Dido’s love for Aeneas was so great that she was bleeding
inside. During the her confession to her sister, Anna, she expresses her
feelings with so much passion that makes me understand better her angriness after
Aeneas left. Virgil states how burning this love was when he says that:
“… The inward fire eats the soft marrow away,
And the internal wound bleeds on in silence” (Book IV)
And the internal wound bleeds on in silence” (Book IV)
Most of us think that love is always a beautiful thing, and
it is when the other person feels the same for you. But for Dido this wasn’t
the case. Dido was dying inside because Aeneas would not love her in the same
dimensions as she did. When this happens, love hurts, it hurts so much that the
inward fire eats your marrow.
Finally, Dido’s ending becomes tragic when she commits
suicide. Her burning love for Aeneas makes her so miserable that she comes to
the conclusion that her life is not worth it. Her fate shows what a person in
love is capable of doing for love. This is a tragic ending, but it also shows
how negatively powerful love can become.
It's not until I read Virgil's work that I remember how these classical works really are dramatic and quite the contrast from modernized works of today. The emphasis Virgil puts on love turns the underlying factor, undoubtedly into such. Love is something one hopes to pursue; but if stopped in their tracks, how can this not be seen as a tragedy? We were asked if the story of Dido and Aeneas was a tragedy and most agreed that it wasn't; but from your example again, how can one not see this story as a tragedy? Maybe we are just suckers for romance...
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