Reinforcing convention: Humor in Assemblywomen

Assemblywomen, by Aristophanes, posits a system in which the institution for the transfer of wealth within a patrimonial line is subverted by a system that closely resembles the ordering of a Greek household. In Assemblywomen, the women take power and redesign the social mechanisms. Although the Assemblywomen radically change some elements of the Greek social institution, such as private property and sexual limitation, the women remain, although in an expanded form, within the structure of a household. Male dominance is tempered but gender roles are reinforced. The institution of the household in Assemblywomen is expanded into the body politic but its fundamental nature does not change.

In contrast, Oeconomicus offers a more conventional conception of the Athenian household. Ischomachos, for his own edification, presents to Socrates an idealized version of his household. Ischomachos, in his effort to impress Socrates with the skill and talents of his young wife, gives a clear account of the Athenian social norms surrounding the household. This text is useful in understanding Assemblywomen because it offers the social ideal that, to varying degrees, Aristophanes perverts. Indeed, Assemblywomen adheres to many of the ideals of the household put forth by Oeconomicus. Aristophanes does not depart completely from the conventional conception of a household but rather parodies the system by locating it in the larger context of the polis.

There are a few fundamental similarities between Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen and the more conventional Oeconomicus. First, despite the female entrance into public society, there remains a strong division of labor. The men and women do not work together, but remain separate factions with gender specific tasks and duties. This separations of labor is also found in Oeconomicus when Ischomachos proclaims that, “it is a finer thing for a women to stay indoors than to spend time in the open, while it is more disgraceful for a man to stay indoors than to concern himself with outdoor things” (33,IV). Women are expected to do the tasks associated with the interior of the household. In Assemblywomen, after the women take control of the polis, they do not assume the civic duties once carried out by the men but rather try “remodeling it into one big household” (730). Aside from Praxagora, who asserts political influence, the other women remain involved in tasks associated with the household. Instead of commandeering the political buildings for the established purpose of governing the citizens, Praxagora suggests that the “courthouses and porticoes” (733) are turned into dining rooms. This is an attempt, not to assume control of the “outdoor” space inhabited by men, but to transform the public space into a traditional female realm. In this way, the women of Assemblywomen remain within their sphere of labor.

What is comedic and absurd is not the departure from traditional gender roles but the expansion of the female role to include the body politic. The women, aside from their initial deception, do not usurp male political power but rather transform the political institutions into a system that reflects and supports their traditional location in society. Indeed, the women continue to serve the men. The play ends in a giant banquet in which the women prepare a great feast for all the people of Athens. Although individual households have been abolished, the women continue, albeit on a larger scale, to have “indoor works and indoor concerns”(VII,32).

Although the women of Assemblywomen remain, to a large degree, within their traditional roles within the household, Aristophanes allows Assembywomen to depart from convention. Aristophanes inverts many established systems and in doing so renders them humorous. The use of the household as an analogy turned reality is a complete inversion of the descriptions of the household that Ischomachos uses to instruct his wife. In Oeconomicus, Ischomachos draws many analogies to the exterior world of men in order to explain the necessities of a successful household to his young wife. When speaking to his wife, Ischomachos makes analogies to a chorus, an army and a farmer in an attempt to explain the importance of order. He even uses the city itself as an expanded model of a household.

In contrast, Aristophanes inverts the analogy relationship and creates a political system based on the household. Instead of male institutions, such as the army or a chorus, being applied to the female realm, Aristophanes takes the female system of household management and transforms it into a political system. The inversion of the analogous relationship not only creates comic tension, between the action of the play and political reality of Athens, but also demonstrates the absurdity of making analogies between male institutions and their functioning, and the systems and workings of the female space. Furthermore, Aristophanes inverts the analogy relationship, so as to couch radical political ideas in the easily dismissable female voice. The inverted analogy, with the household as a political model is both comic and didactic. Ironically, the women of Assemblywomen are given a voice because the audience will not take them seriously. Aristophanes locates his most radical ideas in situations so absurd as not to directly threaten the established political system.

The relationship between Praxagora and Blepyros appears to be the antithesis of the husband and wife relationship posited in Oeconomicus. In Oeconomicus, Ischomachos refers to his young wife as needing to be “domesticated” (30,VII). He teaches his wife her household duties. He is her teacher and authority figure. In contrast, in Assemblywomen, it is Praxagora, the wife, who explains the new political system to her husband. Instead of the wife asking Ischomachos questions about the household, Blepyros questions the feasibility of Praxagora’s proposals. However, in the end, Blepyros concedes to his wife’s proposals and even asks to “tag along, right at your side, and share the spot light” (776).

Although, Aristophanes inverts the conventional husband and wife relationship, with the wife instructing the husband, he does not locate Blepyros in the traditional female position of submission but rather translates male political power and responsibility into “a carefree boyhood, with women doing all the chores” (148,Henderson). Aristophanes allows Praxagora to attain the political power while simultaneously positing a male utopia. Thus, the female usurpation of power is rendered less threatening and more humorous because it indulges the Athenian male fantasy of a “golden age” (149, Henderson) when men “lived like gods, with carefree heart, free and apart from trouble and pain” (112-13, Hesiod).

Assemblywomen, by Aristophanes does not stand in direct antithesis to social conventions surrounding the Athenian household but rather uses the female voice and female power as a comic device for social critique. While Praxagora’s speeches may have been politically relevant to the real Athenian polis, the gender of the speaker and the absurdity of the circumstance rendered Aristophanes’ opinions digestible to the male audience. Female power, in Assemblywomen, is not a thematic end but rather a comic means through which Aristophanes can safely critique the Athenian political institution.