Aside from the satisfying gender equality, Lysistrata is a comedy that is the perfect balance of debauchery and seriousness. For an immature reader, the crude and mostly unsophisticated sexual innuendos may present a sort of block. While they were amusing most times, they are not the reason the play works as a comedy. The play works as a comedy through its unrelenting squabbles between the men and women, and then ties together sweetly at the end when (Spoiler Alert!) the men of Athens and Sparta finally agree to peace. It isn't tiresome, like some other ancient Greek plays. It's fresh and enjoyable, compared to the tragedies and depressing myths captured in plays by the Greeks. Before this, I'd never read a Greek comedy, and because of this play, I definitely want to read another.
Modernity is also what makes this play relatable. The application of this play to society today would be interesting to explore more in-depth. Nowadays, it's illegal to sexually blackmail anyone, but the unity shown by men and women when a situation calls for it in this play could very well resolve issues beyond gender equality. If women could see eye-to-eye on issues such as, I don't know, the rights to their own bodies, and go against the sexist men trying to limit those rights, then we as a society would make much more progress.
I think that a comedy is a good vehicle for challenging social norms. By ridiculing and parodying our ways of thinking and acting, a comedy can show us why we’re wrong. It challenges our preconceived notions, creating a conflict between its message and the values of our society. And the nice thing about a comedy, from the playwright’s point of view, is that it doesn’t have to be taken quite as seriously as a tragedy. If anyone was offended by a message that ran counter to the prevailing social values, the playwright could just say that it was a joke and he didn’t really mean it. Of course, he probably did mean it, and he would hope that open-minded viewers understood that. But by inserting his controversial ideas into a comedy, he could insulate himself from potential trouble.
ReplyDeleteI have never read a Greek comedy either. Actually, I don’t remember ever reading a comedic play for a class until I read A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the first quarter independent reading. Every play we read in school--at least everything I’ve read so far in school--is a tragedy, and I think that’s really too bad. Comedies are fun to read because of their humor and absurdity, and although they make us laugh, they also contain serious messages about society and human nature that--as you point out in your blog post--still resonate in today’s world.
In the course of reading and blogging, I Googled “comedy vs. tragedy” to learn more about the differences between the two, and I found some things that I hadn’t thought about. For example, a tragedy “emphasizes human suffering,” while a comedy “emphasizes renewal of human nature.” A tragedy “laments man’s fate,” while a comedy “celebrates life.” Tragedies are often dominated by upper-class males, while comedies include a much broader cross-section of society and tend to be somewhat more inclusive of women. Tragedies value militarism and vengeance, while comedies value pacifism and forgiveness. They both have their place, of course, but given the choice, which one would you rather read?