Lesson 2, Women In Greek Theatre

"In Greek Theatre, women were sometimes seen... but definitely not heard" 

After watching the video on Women In Greek Theatre by the National Theatre, here are my notes and idea's about the topic. The video was highly informative and gave me a greater insight into how exactly Women were restricted within the society of the era. A few Greek Theatre plays touch up on issues like these, for example Antigone and Medea.

Women were not allowed to watch or perform in Greek Theatre plays, but Sophocles created strong female characters, although the plays were being performed to a society and a social hierarchy that treated women as an underclass. Plays such as Antigone, Electra and Medea show women with huge personalities, great strength and great intelligence that would fight back against the patriarchy. It is extraordinary how many of powerful women there are within the Theatre of Ancient Greece despite the highly common misogynistic beliefs that took place within Ancient Greece. Even though women did not necessarily have a political voice and were not often allowed out of the house, they would have been recognized as key roles for the city. They created children and were relied on for organizing the cities religious festivals. 

Within Greek Tragedy's, we see the tension between recognizing Women are important, and needing to control and subdue women. The play Women of Troy features strong intelligent women which deals with the issues of how women were treated in war and how women deal with the loss of their children and husbands. It is possible to argue that when the play was first performed, being a women wasn't the issue- it was more about people who were on the margins of society and people who didn't have a voice in the Government. For the Athenians, unless you were a white male over the age of 30 with a fair amount of money, you had no say in how things were run within the city. So, some could argue that the women in that play were just a representative for those who don't have a voice. Therefore, I believe that women within Greek theatre were constructed in a way that showed if women were to overcome the typical gender role then she could be aware of her capabilities and intelligence, dis-enabling a man's hold over a woman.