A Lover’s Love: The Emotions and Conflicts of a Love Affair in Boccaccio’s The Decameron and in Virgil’s The Aeneid

Love defies the test of time and endures when all things suggest its demise. Against odds, lovers meet, and in line with fate, lovers fall apart. The levels of love, and the numerous reactions to those relationships, help determine if and when the relationship will end. Though factors tear two people apart, the love does not always die. These ideas appear time and again, such as in Boccaccio’s The Decameron (the fourth day, first tale) or Virgil’s The Aeneid. Ideals of love and admiration also appear in Sappho’s poetry. Love ties people together, both literally and figuratively. These three works show that complexities of opinion and circumstance threaten to tear lovers apart, but love may still endure in the most unlikely ways.

Lovers treat love very seriously, intent on permanence and passion; as such, the circumstances which bring lovers together strengthen the bond. In the Aeneid, the will of the gods brought Dido and Aeneas together in Carthage. Juno said, “Your prince of Troy and Dido both will come to a cave. I’ll be there, too. With your consent, I’ll join them in marriage and name her ‘lawful wife.’ Their wedding this shall be.” To this, Venus nodded in agreement. “Such tactics made her smile” (Virgil 610). The love of Dido and Aeneas was handmade by the gods. On a scale of less grandeur, but still of great importance, was the beginning of the love in the first tale on the fourth day in the Decameron. The Prince of Salerno loved his daughter very much, “this girl was as much beloved by her father as any daughter ever was,” yet, his “tender love” kept him from marrying off his daughter (Boccaccio 1282). When a marriage took place at last, it was short lived, due to the new husband’s death. The prince took very good care ...

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...r in unimaginable ways, causing some to fight for it, and others to fight against it. Though love is strong, many forces seek to sever the bonds of intimacy and romance. Even when relationships end in painful tears, the love often endures. True love is an eternal and lasting feeling which defies time and circumstance, enduring to the end of all things.

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