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Women in ancient literature
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Discuss Aristophane's lysistrata as feminist play
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On page 16, Lysistrata says to Kleonike, “I’m positively ashamed to be a woman-- a member of a sex which can’t even live up to male slanders!” I find it contradicting how in the beginning she says that she is ashamed to be a woman because the only thing they are good for is glamour, but yet she believes that with this same ability, they have the power to stop the war. If she thinks that women have the ability to get the men to stop the war then she has to have some pride in being a woman. When Lysistrata proposes that the women should give up having sex they disagree with her at first believing that she’s taking things too far. However, after she explains how they can go about doing so the other women come around and agree with her. She tells
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,
As Lysistrata begins, the women are gathering for their meeting with Lysistrata. They gripe and complain about how late the others are for the meeting, while Lysistrata begins to clue them in on her plan. Once all have arrived who will be arriving, she gives them the details of her plan to stop the war. That plan being that they with hold sexual favors from their husbands or lovers until the war is over. For the most part, only one other woman, Lampito, is in agreement with her. The others cannot fathom doing such a thing. After all, they cannot go without sexual pleasures, could they? Eventually, Lysistrata and Lampito convince the others to go along with the plan. Finally, the women who did not give up and go home manage to seize the acropolis. The elders and magistrates try their best to smoke the women out, but to no avail. The women dump water on the men and stand their ground. Eventually the men of both sides had enough of being denied sexual pleasures and came together to sign the treaty. They were reluctant at first, but they gave way to the women’s wishes and signed the treaty ending the war between Athens and Sparta.
In which they were Peace, empowerment of women and also sexual humor. Throughout the story it is seen that women are mainly the one’s who are making peace with war. Their takeover of Athen’s Acropolis was the key goal in the story. War in Greece was represented as a way that men could have power and the quest for peace was the key thing. But in order for the war to end Lysistrata influenced all the Greek women that she could to abstain from having sex with their husbands/lovers forcing the men to give authority over to the women. Another theme that was in this story was the empowerment of women. During the society in which the story took place, one can see that during that time period men had all the power and women were mostly housewives obeying the husband at all times. It was a good thing that Lysistrata changed this rule of freedom because if it weren’t for her, women would have barely any freedom. She basically used reverse psychology to get what she wanted in order to over throw the men. Sexual humor was also another theme that was presented in the poem. In the book it can be seen that there were a lot of scenes that had sexual humor, whether it be what they said or what they were doing. Sexual references are through out the play between the women and the men during, before and after the
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.
Written sometime in the decade from 450-460BC, the Oresteia, along with much other Greek tragedy, coincides with a time of great success for Athenian democracy. As such, it is not unreasonable to assume that the portrayal of democracy in the Oresteia was intended as a charter myth to validate the power structure in place at the time, and to give democracy a seal of approval from a dramatic perspective. Despite the prominence of the goddess Athena, the Oresteia is additionally heavily patriarchal in its message. There is some evidence that supports the view that Athenian democracy was not at its root patriarchal, however, the Oresteia can easily be said to be essentially a charter myth for Athenian democracy and patriarchy.
Lysistrata, on the contrary shows women acting bravely and even aggressively against men who seem resolved on ruining the city- state by prolonging a pointless and excessively expending reserves stored in the Acropolis. The men being away at war would come home when they could, sexually relieve them selves and then leave again to precede a meaningless war. The women challenge the masculine role model to preserve traditional way of life in the community. When the women become challenged themselves they take on the masculine characteristics and defeat the men physically, mentally but primarily strategically. Proving that neither side benefits from it, just that one side loses more than the other. It gives the impression that the women are heroes and the men are ignorant, which contradicts what Euripides said but is chiefly written to entertain.
A way of thinking that both men and women should share equal rights in any situation that calls for it, such as politics,economics, and globality-this is the empowering idea of feminism. Satrapi,other girls, and woman live in a country where the inequality of women is much more harsh than what we know of, she faces them first-hand throughout the book, Persepolis, and we see the constant experiences and opinions that not only satrapi has but other females as well.Persepolis creates an half-and-half opinion when it comes to the idea of feminism; women 's opinions are constantly heard from the perspective of satrapi-which is brimmed with feminist views.
... 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.
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...
“Lysistrata” is a tale which is centered around an Athenian woman named Lysistrata and her comrades who have taken control of the Acropolis in Athens. Lysistrata explains to the old men how the women have seized the Acropolis to keep men from using the money to make war and to keep dishonest officials from stealing the money. The opening scene of “Lysistrata” enacts the stereotypical and traditional characterization of women in Greece and also distances Lysistrata from this overused expression, housewife character. The audience is met with a woman, Lysistrata, who is furious with the other women from her country because they have not come to discuss war with her. The basic premise of the play is, Lysistrata coming up with a plan to put an end to the Peloponnesian War which is currently being fought by the men. After rounding up the women, she encourages them to withhold sex until the men agree to stop fighting. The women are difficult to convince, although eventually they agree to the plan. Lysistrata also tells the women if they are beaten, they may give in, since sex which results from violence will not please the men. Finally, all the women join Lysistrata in taking an oath to withhold sex from their mates. As a result of the women refraining from pleasing their husbands until they stop fighting the war, the play revolves around a battle of the sexes. The battle between the women and men is the literal conflict of the play. The war being fought between the men is a figurative used to lure the reader to the actual conflict of the play which is the battle between men and women.
In Aristophanes Lysistrata, the women of the country do not agree with the war that their husbands are off fighting. They are firm believers in peace and harmony and are fighting their own war for what they believe, "Ah'd climb up Mount Taygetos if Ah just had a chance of seeing peace from theah!" (I.i. ) Lampito declares to the other women who all agree. Therefore, they have taken an oath to not engage in sexual activities with their husbands until they agree to end the war. This is done out of love - love for their country and its peaceful nature, love for their husbands and not wanting to become widows losing them in war, love for their children with the hope their children will grow up with their fathers, and love for one another and the power that they all hold when bonded together by this strong sense of love for a common cause.
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 no scene is this more apparent than during the long discourse between Lysistrata and the Commissioner of Athens. Since it was a debate with the leader of the males it demonstrated his, “thinking that is male oriented in its vocabulary, rules of logic, and criteria for what is considered objective knowledge”(Tyson 92). Meaning, he only valued the male perspective regarding the politics of the war. Therefore, innuendo is used in this scene to ridicule him and his phallogocentric and narrow minded view. This occurs when Lysistrata makes the assertion that men ought to treat government as women beat flax into wool.
On the weekend of Friday, April 21st, I was lucky enough to be able to participate in Lindsey Baldwin’s, ’17, senior seminar production of Lysistrata, the famous Greek comedy penned by Aristophanes himself. Combining ridiculous sensibilities with a strong message of female empowerment, the play follows the idealistic crusade of its titular character, and her attempts to bring an end to the constant bloody infighting embroiling all of Greece, depriving sexual conduct from its male element(s) altogether. The results of this are where much of the laughter is rooted in, but it shouldn’t be understated that the commentary here stems from a legitimate place of sincerity. Having since been regarded as something of a feminist icon, Lysistrata’s strengths are using what others perceive as the “weaknesses” of her gender, and turning them into strengths, and thereby refuting the more pigheaded
This analysis of “Ah! Non credea mirarti” proves why this scene is treated as a mad scene despite lacking the lyrical chaos and disorganized musical context as seen in other Bel Canto mad scenes. Her emotions are relatively tame throughout the opera; however, her portrayal is highly problematic if performed among modern audiences. Feminist criticism on opera illuminates that women are opera’s “jewels,” but jewels are decorative, not deciding roles (Clément, 5). Amina was clearly unable to speak for herself in the times she was incorrectly accused. Elvino’s jealously and rejection were the driving factors of her emotional state. Operas consistently portray women singing of their “eternal undoing” (Clément, 5). While Amina’s plight ends in happiness