Women Behaving Badly
The concept of "Women Behaving Badly" must vary according to time period, culture, gender and authorial purpose.Discuss in relation to Lysistrata and Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale. Through the texts Lysistrata, by Aristophanes, and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, by Chaucer, there is the underlying concept of "Women Behaving Badly", the concept of women acting out of place in society.The concept of women behaving badly is appropriated and varied to suit both texts, according to the time period, culture, authorial purpose and gender. However the 'must' in the discussion question above, is questionable, as there may be eternal and invariable standards, ideas, and expectations.There is no such thing as women behaving badly, and rather it is women seen as behaving badly; and whether a woman is seen as behaving badly will depend on the audience, and their ideas, which are affected by factors including time period, culture, gender and authorial purpose.Examples of this are seen in Lysistrata, and the Wife of Bath, where the concept of "women behaving badly" is appropriated to suit the audience of the times. Lysistrata, set in 5th century BC Greek society, shows how one woman can go against the social stand
The idea of the woman behaving badly also varies according to authorial purpose. Aristophanes' authorial purpose in Lysistrata, was to present a satiric view of the war, and criticise the fact that Greek men were not handling it well, and to do this, he used the unimaginable, by getting women to take over, and using them as a tool. The gender of the audience doesn't really play a part in the viewing of this tale. In it, Aristophanes appropriated the concept of women behaving badly by making the character of Lysistrata, do something that would be unthinkable for woman in that time period and culture. Because Lysistrata was a play in ancient Greek times, a patriarchal society, Lysistrata's actions are seen as bad. The gender of the audience will affect how the audience views the play. ards of ancient Greek society, and lead a force of women to stop the long and ongoing war that Greece was fighting in. A good character to use though, as a male character in the tale would not have been able to get the message across quite as well, it needed the touch of a straightforward, loud, arrogant women. Once again while the audience of the time may have found the Wife's character astonishing and appalling, the authorial purpose behind the tale is for entertainment and the audience would respond accordingly, by having a few laughs over her character. In the time period of 5th century BC Greece, women were seen as simply sex-crazy creatures that could not do anything of importance let alone stop a war. By valuing the position of women in the play, he devalues the position of men, especially in relation to the war, and what they were doing about it. In the Wife's time it was a very bad thing, yet now and in other societies we don't see it as that bad. The Wife of Bath tells a story of a woman who goes against authorities, is loud and boisterous, has apparently no sense of values or morals especially regarding her policy on marriage and husbands.
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