The Aeneid

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Aeneid

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 Aenaes

decides 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

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