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Joy Smith Lysistrata Analysis

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Recommended: Ancient Greece and Feminism

The department of theater and speech at The City College of New York’s production of Lysistrata by Aristophanes and directed by Joy Smith is a Greek comedy about a women named Lysistrata whose main goal is to end the war between the Athens and the Spartans. She intends to do this by trying to convince the women of Thebes and Sparta to not have sexual relations with their husbands until they agree to a peace treaty. The women weren’t to sure about this, but ended up agreeing. Smith’s production of Lysistrata captures the gender role and the power they obtain during that time. This play leans towards a more feminist side demonstrating the power women had with their sexual abilities. Director Joy Smith translated the play from its original
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“The Odyssey,” written by Greek poet Homer is an epic tale depicting the brutally enduring quest home of the Greek hero, Odysseus. Within this heroic story, women play a very large and pivotal role in Odysseus’s trip home from the Trojan War. In his attempt to get back to his wife, Penelope, Odysseus’s progress is constantly hindered by the intervention of women who will do anything in order to either convince the heroic figure to stay with them or have him killed. The intentions of the women in the epic are all very different but one of the most prominent roles lies in the seductresses and the alluring women who will deeply influence Odysseus. Most importantly, Penelope plays a large role in portraying the importance of women’s roles in the story.

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Aristophanes Lysistrata and Homer’s Odyssey both show how women can thrive in their society and fight for what they believe in, even if that goes against the gender roles portrayed in Greek Civilization. In Aristophanes Lysistrata, the author portrays how one woman can fight for what she believes in and make a difference in society. Lysistrata ultimately wanted to end the Peloponnesian War, she knew the only way to do so was to take advantage of the Men. Men were dying day after day because of this war and Lysistrata had enough, she wanted to end it. Lysistrata decided to take a stand; she voiced her plan to

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Aristophanes begins the first scene of Lysistrata with a bang by giving the reader a taste of what he or she should expect throughout the rest of the play. On page 24, Lysistrata speaks to Kleonike and several words are mentioned that imply alternate sexual meanings such as “teeny” “immense” “tense” “seconding motions” “kneading it, mulling it, filing it down” and “lies.” This clever word choice presents alternate meaning that can be closely associated with sex while carrying on an otherwise normal conversation about the meeting that is about to happen. This scene is also important because it presents all the women of Lysistrata as having sex at the forefronts of their minds, which is typically male stereotype. To Lysistrata,

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Ancient plays throughout different cultures in history contained all male cast, failing to even cast women as they were deemed inferior. Tradition held that the culture in western societies restricted women’s roles. Even as female characters were indeed written in certain plays, the role were portrayed by a male. They regarded women being able to portray these roles as dangerous and that having men play them “neutralized” the danger it possessed. The Greek’s and the Roman’s both held these views making it impossible for women to be on stage.

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Known as the “Father of Comedy”, the ancient Athenian playwright Aristophanes wrote forty plays between 427 B.C. and 386 B.C. Of those forty, only eleven plays survive in their entirety. His most well-known and anthologized play is Lysistrata. First performed in 411 B.C., the comedy is a political satire meant to criticize the Peloponnesian War raging between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta at the time. The plot of the play revolves around a sex strike that was organized by the women of the two city-states as a ploy to get the men to end their fighting. Amid the comedic, suggestive scenes and jokes, Aristophanes manages to include some very serious and important themes.

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It was written and staged during the peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta. The war has been going on for many years, and at that time no solution seemed to be emerging. This is emphasized by the name of the main character, and title of the play, Lysistrata, which means “army-disbander.” Intertwined with this theme are sex, gender roles, and women’s place in athenian society. Together these ideas reveal

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Lysistrata tells the women that they must resist their men in order for them to stop fighting in war. These women swear on oath, by pouring wine in a bowl, to not have sex with their husbands until the war is over. They will try to seek the mens attention by dressing vulgarly and wearing a lot of makeup but they will not have sex. Once the war is over the Spartans and Athens get together with Lysistrata and the goddess Reconciliation. In this scene Lysistrata tells them what to do so they could make peace, she explains to them how they have both done many good things for each other so this is why they should not be going to war.

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