Criticizing Greek society in the Assemblywomen

By Asmodeus, Student

An essay on how Aristophanes criticized Greek society in The Assemblywomen

An essay hosted at LiteratureClassics.com

In the play The Assemblywomen, it is quite obvious that the writer Aristophanes was using the piece to criticize Grecian society at the time. The play is generally about the women of Athens dressing up as men in the hope of taking control of the Assembly (the main governing in Greece), and achieving their goal without the men of the city finding out. They actually do succeed, suggesting that either the women’s disguises were very good, or that the majority of men at that time were especially thick. He uses many tactics in getting his message across to the reader and the audience if that is the scenario.

Probably the most effective and most obvious are the various laws the women introduced and enforced once they gained control of the Assembly. It is my opinion that Greek society at the time did not take women seriously, and they were thought of as lower class citizens, and merely property of the men. They were taken advantage of continually, and the husbands were allowed to rape their wives and not fear any consequences. The older women were left with no life after their husband had died or moved on. If a wife did not produce any boys, the men were allowed to divorce her, and a woman that did not produce boys to start a family was not thought of very highly at all. Girl babies may have been killed, and were not given the privileges that their brothers were. It was because of this that Praxagora (the main character) introduced laws to help prevent these events occurring. She introduced a law (pg 246 of given booklet) that stated a man cannot make love with a beautiful young women, until he has given satisfaction to an older one. If the man disobeyed this, the old woman was allowed to grab him and do whatever she deemed necessary. She also went ahead and shut down all the brothels. Through Praxagora, Aristophanes criticized the poor treatment of women in his time.

Another law Praxagora introduced was that of the common pool. Aristophanes had grown sick and tired of the upper-class citizens of Athens having excessive political powers, and possessions, where the poor had next to nothing. The common pool dissolved away the upper class of society, and did a better job of making everyone as equal as possible. Because everyone was made to deposit all their possessions, people didn’t really have assets. Because everyone would have everything they needed (eg. Clothes, food, health care, water, alcohol), they would have no need to steal. Why would you steal what you already have? This effectively puts an and to crimes of theft.
If someone did thieve however, they would lose part of their food ration, and they would not be too pleased.

As you can see, Aristophanes criticized many things in this play, and I think he did it very well. I understood the messages, and I assume that you would too. This shows that he accomplished the task he set out to do. On the whole, I didn’t really like the play, as the comedy genre is not my favourite, and for me to enjoy comedy, I don’t think that it should resort to being dirty.