various regions finally assemble and Lysistrata convinces them to swear an oath that they will withhold sex from their husbands until both sides sign a treaty of peace. As the women sacrifice a bottle of wine to the Gods in celebration of their oath, they hear the sounds of the older women taking the Akropolis, the fortress that houses the treasury of Athens.
As the main theme of the play, the female stereotype of woman’s only power base being sex was strongly employed. The main character Lysistrata and all the women in Greece band together to essentially take over the city states to end the Peloponnesian war. They do this by exploiting their stereotypical power source, sexuality. This “power source” would...
Centuries of traditions has enabled men and women to define gender roles in society. Although some critics declare gender roles do not exist today, others believe they do. In society, men and women are defined by gender roles throughout their activities and emotions. A doctor is typically portrayed by a male while women rear the children and cook for the men. However, although still in existence, today these roles are less obvious but tend to have similar meaning when compared to the past. In ancient Greece, women suffered great hardships. Currently, females work, vote, and run for office. In comparison to ancient Greece, these activities are a phenomenal leap from being under the direct supervision of a male husband.
“As regards the sexes, the male is by nature superior and the female inferior, the male ruler and the female subject” – Aristotle
Gender Roles in Ancient Greek Society Throughout history, the roles of women and men have always differed to some degree. In ancient Greece, the traditional roles were clear-cut and defined. Women stayed home to care for children and do housework while men left to work. This system of society was not too far off the hunter gatherer concept where women cared for the house and the men hunted.
Aristophanes stereotypes women as bickering, self-centered, unintelligent people in the beginning. They are sex driven and selfish. Lysistrata is upset that the women are late for the very important meeting "Here I've called a meeting to discuss a very important matter, and they're all still fast asleep" (180). Calonice sums up what women are thought to do all day, and also what they represent to their households; "The women! What could they ever do that was any use? Sitting at home putting flowers in their hair, putting on cosmetics and saffron gowns and Cimberian see-through shifts, with slippers on our feet?" (181). It is in fact these very frivolous ideas that are used to bring peace to the two cities. Throughout the play Aristophanes begins to knock down ...
Effectively such opposition attracts the negative attention of the elderly men who are influencers of Greek politics. They march to the citadel with torches to smoke the women out, instead they are met by ruthless opposition of Lysistrata and her women. The confrontation leads to a small victory for the women, this creates tremendous situational irony since the role of the women in ancient Greek society was to “dwell in the retirement of the household, clad in diaphanous garments of yellow silk and long flowing gowns, decked out with flowers and shod with dainty little slippers”(Aristophanes, 11). The elderly who create laws and who send young men to fight their wars are unable to disrupt the movement of some “housewives”. Embarrassingly and ironically the roles have switched where the women are the head of state and the old men are left speechless and made to return where they came from. Wisely, the author hints at part of the moral alternative by stating that old men shouldn’t necessarily get to declare war since the old men are not the ones who fight in them. Aristophanes begins to present a moral alternative gradually so the
In response, Lysistrata said, “We’ve given you sons, and then had to send them off to fight… We’re in the prime of our lives and how can we enjoy it, with our husbands always away and on campaign and us left at home like widows” (164). While it was the men who went off to fight the wars, it was the women who provided men. Women give birth, raise, and care for these men just to have them taken away by the government for an unnecessary war that may end in the death of these same men. If looking at this situation from an economical supply and demand point-of-view, the women supply the men that the government demands. Without women contributing or supplying, men for the war efforts, there wouldn’t be anyone to fight the wars. By pointing out the contributions of married women to the war effort, she leads into how unmarried women have come to a disadvantage because of war and implies how it could affect the future military. “And quite apart from us married women, what about the unmarried ones who are slowly turning into old maids” (164). The Magistrate attempts to refute the unmarried women argument by saying men age just like
Lysistrata was written in 411 B.C. as a critique on a notion thought so preposterous, that is was comical- women with positions of political power. Since then, women have managed to gain more legal rights, work alongside men, and own property, yet still face oppression in everyday life. After years of suffrages, wars, and movements to raise awareness of the unfair treatment of women earned relative equality with men but the gap can be seen clearly through wage gaps, slurs, and the portrayal of the sexes in literature.