believed that tragedy served a higher purpose than comedy because of its cathartic effect. Therefore‚ comedy is delegitimized. But comedy does serve a social purpose that can be considered cathartic. It can be an outlet for social angst. At the time Lysistrata was written‚ Athens‚ a superpower of their time‚ had just lost a battle with Sparta. This probably shattered the conceptions of Athenians. And as a result‚ Aristophanes used a ribald comedy about the less-than-citizen women of Sparta and Athens
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Lysistrata Characters: Lysistrata - Lysistrata is an Athenian woman who is sick and tired of war and the treatment of women in Athens. Lysistrata gathers the women of Sparta and Athens together to solve these social ills and finds success and power in her quest. Lysistrata is the least feminine of the women from either Athens or Sparta‚ and her masculinity helps her gain respect among the men. Cleonice- is the next-door neighbor of Lysistrata and is the first to show up at Lysistrata’s meeting
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The different portrayals of female characters Antigone and Lysistrata illustrate the fundamental nature of the proper Athenian woman. Sophocles’ Antigone allows the reader to see that outrage over social injustices does not give women the excuse to rebel against authority‚ while Aristophanes’ Lysistrata reveals that challenging authority in the polis becomes acceptable only when it’s faced with destruction through war. Sophocles and Aristophanes use different means to illustrate the same idea; the
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described as a desire to change that situation. In the play Lysistrata‚ women have absolutely no political rights. There is a war going on and one woman wants to put and end to it. It is my opinion the character Lysistrata can be viewed as a modern day feminist. She takes charge in the self-titled play and claims that war shall be the concern of Women! It is too important a matter to be left to men‚ for women are it s real victims. Lysistrata wants to end the long war for it is taking a toll against
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Monica Wojciechowski Dr. Luttrell Lysistrata Discussion Paper Feminism in Ancient Greece did not exist. Women were simply seen as dumb and inferior human beings who live to serve the hardworking intelligent men. In Lysistrata‚ in trying to satirize women fighting for the end of the Peloponnesian War‚ Aristophanes actually underscores the prevalence of sexism in his society. To the casual reader‚ Lysistrata is seen as an Ancient Greek feminist manifesto‚ however in reality it
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LYSISTRATA‚ a comedy of stereotypes The playwright Aristophanes wrote about an ancient Greece‚ Athens in particular‚ during a time of constant warfare. His play "Lysistrata" is an attempt to amuse while putting across an anti-war message. In fact even the naming of the play is an anti-war message of sorts. The word "lysistrata" means‚ "disband the army" (Jacobus 162). Aristophanes was a crafty writer; he creates a work of art that causes his audience to think about the current state of affairs
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Comedy is performance which aims to entertain through humour. Throughout the ages there have been many type of comedy. These have included the genres of stand up comedy‚ situation‚ comedies‚ forms of anime‚ radio‚ slapstick mime as well as cinematic comedy amongst others. Some of these have been more successful than others. Whether funniness has been the sole determinant of success in terms of popularity is debatable. It is commonly believed that the funny factor is indispensable. However‚ this essay
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What is comedy? What determines what is funny to a particular society? Comedy is hard to define and differs from culture to culture. Through out time societies have developed many different forms of comedy ranging from theater and poetry to cartoons and sitcoms. This paper will compare and contrast classical Greek comedy to that of medieval times particularly Aristophanes’s The Clouds and Ysengrimus respectively. These two comedies were composed in completely different time periods (about 500
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Antigone‚ by Sophocles and‚ Lysistrata by Aristophanes are both pieces of art studied and fascinated within the time frame they were made and still are to this day. The tragedy‚ Antigone‚ and the comedy‚ Lysistrata‚ both encompass women who go against their customs and laws; but what sets these two so widely apart‚ is the outcome in which each women face in result of their actions. Antigone is told and begins with the assumption that readers know the background and characters within it‚ this is
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In the article "The Argument of Comedy‚” Northrop Frye identifies two forms of ancient Greek comedy: Old Comedy‚ as in the plays of Aristophanes‚ and New Comedy‚ known primarily from the plays of Menander. Old Comedy‚ as Frye points out‚ is so out of date that when we speak of comedy today‚ we are referring to New Comedy. Fry argues that Shakespeare’s comedies are neither Old nor New Comedy‚ but have elements of both. Frye opines that New Comedy mainly comes from what he describes as a comic Oedipus
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