Evan Koehler: Lysistrata Response

My senior year English teacher always rehashed the following: Shakespeare's plays are so important because the themes are timeless. It is amazing to me that, even though created so along ago in the past, Lysistrata is very relevant. The battle and roles of the sexes, argument, war, money---all of those are transcendent things in history. I am, too, in awe at the circle of things. Arguably, today's age is the best is has been for women. Tracing backward, things get worse. But to know that in 411 BC, an important male figure like Aristophanes understood the importance and power of women, and that he could successfully embody the two into characters like Lysistrata, Kalonike and the old women, and that he two wasn't afraid to do so, is thought provoking. The artistry, too, is incredible. With little or hardly no character description, Aristophanes created lucid images in my head of who was important and powerful----only with dialogue as a vehicle. He gives intelligence and wit to women, the practice of which will leave for a more than a few years. He even downplayed the men's alacrity and mental prowess; very infrequently do the Commissioner, Spartan delegate, or old men respond with adequate answers to the women. On a off note, I really liked the choirs aspect. I've never read nor a scene a play in which musical accompaniment is  present and I half-believed I was watching the movie Amadeus while reading. The play starts off with a separation of the sexes, and ends in the opposite scenario. In a play with war as almost its main subject, a peaceful resolution is not what I was suspecting.