The Image Of The Farmer In Aristophanes’ Works

The farmer in Aristophanes’comedy is formed in the social reality in Athens which reflected the living condition of the Athens famers to some extend. Meanwhile, the character was invented by the poet and more or less impacted by the poet’s subjective wish. This paper mainly studies the features of the farmer in Aristophanes’works and the function of the image of farmer to audience. The main points of the thesis are just as following:Part One:the farmer play of Aristophans. Firstly,through the review of Aristophanes’ comedies to interpret the connotation of the farmer play and inspect the important reasons why Aristophanes has chosen the farmer as the major character. Secondly, the author will investigate the relationship between the image of the farmer and Athens. The farmers appeared in the comedy as both citizens and countryside people, and the author intended to reveal the farmer’s opinion on the states and cities in the two conditions.Part Two:the features of the farmer image. This part has discussed the features of the farmers in Aristophanes’ comedies. The first feature is the seriousness of the farmer’s image. It reveals that the important feature of comedy is laugh and the farmer inevitably has got the funny factors. Actually, the seriousness hidden on the image is more important. Second, it discusses the transmutation and its reason of the major famer character and the farmer chorus.Part three:the function of the farmer’s image. This part has further discusses the function of farmer image in the play. On the one hand, the poet intended to educate the audience by the words and behavior of the farmer image. However, the subjective intention of the poet is not inconsistent of the objective effect. On the other hand, the poet has realized the wonderful living condition which can not be reached in reality. This realization has achieved Athens farmer’s wish which is combined with sensual desire. At the same time, since the poet protects the dream of the populace, the emotion of the audience will be purified.