Aeneas And Queen Dido The Great Queen example essay topic

Aeneid HLT November 4, 1999 It was an early summer mourning when the ship of Aeneas washed up on the shores of Carthage, an event that would effect the queen of Carthage forever. When a love affair breaks out between Aeneas and Queen Dido the great queen has an internal conflict between passion and responsibility. This is shown through guilt, lack of confidence by her people, and tragedy. Didos guilt shows her conflict.

Throughout the beginning of book 4 Didos sister Anna is telling her to leave Aeneas alone and to be faithful to her deceased husband. On page 88 Dido says, "My love has gone with Sychaeus; let him keep it, keep it with him forever in the grave" talking about her husband, and the conflict she faces. This guilt causes the reader to feel sympathy for Dido. She is caught between a rock and a hard place with no where to turn. She finally does turn to Aeneas though, which even furthers her conflict, and makes a decision for her. When Virgil wrote this part he was trying to make an image of Roman men and how irresistible they are to women by making Dido forget about her duties just for Aeneas.

We can also see a lack of confidence by the people of Carthage. The people of Carthage feel like they don't have a leader and are being left to fend for themselves. They feel Dido is not paying any attention to her city, only Aeneas. The effect of this is that the reader feels that Dido should stop goofing around and pay attention to her city. It makes the characters look down on the queen, and begin to loose faith in her. Virgil was trying to rub it in even further that Roman men are irresistible to women.

People are loosing faith in Dido and all she cares about is Aeneas. This conflict ends with tragedy in Didos life. Near the end of book four Aenaesdecides to leave Carthage and finish his mission. When this happens Dido is so distraught she has a funeral pyre built and commits suicide. This causes the people to become sorrowful for Didos death. It also leads to guilt of Aeneas because he thinks it is his fault.

Also it causes the reader to feel sorrow for Didos family and city. When Virgil wrote this section he wanted to show how dedicated Roman men were by showing how Aeneas could leave Dido and let her commit suicide because he had to finish his mission. This conflict of Dido effects her emotions and the other people in the story. Once again when Virgil was writing this he wanted to make the Romans look good. The whole Dido incidence was an attempt to give the appearance that Roman men are controlling, and there women follow what they say.

Also Virgil wanted to show how well the Romans could handle tragedy by showing how well Aeneas handled the suicide.