Just before the men agree to a truce with the women, the Koryphaios of Men relates the following proverb: “Life with women is hell. Life without women is hell, too” (96). This is a perfect summation of Lysistrata’s plot, and directly states the theme of the play. Although this statement is not entirely true, from a man’s point of view, it somewhat is — and, sadly, it is still imbedded into the majority of our male population’s mentality.
Of course, this is a ridiculous, hyperbolic accusation the Koryphaios of Men makes — obviously, women’s role in ancient Greece is to care for the household, children, and husband, and they do quite well. This is shown with Myrrhine and Kinesias when Kinesias insists Myrrhine must take care of their child. How can life with Myrrhine possibly be chaos — she does a superb job taking care of the baby, while Kinesias can hardly keep the baby alive. Life with women cannot really be hell because they are the ones who keep day to day life running smoothly.
It is only when women begin asking for equality that arguments are made for women being the trouble-making sex. It is much more convenient for women to be dependent and pliable, for then there is no conflict. The “hell” the Koryphaios of Men refers to when women are present is only evident when their manliness is attacked and proven to be weaker than it appears.
But, the latter line of the Koryphaios of Men’s bogus proverb certainly is true. Life without women is hell. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar put it quite simply: “The role of women in the development of society is of utmost importance. In fact, it is the only thing that determines whether a society is strong and harmonious, or otherwise. Women are the backbone of society.” The men of the play unfortunately have to learn this in a very easy, but hilariously painful, way.
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| Early political cartoon in which women are shown having the power -- the exact situation in Lysistrata. |
The men in Lysistrata tend to believe that life is hell whenever women are doing something they don't agree with. If a woman is present in a man's life, but is urging him to do something he doesn't want to do (such as telling her about his day or asking him to vote for a truce in the war) the man will call his life hell. However, if a woman is not present in a man's life and is not caring for her household or husband, the man will call his life hell. A man simply does not like to be challenged; if he feels like he is losing power over his wife and his household, he will find a scapegoat.
ReplyDeleteThe men in the novel do not understand that women could easily say the same things about them. They could easily say that living with men is hard because they tend to boss females around, but they also cannot live without them and this is the whole reason for starting this battle of the sexes. Living with anyone is difficult, no matter what genre they are.
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