Friday, November 14, 2008

Brains vs. Brawn

A very common theme in this play is that of Brains vs. Brawn. It is very commonyl played out in almost every scene, although this play doesnt have any disticnt scenes. The first one we see is in that of the plan of Lysistrata. She comes up with a plan to solve her war problems that involved her thought and her very critical brain. This is in direct contrast to what she is trying to solve, which is the brute force of the war, which had no thought, but is introduced in the play as a disply of ridiculous brute force, almost like men running at each other with stick and bashing themselves to see who can take the most beating. Also, brains verse brawns is played out in the sexes. The women seem to be smarter and more witty in their responses in contrast to the men, who seem especially simple minded. This is very easily seen in the exchange between the commissioner of saftey and the women, who are caught in an exhcange of verbal blows. The women have a more eloquent way of "ribbing" the comissoner, where as he only seems to be responding very simply to their blows. Finally the trade of between the men and the women are seen in the fight between the two choruses. The men run towards the women with torches and the women charge with water. this is a perfect demonstration of brains vs. Brawn. The men are foolish to think that they can win with fire against water, or they werent thinking at all. The women on the other hand think about what to fight with, and being logical and smart, choose fire to put out the mens weapons. In a contest between brains and brawn, brains will always win, although the best is a combination of the two.

1 comment:

Ryu Tsume said...

it is quite funny that the commissioner is the man who should be in control and isn't, very clearly. He is always able to be manipulated, like in the scene when the women dress him up and shove him away when he makes fun of the dead like this.