Penélope e Lisístrata: uma abordagem comparativa sobre a construção e reconstrução da imagem da boa esposa

Abstract

Some characteristics and obligations such as being skilled, faithful, loving and devoted to the domestic life, were attributed to woman in order of considering her a good wife and aiming the maintenance of the good organization at home and the appropriate education for children. Many ancient texts had the objective of presenting to the future wife, mother and housewife, her chores and duty in relation to home and family. In general, it is possible to identify in these texts two main obligations of the good wife: the first one is to please her husband and the second is to take proper care of her home. The f igure of the zealous and loving wife can be found in several literary texts. In the epic Odyssey, there is the example of good wife in the character Penelope, always faithful and devoted to her home and her husband. Nevertheless, it is necessary to clarify that not only this kind of wife was presented in literature. In the comedy Lysistrata, for example, although the intention is to restore the familial normalcy broken by war, the protagonist deconstructs the image of the good wife, since it neglects the two main obligations that would identify her as an ideal woman: she denies sexual satisfaction to her husband and renounce the domestic life to undertake activities in the public life. Therefore, the approach used is a comparative study between the characters Penelope and Lysistrata, in order to identify, respectively, how the construction and the deconstruction in the figure of the good wife occur.