Lysistrata and The Importance of Being Ernest comparative essay

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

Lysistrata, visibly upset that the women have not appeared, turns to her friend Cleonice, who reassures her that everyone will come, but “it’s not easy...for women to leave the house. One is busy pottering about her husband; another is getting the servant up; a third is putting her child asleep or washing the brat or feeding it” (Lysistrata). The exposition to the drama therefore tells us everything we need to know: women are trying and failing to remove themselves from their traditional housekeeping role. This is in part forced upon them by men, but also in part by their own will: throughout the play, the women place themselves in a lesser role and act unable to control themselves.  When Lysistrata explains her plan to Cleonice, Cleonice responds that “salvation hangs on a poor thread” if women are in charge. It is therefore not only men who enforce the anti-feminist view that women cannot “perform so wise and glorious an achievement” as ending the

It was seen as irrational to the men that women withheld sex, that their own wives abandon their vice to be heard in a society where there was not a part in democracy for women. Moreover, this situation depicts how serious the women were about having a voice in their government, because a three-decade long war was excessive. Luckily, Lysistrata did not back down from the men and was determined to find a voice amongst the men, in that society, a woman did not belong in the government, because a woman is a housewife and a sex tool. (ADD MORE)

The comedy, Lysistrata, is based almost entirely around the theme of lust. The story tells of a war among the Greeks. Lysistrata, whose name means "she who dissolves armies," is the wife of one of the soldiers. She, along with the other wives, is sick and tired of her

In “The Trojan Women,” there are four enduring women who dominate the play and only two men who say anything at all. Moving us with their rants and dramatic reactions, these women engulf the audience in overwhelming grief and irresistible pride. Euripides emphasizes these four women to help us understand one of his main themes. Hecuba with her pride, Cassandra with her virginity and uncanny wisdom, Andromache with her misery and heartache, and Helen with her powerful, seductive reasoning all represent superior illustrations of feminism throughout the play.

Ultimately, she chooses to use manipulation and temptation to her advantage to sway the minds of men. “If we sat there at home in our make-up, and came into their rooms wearing our lawn shifts and nothing else and plucked down below delta-style, and our husbands got all horny…but we kept away and didn’t come to them—they’d make peace fast enough I know for sure” (Aristophanes 80) Lysistrata urges that the women avoid sex by any means, even if they must fight against physical force by their husbands (Aristophanes). By using this tactic of a sex strike applied all over mainland Greece, Lysistrata remains confident that women can persuade men to keep peace as opposed to war. Therefore, evidence suggests in Aristophanes’ play that women such as Lysistrata derives power and authority over men through sex and temptation. Women can only attempt to persuade them due to the fact that men hold too much power to be outright forced to anything.

In the play Lysistrata the character uses the only power she has to control the state and the men who run it. She makes a number of “I am” statements including, “I am hot all over with blushes for our sex” (Aristophanes 5). This quote is showing what her power is at that time; sex is the only power women at her time possess, and they use it to their full advantage. Also it is how the men are defining her are her power by sex. Lysistrata is a very intelligent woman and knows that the only way to bring the war to an end, while bringing the country back together is through the women around her and their only means of power. The second “I am” I think is more powerful: “I am a woman, but I’m not a fool” (Aristophanes 48). She fighting the metaphor bestowed upon her by

In the ancient world, views of women were often derogatory, yet some viewed women as intelligent and powerful. The Epic of Gilgamesh and Lysistrata both display the complex opinions towards women of the time. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the characters Shamhat and Ishtar provide the audience with a biased view towards women, but this work also provides a more positive opinion of women through Siduri, Utnapishtim's wife, and Aruru. As paralleled in Aristophanes’s Lysistrata, Calonice and Peace represent negative perspectives of women, but this play also portrays women positively with Lysistrata and Myrrhine. The ancient texts of The Epic of Gilgamesh and Lysistrata simultaneously depict women as inferior, equal to, and superior to men to represent the complex views of women that were present during ancient times.

Lysistrata's whole plan to have a sex strike was clever. She caught the men by surprise as she played on their vulnerability. By requesting that the women use their attractiveness to make the males want them sexually, Lysistrata encourages the women to play to their stereotype and exploit the sexual, romanticized female. Myrrhine is used by Lysistrata to seduce her husband, Kinesias, who is left with his painful erection unsatisfied (pg763-765)

Lysistrata comes to the conclusion that the only way to save Athens from destruction in war comes with defiance of her husband. In her role of rebel within the family, Lysistrata decides to "...compel [her] husband to make peace" by withholding sex from him until he stops his disastrous warring behavior (Lysistrata, 7). She concludes, "...there are a thousand ways of tormenting [him]" that will lead to the ultimate safety of Athens (Lysistrata, 9). Unlike Antigone, Lysistrata realistically considers the possible consequences of her actions. She understands that the consequences of rebellion against her husband could be dire. Lysistrata recognizes that her husband might beat her or even rape her in order to get physical satisfaction, but she also realizes that her husband would, "...soon tire of the game there's no satisfaction for a man, unless a woman shares it" (Lysistrata, 9). Lysistrata acknowledges that defying her husband will have consequences, but she chooses to realistically face those possible consequences, and continues knowing that her actions will benefit Athens. Aristophanes' reveals that a woman's greatest allegiance lies with her polis through Lysistrata's role of rebel within her family to save Athens.

In the excerpt Lysistrata written by Aristophanes, a flock of women gather in order to listen to Lysistrata’s speech of how to stop the war and bring peace back to Greece. “So very dainty because that the salvation of all Greece is actually in the hands of women” (76). In order for peace to be restored the women must work together. Lysistrata makes them feel useful and powerful by these statements, but she also forms doubt in their minds. “But what can women

Both sides of the civil war were cruel to the Liberian people; there was no clear good side (Morales 283). Leymah Gbowee, a social worker and single mother, brought together women – both Christian and Muslim – to rally for peace (Morales 286). A sex strike was involved, and ultimately, the warlords were forced to conduct negotiations and compromise, resulting in peace for Liberia (Morales 284). This seems like a modern, Liberian version of Lysistrata. Even Gbowee’s relationship status is similar to Lysistrata: they are both not defined by their relationship to a man and both earned their positions as authority figures for their movements on their own (Morales 286). Unfortunately, Aristophanes was a satirist and the play was never meant to encourage any peaceful revolutions or inspire leaders to have sex strikes. The play is a comedy; it mocks women and their inability to be legitimately involved in politics. The sex strike in Liberia was by no means a joke and contributed to the bringing of peace to the nation.

Since the beginning of time, women have always been looked down upon mentally. During the time period of The Odyssey and Lysistrata, women were known as less powerful gender. They have never had much say about what goes on around them. Some women were recognized as a sex symbol. In The Odyssey, some women were goddesses that just wanted sex and other women had to stay at home to help raise their kids and do all of the feminine work. Compared to The Odyssey, in Lysistrata, women denied sex against their men to get what they want. In addition, they did not have many political rights and a say so on what goes on in their country. In comparing both of these stories, women show similarities toward each other.

Lysistrata is a comedy written by the comic writer, who lived in ancient Greece, Aristophanes. The action of the comedy is taking place in Athens next to Acropolis. The main character of the comedy is a young woman Lysistrata. At the time, Athens was in war with Sparta. In order to stop this war, Lysistrata came up with the original plan, which she shared with other women of Athens. To make this plan work, all women had to agree with each other in order to stop the useless war between Athens and Sparta.

Lysistrata describes each gender’s basic community obligations through dialogue between characters. Because the play is primarily written as sympathetic to the women’s cause, it puts more of an emphasis on the woman’s duties, but it does reference the men’s duties as well.