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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper answers specific questions about four plays in relation to each other: “The Bacchae,” “Lysistrata,” “The Jew of Malta” and “The Merchant of Venice.” Bibliography lists 4 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HV4Plays.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
about four plays: "The Merchant of Venice," "The Jew of Malta," "Lysistrata" and "The Bacchae." Discussion For the purposes of this discussion, were going to consider "Lysistrata" and "The
Merchant of Venice" as comedies; and "The Bacchae" and "The Jew of Malta" as tragedies. Well begin with the comedies and ask, What is the difference between the ancient
comedy Lysistrata and the later Shakespearean work? First, "Lysistrata" is much bawdier- its an outright sex farce, in which the women of Athens and Sparta refuse to go to
bed with their men unless the two city-states make peace with each other. Of course much of the sexual innuendo depends on the translation (Ive read several), but heres
a sample: "CLEONICE And why do you summon us, dear Lysistrata? What is it all about? LYSISTRATA About a big thing. CLEONICE (taking this
in a different sense; with great interest) And is it thick too? LYSISTRATA Yes, very thick" (Aristophanes). As the play progresses, the women barricade themselves in
the Acropolis and refuse to make love to their husbands; the men become more and more distressed until theyre walking bent over, sporting huge erections. Finally they cant stand
it any longer and sign a peace treaty. "The Merchant of Venice" is much more complex and somber: there are many subplots, but the main thrust (so to speak)
is that Antonio owes Shylock the Jew money and cannot pay. They have a Satanic bargain; if Antonio defaults, Shylock will take the price out of his flesh-literally.
(Thats where the expression "a pound of flesh" comes from.) Shylock goes to court to force Antonio to honor the debt, and is literally about to plunge a knife
...