Graffiti From The Walls Of Pompeii Analysis

The excerpt from Graffiti from the walls of Pompeii tells readers what daily life was like in Pompeii. Pompeii was located in ancient Rome and was considered a city. The sources title “Graffiti from the walls of Pompeii” is quite literal because the writings actually came from graffiti on walls in Pompeii. The sources of graffiti are very important to archeologist because it gives them an inside look at what life was like in Pompeii. It can tell one what they mainly focused on in their community. It also gives archeologist a look at what kind of gender roles there where and how it affected the structure of society.

To begin, The Graffiti from the walls in Pompeii tell about the daily life for people in this city by describing things like …show more content…
One example is the usage of prostitutes this shows that women were used in return for money. Women were also used as slaves during this time this is expressed in the story mentioned earlier with the slave girl Iris. Although women seem to be treated unfairly it appears that women were actually pretty well respected to a point. For an example a man could not look at another man’s wife this could possibly show though how women were just viewed as a possession of men. Or maybe it shows that it was disrespectful towards the women to look at her if she is married. Another piece of information to support my claim comes from the graffiti is that in the story of Sucessus and Iris despite the fact that Iris was a slave she still denied Sucessus affection. I would think that a slave would not have a choice on if they wanted to accept a males affection if the society did not respect women. As far as prostitution goes women were being paid for there acts and it was there decision to make money this way. Despite what is mentioned in the graffiti we still don’t know much about how women felt about their roles in society because mainly only men seemed to write in graffiti.

Overall the Graffiti on the walls of Pompeii can be used to uncover what life was like in Pompeii. It can be used to express ideas and focuses within the community. It also gives archeologist a look at what kind of gender roles there where and how it affected the structure of the Pompeii society. It is fascinating how the graffiti maintained to stay in a condition where members of modern society can still read it to this