Ironic

Aeneas and Dido’s love is the most interesting part of the book to me. I find it ironic how they both end up begging each other for more time. Of course Dido’s hurt way surpasses what Aeneas goes through, but he feels the pain from their relationship as well. Dido was truly humbled by love. She fell in love so passionately and desperately that she believed there was no way for her to recover from it. She gave up her reputation for him, making the surrounding nations hate her. On top of that she did what is hardest for a woman scorned to do, she begged. At first she got mad at him, but this soon turned into a humble plead. She has her sister tell him “Time is all I beg, Mere time, a respite and a breathing space for madness to subside in, while my fortune teaches me how to take defeat and grieve.” She was so utterly defeated that she told him he could leave, just help her be strong first. Now that is a desperate and humbling thing to ask. She also decides to “leave nothing untried, not to die needlessly.” I think this shows that she did value her life, however, she truly believed that she couldn’t live having been devastatingly heartbroken twice.

On Aeneas’s side, he remained unmoving through all of Dido’s please, but the book says that his calling by the gods is what lead him on. “shaken still with love for her, yet took the course heaven gave him and went back to the fleet.” You also see how much he still loveed Dido when he meets her in the underworld. Ironically he begged her for the very thing that he would not grant her. He says “wait a little. Do not leave my sight. Am I someone to flee from?” As he fled from her so she now does to him in return. He wanted just another moment with her, to ready his broken heart to deal with loosing her, but he cannot get this. She ran from him back to her old love, just as he ran from her to the love of his country.

Ps: I commented on Hunter's blog