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The contrast between the individual and the society is a core theme of Aristophanes' plays. In many texts by the Athenian playwright we are told how the protagonists, forced in a state of frustration, seek redemption rebelling against the community rules to which they belong.

In The Birds there are two men, Pisthetaerus and Euelpides. Oppressed by their own city, they are looking for a quiet place to live a carefree existence: the kingdom of birds. Here the two protagonists' desire for escape gradually turns into a desire for abuse. As a result ,the uncontrolled space of the birds  becomes a small city-state, under the command of the human being.

The only way that the ego has to assert itself is the opposition to a collectivity; therefore, other people are seen as a limit of any possible personal expansion. It is like Aristophanes always started from a question: can the individual desire coexist with the common well-being?