Whether Aristophanes was conservative writer on not?

 

Ans. In his outlook Aristophanes was conservative. He believed that it was the first duty of the Athenians to honour the gods and goddesses and the law of the city. He sometimes ridiculed even gods and some persons and institutions. Dionysus enjoyed his jokes. Even gods took pleasure on them. He found pleasure in laughter.

 

He had a didactic purpose under the cover of caricatures. In The Frogs "Aristophanes exhibits the same conservative spirit." He was hostile to Euripides. It was as bitter as the hatred of Cleon. The demagogues, the sophists and Euripides were looked upon by him "as three forms of the same poison". It was corrupting the moral character of his nation. Aristophanes was startled by the ideas of Euripides. These ideas deserved to be challenged. He was a teacher and a moralist and found a source of danger. Sometime Aristophanes wrote in the Euripidean style which was intellectual and epigrammatically. In The Frogs Aristophanes criticised Euripides. Aristophanes brought some charges against Euripides. He was a misogynist and atheist. Euripides, though not as religious as Aeschylus, was not an atheist either. Aristophanes valued all the norms of a peaceful and happy life. He wanted to wash off all the ills and evils of human heart.