Rostam and Sohrab

Rostam and Sohrab is a tragic story of how father and son are separated for the majority of the son's life only to be reunited during the war between Iran and Turan. The circumstances that take a sad turn and end in the death of Sohrab.  There is great irony in this tragic poem as Rostam kills his son in battle. Unfortunately for both Rostam and Sohrab they do not realize they are father and son until Sohrab had been fatally wounded. 

The death of Sohrab is an outcome that we do not expect to see. Most stories similar to this result in the son killing the father, not vice versa. This goes against our traditional beliefs that the son normally kills the father at the end of a play. It is sad to see the two reuniting under these circumstances not even knowing the true identity of eachother until it is too late. This tragedy may have been avoided had they know they were father and son in the beginning of battle. 

Lysistrata

Lysistrata is a story about a woman who changes the result of a war by using her sexuality as a weapon in order to end the Peloponnesian war and bring peace to Greece. Lysistrata devises a plan against the male population which she believes is hurting their society. She finds a way to use sex as leverage against the husbands of these women by having the women sign a pact stating that they will not have sex with their husbands in order to manipulate them into finding peace between sparta and Athens. By this act it shows how much power women do have over men.  Lysistrate was looking for equal treatment of gender in a male dominated society. When the men in the story were not having sex with their wives because of the pact the women signed the men became angry and realized they would have to give in to the women. This story shows the enormous influence that women have. In this story the women had the power to end a great war by going on a sex strike.  The husbands basically had no choice but to give in to their demands in order to get what the wanted. Once Sparta and Athens reconciled and were at peace, the men and women had a large celebration and the wives gave their husbands what they all had been wanting. This story demonstrates the enormous influence that women have over men and how it only takes one person to start a movement that can end a war.