How "Lysistrata" Stopped the War

Lysistrata resents the fact that it is the men who invariably call the shots: they assume they can go off to fight and essentially wreak at their manly games, and their wives will always be thither for them when they return. Lysistrata is lobbying for equality between the sexes, and she k at presents what many of the characters in the play don't know: that women be the stronger sex. They have more than cancel "power," even if they be non the generals and the politicians.

It is interesting to note that the capital of Greece that serves as the play's backdrop was a very unique metropolis. superannuated Greece was very male-dominated, and when one looks at the great thinkers Socrates, Plato, Sophocles, Euripides - one sees a long string of men. Women were considered secondary within the culture: honey between men (often even in the physical sense) was considered the highest configuration of expression. So Lysistrata is a very important figure in Greek literature as one who d atomic number 18d to test that male supremacy assumption.

The second question that is valid to ask is: Is the play condescending to women? Ultimately the answer is no. While there are many instances of the women trying to get out of their affidavit of abstinence and this is portrayed in a slightly condescending way, the main thing to remember here is that it is a waggery and all the characters can be seen as funny in their own ways. Aristophanes wrote a character that is quite in memory with the women's liberation movement that surfaced i

When Lysistrata addresses both(prenominal) the Athens and Sparta soldiers, the consultation hears the voice of wisdom: "With such a history of mutual benefits conferred and received, why are you fighting? mark this wickedness! Come to terms with each other! What prevents you?" (447). By pointing out the folly of war, Lysistrata is portrayed as much more intelligent than the men around her, who are so caught up in their own vanities that they can't gauge the folly of their acts. So, even if Aristophanes shows the audience some women who might be condescended to, his heroine is such a racy and robust character that she has to finally stand for the author's view of women.

And just as sex might be a symbol, so might war be a symbol for this syndrome of breadwinning.

Aristophanes may very well have been one of history's first authors to crab out for a breaking down of sexual stereotypes. workforce are not just born to fight and understand a living: they besides can raise babies. Women are not just meant to be mothers in the background: they too can have careers.

Possibly Aristophanes was using sex as a symbol of "power." The concept of restricting sex was very women's refusal to bow down to the laws made by men for men. It could drive on other activities that find their way into contemporary society. Women now refuse to take a man's name when they marry. They totally prerequisite equal pay in the marketplace. Not that many eld ago women were given the right to vote for the first magazine. Women are demanding that, in a marriage, men mustiness devote time to child-rearing just like women. It is not enough that the men are the breadwinners.

n America in the early 70s.- but Lysistrata must have really shocked her Athenian audiences, who might not have been prepared for such a take pull down woman. Aristophanes, then, is far from being condescending; he is primarily implicated with showing how powerful women are if they only tune into their ingrained and intuitive strengths.

Aristophanes.
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