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Lysistrata Untitled By: April Gibbs Lysistrata by Aristophanes I think the story of Lysistrata is both interesting and surprising. I did not expect a story that was written in 411 BC to have much of anything I could relate to our world today. Aristophanes deals with very real, every day issues in this story. Although he is actually poking fun at them by making the situations as absurd as possible, there are still many very real topics discussed in this work. I think the most prevalent theme is that of gender roles and how they are viewed. It is obvious that Athenian men think that the women are inferior and the women seem to have accepted this as their position in society.
Even Aristophanes himself must have thought this to write such lines as What could women do thats clever or distinguished? We just sit around all dolled up in silk robes, looking pretty in our sheer gowns and evening slippers. (468). It seems unlike women of this time to say such things as Calonice did, but to get across the point of womens tolerance of such behaviors it proves very effective. I was also surprised by the candor of the characters dialogs. As much as the women are portrayed inferior and not to have voice on such issues as war and politics, it seems unlikely they would be prepared to speak so easily to the men they are subservient to.
Aristophanes makes it clear, that even though the women to not have a voice on these subjects, they are continually thinking. They listen to their fathers, brothers, and husbands talk and learn from them. They are able to form their own opinions about the subjects, but at the same time they never share their thoughts. Lysistrata says, Formerly we endured the war for a good long time with our usual restrain, no matter what you men did. You wouldnt let us say boo, although nothing you did suited us. (480).
All this time, the women remained silent, afraid to say anything about their affairs to their own husbands in the privacy of their own homes. Yet, now they are able to speak freely that of which they have thought about for so long. Why did these women not speak up before? Aristophanes portrays the women as strong and pretty independent. If this is true, were they waiting for someone like Lysistrata to bind them together so they could speak up? Maybe.
It says that even police officers were afraid of them, just due to their harsh words. It seems to me that if the women were strong enough to take Acropolis, withhold sex from their husbands, and forcefully voice their opinions about the war, they would have been doing it, at least to their husbands, a long time ago. At the same time, I understand that Aristophanes did not intend this story to be very realistic. After all, the very basis that women could withhold sex from the men in order to end a war, and have it work, is absurd in itself. Aristophanes intended this work to show the uselessness of Greeks fighting among themselves. It is evident that he was against the war, and this was his way of showing that opposition and looking for a way to end it, no matter how ridiculous.
On the surface, it would seem that Aristophanes is a great supporter of women and that he thinks very highly of them by implying that they could accomplish a feat such as ending a war during that time. But in reality, I think Aristophanes was just writing the women that way to get a point across to the men of that day. To think women of all people, especially at that time in the world, could end a war just implies to those involved in the war that it is silly and a waste of time. Some other things I found interesting about this story were the extent to which the women had to be devious and teasing toward their men, and the ease at which the men crumbled without their women. The women were almost ruthless in their teasing and trickery.
The oath that they take at the beginning, I will remain at home united, wearing my sheerest gown and carefully adorned, that my husband may burn with desire for me. (472), shows the extent to which they intend to go to carry out their plan. The scene where Cinesias comes to visit his wife Myrrhine and she taunts him mercilessly with her constant running back to get things is quite humorous. Lysistrata is portrayed as a very strong willed, brave, and aggressive women in the story. Her convictions against war are resolute and there is no ulterior motive for this plan she initiates. For some women, it seems possible that they are doing this more for the revenge on their husbands for being gone all the time, than any real objection about the war itself. Lysistrata begins her proposal to the women by saying, Tell me: dont you yearn for the fathers of your children, who are away at the wars? (470).
Several of them answer that they do miss their husbands and even when they do come home it is only for a short time and then they are gone again. Lysistrata is a very smart women. She knows this is the only reason most of the women would even want to end the war, to bring their husbands home. But there is never a mention of Lysistrata's husband or lover in this story. Her reasons evidently lie distinctly with stopping this war and she has figured out how to lure others into helping her. All through the story she has to remind the women of their pact and the end they are working toward because the others are weak and would give up.
Those women are just as miserable in Acropolis without their husbands as the husbands are without them. But Lysistrata urges them on. She uses these women to fight her own battles, and in a very clever way, without them even knowing it. Aristophanes had to have at least some respect for women to write a character like Lysistrata, a woman, as smart, as charismatic, and as complex as she is.
Most writers of his day probably would not have even thought a woman was capable of such a feat as organizing people, lining them up for the fight, motivating them, and all without the knowledge of her true intentions. The other women thought she just wanted the men home, just as they did. I found this story to be the most interesting and captivating out of any we read during this semester. I actually enjoyed picking apart the different levels of the work and trying to figure out Aristophanes motivations behind them. That usually doesnt happen with most things I am assigned to read. I think it came from my expectations of what the story would be like, based on the Greek background and the time it was written.
It was nothing like what I had thought, and that was certainly a surprise. Lysistrata is a play showing the strength and impact women can make, the dedication of one women, her cleverness in order to accomplish a goal, and the senselessness of war, all rolled up in one entertaining 32 page story. Seems an impossible feat to include all that plus humor in such a short work, but Aristophanes does a creative and beautiful job of just that.
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Research essay sample on End A War Withhold Sex Women
