Character Similarities in Trifles, Medea, and Lysistrata

             Though different playwrights wrote Trifles, Medea, and Lysistrata they contain many of the same scenarios and characterizations. The three 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 into 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 the 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 between Jason and the princess will prove to be the kind of relationship 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 recognize the repression under which Mrs. Wright l...

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Character Similarities in Trifles, Medea, and Lysistrata. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 15:34, April 23, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/102914.html