The Seriousness of Lysistrata

The Seriousness of Lysistrata

There are many serious issues that are addressed in Lysistrata such as the women having the upper hand in authority. The women gain power throughout this story by switching the traditional role of the males versus the females in society for that time. The seriousness that this play involves is what is authoritative for the moment may not be authoritative in time to come. The men are not ready for the women to take power, for they are the rulers of the land.

In Lysistrata, there is no traditional role of the women portrayed throughout this book. The women's role in this story is that they want the Peloponnesian War to end and they will switch the power of authority from the men to the women, without much work.

The women first start to receive power over the men by uniting a group of women from both sides, the Spartans and the Athenians, to stop the war by not having intercourse with their husbands. In this time period it was obscene for a women to say no to her husband when he wanted to engage in intercourse, because the women were looked down upon by the men as being inferior. This concept is one of the comedic aspects of the play. Below the surface of the comedy, the women are starting to take power away from the men bit by bit.

Next, the women take power of the Akropolis, the means of money and trading throughout their city. The men try to stop the women; however, the women are informed that the men will try to stop the women by setting fire to the gates to the building. The women are informed of the attempts of the men, so with limited resources they relinquish their fires with chamber pots and baskets. The women again gain more power over the men through means of this act.

The climax of the story is when the women attacking the army and dressing the commissioner up like a woman defeats the commissioner and his army. At this point, the power is now entrusted in the women of Sparta and Athens rather than the men of two opposing countries. At this point in the story, it shows that the women can defeat any man that come their way, even the commissioner. The women now have the upper hand in the society, for they have defeated the men two times and have gotten their respect.

The women prove to the men that the men are beneath them when they start to beg and plead the women to have intercourse with them. The Chorus of Women are very sly in tricking the men into thinking that they will have sex with them without having any intention on following through with their promise. For example when Kinesias is asking for Myrrhine to go to bed with him, she must first get a little nook, then a cot, and then finally leaves Kinesias to get a mattress and doesn't return. The women in the Chorus of Women are very sly in