Lysistrata and its analysis. Why Lysistrata has not lost its value so far?

Hakimov Shohjahon

Lysistrata and its analysis. Why Lysistrata has not lost its value so far?

Lysistrata is one of the most discussed and still being discussed comedy all around the world. With its argumentative and non-ordinary situations, the play did not lose its value over the centuries. Additionally, Lysistrata was the last work and the best comedic work of Aristophanes during his career. Lysistrata includes and simultaneously represents the social inequality, constant wars and many other social problems. Despite all these mentioned above Lysistrata can be considered as a comedic play. Because of these universal aspects of the play I will discuss and criticize Lysistrata from different points. While criticizing the play I will rely on the arguments of Daniel Mendelsohn about criticism and his book “A Critic’s Manifesto”. By reading “A Critic’s Manifesto” by Daniel Mendelsohn, it is easy to acknowledge that criticizing is not only finding faults of authors but also finding and expressing an important point in which lies the main message of the author. “Those works of literature that he finds worthy of examination, analysis, and interpretation” (Mendelsohn, 2012, p. 13). Therefore, during this essay I will try to criticize Lysistrata in the way of finding the main message of the play. At the same time, Lysistrata will be analyzed based on characters, structure and themes utilized in the play. Moreover, I will try to connect this ancient comedy with our current life and investigate whether this play still can be associated with modern social problems and our current life in the upcoming paragraphs.

Starting with the themes of the comedy will be structurally correct. In Lysistrata, the main topics were war, gender roles, the battle of the sexes, rebellion, patriotism and the political power of comedy. The rebellion of women in ancient Greece started because of the Peloponnesian War. This war lasted for more than 25 years. In this war women from Athens and Sparta lost their sons. “First of all by giving birth to sons and sending them off to the army” [CITATION Ari10 \p 65 \t \l 1033 ], Lysistrata said. This factor was the turning point for women of both countries. Because they did not want to lose their other sons anymore in this endless war.

Moreover, during the Peloponnesian War Athenian males were only worried and concerned about the safety of the Acropolis, to be precise they were concerned about the money that was kept in the Acropolis. “Acropolis; can't wait to get there!”[CITATION Ari10 \p 55 \t \l 1033 ], they said. They were not concerned about their wives or families. During that period, the family was not held in first place for males. Aristophanes expressed this behavior of men as “patriotism” in the comedy. However, in reality, it was not patriotism at all. Through this Aristophanes wanted to demonstrate how degraded the Athenian and Spartan males were at that period. After all, Lysistrata restricted intercourse with men between Athenian and Spartan females. “We’re going to have to give up-cock” (Aristophanes, 2008, p. 50), they said. Lysistrata used this approach because it was one of the weaknesses of Athenian and Spartan men.

Altogether, this comedic play with its comedic scenes represents the real social problems of that time. The strange fact that Aristophanes wanted to mention was that both Athenians and Spartans were Greeks and they supported each other in the previous war with the Persians. However, after two years they became rivals and Aristophanes considered that this conflict had occurred because of external influences. This thought can be interpreted into our modern life, for example, in the dramatic situation between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in 2010. It is clear that it was organized by external influences in order to reach to the markets of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Through this policy, they could turn these countries into economically dependent countries. All of this is obvious as it was with the Greeks. But sometimes we fail to recognize these external impacts as the Greeks did in the play. This argument was the political power of Lysistrata. Moreover, Aristophanes was the creator of the comedic genre, and his method of structuring comedic plays is still being used all around the world. In the next paragraphs, the structures of comedic plays will be discussed.

As mentioned, Aristophanes was the first person in the world who wrote comedic plays. Writing comedic plays and organizing them properly is a very difficult task. Because comedic plays are supposed to include humour and at the same demonstrate political problems which can also be labelled as satire. I investigated the structure which was used in Lysistrata by Aristophanes and found that comedic plays are divided into seven parts. The very first part is called the prologos. It is an introductory part which helps the reader or audience to understand the situation. It usually opens with a dialogue between two or more people as it was in Lysistrata. The second part is the parados. In this part, only the chorus will attend and there will be no actors. The third part is the agon. In this part, the battle based on discussion will be demonstrated between two people and eventually only one of them will win. In Lysistrata, the discussion was with Magistrate who initially disagreed with Lysistrata but in the end, Magistrate supported her on the process of returning males from war to home. Aristophanes in this discussion part wanted to show that the female voice was heard on governing country in ancient Greece in comparison with other countries. The above situation with Lysistrata was an example of a democratic decision in ancient Greece.

The fourth part is called as a parabisas, the fifth is called the episodes. These two parts are almost the same. The sixth part is the stasimon in which the chorus sings. The last part is called the exodus. In the exodus there will be songs and dances. The structure of comedic plays is way more different from other plays because comedic plays mostly involve in communication and discussion. Through constant communication, the author will be able to engage the audience. Moreover, encouraging the audience to play requires interesting characters. This is an additional task for the author. Characterization in Lysistrata will be explained in the upcoming paragraph.

Having a strong-willed and courageous character in any play is very crucial. In this comedy of Aristophanes, Lysistrata was the main character and during the whole play with her democratic and fair decisions, she engaged the audience. One can find information about the abilities and qualities of Lysistrata by asking the following simple question: Why did Athenian and Spartan women follow Lysistrata and agree to her plan? First of all, Lysistrata in comparison with other women in the community was more physically and mentally developed. She knew different languages which gave her power not only over women but also over the men in Athens and Sparta. Moreover, Lysistrata did not exhibit any sexual desires and hadn't a husband in the comedy. She put her reputation among the community in first place. As a consequence, these types of control Lysistrata exercised over herself raised interest and respect among Athenians and Spartans.

Here our modern social problems could be solved with the lifestyle of Lysistrata. Currently, cases linked to rape are increasing dramatically. Nowadays, girls and women should take control of themselves as Lysistrata did in the comedy rather than blaming men. Because many females are walking with half-open clothes in city centers instead of being concerned about their virginity. Moreover, they are not keeping themselves away from men in social places. All these are openings ways towards the increase of cases involving. So if females hide their inner beauty from any men except their husbands, the rate of rape cases will also decrease. However, men also have to take control of their sexual desires.

The next important characters were the chorus of old men and the chorus of old women. Why were they considered as crucial characters? Since this play is a comedy, Aristophanes needed a character who always represents the symbol of humour in the play. Old aged men and women were a great substitute for this character. First of all, they were able to give a great atmosphere to the play. They provided the play with the balance in every situation. Secondly, Lysistrata just gave tasks to do but did not participate in the accomplishment of the tasks. However, the chorus of old women made many missions inside the Acropolis. Following is the some reports of old woman to Lysistrata from her mission in Acropolis: “Yes, by Zeus, I saw a long-haired fellow,120 a cavalry captain, on horseback … sticking it into his brass hat” [CITATION Ari10 \p 64 \t \l 1033 ]. There were also many other characters but the above-mentioned characters were more significant.

Why is this comedy still being valued and why is it still in demand? Because this comedy is not simply a comedy at all. This comedy can be interpreted very differently each time. This universality allows readers or critics to learn the lessons that they need. For example, while writing this essay I learned that taking external impacts into account beforehand in difficult moments, will allow you to pass through these difficulties easily. This lesson was not written directly in the play. However, thinking like a critic allowed me to learn it. That is why, if one wants to learn or achieve something, they should start by criticizing themselves. This allows them not to relax for any second on the path of achieving their dream. Moreover, in Lysistrata, the real human nature was described and the fact is that human nature will never alter. For instance, the situation in Acropolis can be a real example of human nature. All Athenian men protected this city because of the love for money, and because of this they lost an opportunity to be with their family. Humanity knows but always forgets that there are more important things than money in life. So, humanity needs to keep Lysistrata in mind, as we do not need money to live and enjoy life.

Works cited:

CITATION Ari10 \p 65 \t \l 1033 : , (Aristophanes, 2010, p. 65),

CITATION Ari10 \p 55 \t \l 1033 : , (Aristophanes, 2010, p. 55),

CITATION Ari10 \p 64 \t \l 1033 : , (Aristophanes, 2010, p. 64),