Aristophanes, Plautus, And Euripides Essays - Women And Death

Aristophanes, Plautus, And Euripides Essays - Women And Death Aristophanes, Plautus, And Euripides In times of struggle and hardship, people are constantly looking for ways to escape their reality. They have found release from their stress in practices such as exercise, therapy, and meditation. In the ancient times of Greece and Rome, life for the citizens was strict and sometimes harsh. During these times of struggle, people searched for ways to vacation from the laws that bore down upon them. One of the ways they accomplished this was through art. Art was a way to express true feeling and emotion and unite a sometimes-divided population. Drama served as one escape for the citizens in Greece and Rome. Attending the plays written by Euripides, Aristophanes and Plautus, gave the people time to get away from their worries and chores and drift into a world of drama. A world where laws can be broken, women can have intelligence and slaves outwit their masters. One of the reasons the plays written by the authors of this time were so popular was because people were able to leave reality behind and slip into a world where none of the truths they held proved to be true. A famous playwright during ancient Greece was Aristophanes. During his lifetime there was extreme political turbulence. Many of his plays reflect the issues of this time and the social concerns. However, instead of presenting these matters seriously and appropriately, he does it in a jovial and satirical manner. His sole purpose in this is to take a bad situation and make it humorous for the audience. It has often been said, especially in recent years, that in Aristophanes political and social thought is purely incidental and always subordinated to the desire to amuse his audience and win the prize(Cambridge, 38). In many of his plays he mimics political situations and figures and the outcome is very humorous. The audience is able to relax and laugh about the problems facing Greece Many elements in his plays are not real and could not have even been conceived of at that time. In Aristophanes play, Lysistrata, the women of Athens and Sparta formulate a ridiculous plot to end the war by abstaining from sexual intercourse with their husbands. Aristophanes takes a difficult and pressing subject, the Peloponnesian War, and develops it into an illusive story of how a woman ends the war. The thought that a woman would have enough intelligence to end the war was a very impractical thought and the idea that Aristophanes would create su ch a plot was quite comedic. It made the audience feel as if they were in an unrealistic world because roles were reversed. Another reason the audience enjoyed the play was for its sheer guts. For Aristophanes to write a whole play about sexual intercourse was gutsy and the audience appreciated the fact that they could attend such a controversial event. During a time when rules and morals were stiff, Aristophanes showed the people of Greece that there is a time when you can relax and thoroughly enjoy yourself. He released some of the pressure of the war by ridiculing it. The audience had a chance to escape the harsh reality of the times and focus on the humor of Aristophanes. Another playwright of ancient literature was Plautus. He came about many years later, but his works did the same for his audiences as Aristophanes did for his. His plays were comical as well, but his work had another aspect the people appreciated. By making his characters unreal and placing them in unlikely situations, made the audience once again feel as if they were in another world. At the time Plautus was writing and performing his plays, Rome was very conservative. There were moral laws and censorship on almost everything. The plays Plautus wrote broke these limitations and gave the people a sense of freedom. One of the limitations Plautus broke was allowing slaves in his plays to outwit their masters. This was unheard of and the mere thought of this happening was surreal. In Plautus play, The Swaggering Soldier, this very event occurs. A conceited soldier, Pyrgopolynices, is deceived by own his slave, Palestrio. Palestrio, knowing his master is a woman-lover, tricks him into thinking he can