Paper Summary:

This paper examines how in Virgil's "Aeneid" Book 4, epic and tragedy, are inextricably linked by the use of similes, the relationship between civic duty and responsibility and the intervention of fate and the gods. It looks at how Aeneas, whose epic journey carries him past Carthage, inspires love in Dido who suffers a whole range of emotion, from love, to confusion, to hatred. It also explores the tragic element with Aeneas, who must sacrifice his love for Dido to pursue his destiny to found Rome.

From the Paper:

"The essential basis of the tragedy is that Dido sacrifices everything for her personal love for Aeneas. She ultimately fails to understand Aeneas' argument about his duty because in her eyes personal considerations override everything else. She allows herself to be drawn into a position from which she can find no way back and has allows herself to become embroiled in a net of circumstances. The element of pathos is very great in the first half of the book as Dido allows herself to let her emotions run free, and in the second half it continues, together with a feeling of horror and terror as she becomes a typical fury of vengeance rather than a queen or woman."

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