A Review Of The Play Lysistrata By Aristophanes

In the play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, I read about women who come together from different cities and try to fight the pleasure they get from their men to get peace in their cities. The woman who led the others was named Lysistrata. The play takes place in a street in Athens, Greece. The reason behind the women doing this is because their husbands, boyfriends, and lovers always have to leave for war instead of sleeping next to them at night. The women have a sex strike until the men agree to the women’s terms and end the war.

While reading I did not find many comedy references as we talked about in class except for one. The one I found that seemed like comedy to me was when three armed guards shit their pants. This happens when the men are trying to smoke the women out. The reason the guards shit themselves is due to the fact that the women stand up for themselves. The women tell the guards they will do harm to them and the guards get terrified and shit themselves. The reason I find this as comedy is that there is no effect to the guard, he just walks off stage with no embarrassment or punishment for shitting his pants. In front of the women and the other men and guards. This all happens in Acropolis in Athens the women take control so that Lysistrata can explain to old men that they should use all their money one the war that is happening. In might have missed some but I did not think there were anymore due to the fact that everything has a cause and effect to every action. But a reason the play might be listed as a comedy is that humor is another way of showing people the effect that war causes and may cause.

I feel as if the social commentary is that women are standing up for themselves and are forming an alliance with each other to get what they want. The women are actually doing something about the issue they have instead of doing nothing. Another reason I find this as social commentary is that it’s kind of a reverse gender role, the women come together and get political by saying they don’t want war they want peace. Usually, the men are the only ones that are involved in politics and what goes on in their cities, states, and countries.

This ancient work remains relevant in today’s world because many women are more involved in making our world a better place and trying to protect it. Men are still at war, our current president adds more war into our life since he doesn’t get along with many countries and cultures. The president is also a white old man which makes sense of why our world has had so many little wars and battles. I believe if we had a female president she wouldn’t have caused as much drama as Trump has. With a female president, I don’t think many countries would be as upset with us as they are right now. Another factor that comes in that men still continue to be individuals and women know are to talk and form a team together to get what they want. While men try not to get help from others and it seems to be “taboo” since men are supposed to do everything by themselves without help.

I really enjoyed the play because I like when women come together for a good cause and try their hardest to get their reasoning and point of view across. In the play even though it was hard for most women to keep everything together but most of them did. When the women kept to their oath they got what they wanted which was the war to end. At the end of the play, every man agreed to stop the war so that their sexual pleasures can be satisfied. The women knew what they were doing and they got what they wanted. 

SOURCE