Character Similarities Between Medea and Lysestrata
Though different playwrights wrote Trifles, Medea, and Lysistrata they contain many of the same scenarios and characterizations. Both plays have protagonists that are strong-minded women who feel they have been duped by the men in their lives and they seek to return things to their normal daily lives. The women outwit the men and take the law in their own hands. Lysistrata believes the war is being mishandled and prolonged because of the stubbornness of the men. Medea, on the other hand believes she has been unlawfully cast aside by Jason and seeks her revenge. And in Trifles Mrs. Wright is isolated by her husband to spend her life in a small house with none of her pleasures of her youth. I believe that the reactions from the women are all due to their place in society. In Greek society women had no power and thus were held as second-class citizens who must obey their husbands. Women in the early twentieth century had very little power and for the most part were ruled by their husbands. In each play the women revolt against those in charge in order to obtain recognition of what rights to which they are entitled. All three women mean well. Medea doesn't want Jason to marry the
princess for the sheer reason that while he is married to her he will continue a relationship with Medea as well. Medea clearly sees that the relationship with Jason and the princess will prove to be the kind of relationships based on what Jason wants and the princess will be just another person that Jason would be using. Despite the trials and tribulations that the men in Lysistrata endure they are punished and tortured to end a war. Lysistrata wants to stop the massive murders that occur on the battlefields and with good reason. She could have gone about things a different way, but the play was written as a farce and what Aristophanes did was appropriate. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters too recognize the repression under which Mrs. Wright lived and when they are faced with justice and sisterhood they opt to favor Mrs. Wright's understanding actions. In each case the women are working for a good cause but, unfortunately, they are going about it in an evil sort of way. Medea, obviously the extreme of the three, kills people in order to hurt another person, Mrs. Wright, after she has endured so much, simply kills her tormentor while Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters obstruct justice in order to exonerate someone to whom they feel they can relate. Lysistrata, like the others, tortures the men to prove a point, but the humor with which the torture comes is a little more amusing and a little less frightening. The playwrights are bringing about an essence of human nature
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 991
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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