Masculinity In Elegia 2

In ancient Greece, it was crucial that men proved their masculinity in order to uphold their worth and earn them a place in social establishments. An important aspect of human life is a man’s masculine identity and how it plays a role in society. However with this idea of masculinity came limitations that were not to be crossed. Ancient Greek epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, both function to provide their own view on masculinity in society through the reverse sex similes. In the Iliad the crucial role of Achilles as a warrior and his association with maternal protection, as represented through it’s reverse sex maternal similes, ultimately proves problematic. This intrinsic part of man to fight on the battlefield to win timê and kleos is ultimately

After she falls in love with Aeneas, Dido disregards the vow that she made to her suitors. While Aeneas and Dido go hunting, Juno sends down a storm that forces the two into a cave. In the cave, Dido makes love to Aeneas and calls the affair a marriage. Shortly after this incident, news spreads beyond her kingdom that the Carthaginian leader has abandoned her obligations as a ruler. When the news reaches Iarbas, one of Dido’s suitors, the African king expresses his anger (IV 264-274). Dido’s love for Aeneas has caused her to ignore basic agreements that she has established. Not only did Dido lie to Iarbas, but she has also forgotten to keep the promise that she made to herself to not marry another man (IV 19-35). Dido has abandoned her own reputation. Instead of taking responsibility for the choices she has made, Dido continues her pursuit of the Trojan hero.

For centuries men have been finding ways to gain control over everything and everyone. One group that has been oppressed by men throughout history are women. Men have placed rules and regulations upon women making them seen as unequal and inferior. Was it fear? Was it the hunger for power? Was is the highness of superiority? Whatever the reasons were, men had to be seen as the highest being next to whom they worshiped. In the play Antigone by Sophocles, the audience is exposed to the roles of men and women in an ancient Greece society known as Thebes. Although ancient Greece was a male-dominant society where women had as much freedom as a slave, Sophocles’ main character in the play, Antigone, is an example of a brave, strong-minded woman who goes against the limitations that were unfairly set upon women during that time to do what she believes is right. In this play, gender roles assists in the process of portraying the story since it affects some of the decisions of the characters and helps lead the story into the climax.

In his epic poem “The Aeneid,” Virgil details an account of how the great empire of Rome descended from a Trojan leader named Aeneas. It is an action-packed story, filled with tales from the hardships at sea to the brutality of warfare as Aeneas journeys to Italy following the downfall of Troy. Aeneas, the hero of the story, is depicted in mostly a positive light throughout the poem and shown portraying a wide variety of emotions and traits, some seemingly contrasting one another—from scorching, merciless anger to tender, affectionate love. While he is a three-dimensional, rather well-rounded character, Virgil depicts women throughout The Aeneid in a more one-dimensional, usually negative light, establishing a hint of sexism and misogyny throughout

She confronts him asking, “Can our love/Not hold you…?” (Virgil 983). She says that if Aeneas leaves her, then she is a “dying woman” (Virgil 984). When Aeneas persists in his decision to leave, she insults him and angrily sends him away. She calls him a “liar and cheat” (Virgil 985). Dido’s heart is broken at Virgil’s forsaking of her. She becomes inflicted by a “fatal madness” and is “resolved to die” (Virgil 988). After praying for enmity between her descendants and Aeneas’, she climbs atop a pyre of Aeneas’ belongings and stabs herself. Love becomes an obsessive passion to Dido; her life is empty without it. She does not have the will to live forsaken by her lover. She kills herself for love. The poet exclaims, “Unconscionable Love,/To what extremes will you not drive our hearts!” (Virgil 986).

The female protagonists in the plays “She stoops to Conquer” by Oliver Goldsmith and “Antigone” by Sophocles are successfully able to reach their goal by behaving according to their environment and behaving to the need of their situation. In the very well written play, “Antigone”, Antigone openly refuses to obey the king and buries the body of her brother, Polyneices. In the interesting play, “She Stoops to Conquer”, Kate Hardcastle makes it her goal to marry a man named Charles Marlow. It is her top priority since he feels relaxed in the company of lower class females. When Kate Hardcastle realized that Charles Marlow has a special preference for lower class females, Kate acts as if she is a lady belonging to a lower class and therefore

In every great epic, love plays a key role in bringing people together but also destroying plenty in its way. Even though Dido is characterized as this powerful leader, she slowly starts to fall as her passion for Aeneas starts to grow. As Aeneas tells his story to all the people, Dido slowly starts falling more and more in love with Aeneas. Throughout this Book you slowly start to see the demise of Queen Dido. "Towers, half-built, rose no farther; men no longer trained in arms... Projects were broken off, laid over, and the menacing huge walls with cranes unmoving stood against the sky". Virgil provides images of how Carthage is being affected by the downfall of Queen Dido. Dido is so infatuated with love that she cannot see how she is running Carthage to the ground for the love of Aeneas. The goddess Juno, the queen of gods, saw this as an opportunity to keep Aeneas from reaching Italy. Dido even broke her vow of chastity and surrenders to her desires for Aeneas. “Dido had no further qualms as to impressions given and set abroad; She thought no longer of a secret love but called it marriage”. This statement demonstrates how she is becoming

After this short injunction, we are swept back to the current story with Aeneas, and his arrival at Carthage. Venus appears to Aeneas in the woods and explains to him about Dido, queen of Carthage, and the violent, bloody story behind her fated throne. The citizens of Carthage are actually descendents of Phoenicians who have traveled and settled in this land (modern day Libya). Dido is made the queen of all the citizens of Carthage after her husband, Sychaeus, was murdered.

Dido first falls in love with Aeneas after being infected by Cupid at Venus’ command. When Cupid first arrives in Carthage, disguised as Ascanius, Dido watches him from afar as he interacts with deceived Aeneas. As she watches, she becomes entranced with the sight and “the more she looks the more the fire grows,” signaling that Cupid’s hold over her has grown stronger (853,71). Aeneas’ tale of woe only strengthens her adoration of him until she is “consumed by the fire buried in her heart” (3, 127). Tentative thoughts of remarrying after her husband Sychaeus’ death begin to cross her mind and she finally recognizes the “old flame” that is slowly consuming her, suddenly marrying Aeneas one night (30, 128). Yet this fire is short lived and, ultimately, Dido’s downfall. Jove grows anxious for Aeneas to continue on his journey and commands Mercury to pass along the message that Aeneas and the Trojans must leave Carthage. Aeneas pleads with Dido that he leaves not of his own volition and that he must obey the gods’ wishes, but Dido is furious, alternating between pleading with him to stay and cursing him should he go. Firm in his decision, Aeneas returns to his ships while Dido is brought to her chambers. Grief stricken and “fixed on dying,” Dido begins to construct a funeral pyre in her courtyard (595, 144). As she stands before her creation, she laments her choice to trust Aeneas and the Trojans when

If Dido were truly passive, she would have let Aeneas leave without any trouble. Yet instead, Dido is deeply upset and agitated; she thinks of ways to stop Aeneas from leaving, and confronts him head on, things all uncharacteristic of a passive woman resigned to fate. A passive woman would have given up far before Dido actually does, as Dido goes on to ask Anna to convince Aeneas to change his mind; she continues to fight to keep Aeneas at Carthage despite him leaving under the command of the Gods, which neither Aeneas nor Dido can change.

In the epic poem The Anenied, Dido and Aneneas make every page worth looking forward to reading by being similar is so many ways. Although there are many differences between Dido and Aneneas, there are also several similarities that both of them share such as having to flee their homeland, being deeply in love whether voluntary or involuntary, and both being a manipulated by the gods. Lets Discuss Dido first, In The Aeneid by Virgil, Dido is the queen of Carthage.

Throughout ‘Othello’, Shakespeare uses the manipulation of the protagonist, by the antagonist, Iago, to present a play controlled by men. In such a male dominated society, Shakespeare presents the women in the play as tragic victims at the hands of their husbands, in particular Desdemona and Emilia. Throughout this essay I will relate to the Aristotelian and Senecan descriptions of tragedy to come to a conclusion of how in ‘Othello’ Shakespeare presents women as tragic victims of men.

He perceived it more as a romantic fling; Aeneas only engaged in a relationship with Dido out of lust. Although Aeneas acts like Dido’s husband by building walls for Carthage, he never explicitly accepts the position. He only stays in Carthage because of the benefits made available to him: Dido’s love and her luxurious gifts. When he is about to leave, Dido berates him for deceiving her in their “marriage.” Adamant that he never entered upon a marriage, Aeneas replies, “Do not think/I meant to be deceitful and slip away./I never held the torches of a bridegroom,/Never entered upon the pact of marriage” (IV, 465-8). His response to Dido reveals Aeneas’s ignorance in their relationship; he never realizes her deep obsession with him. When he leaves, he wants to console her, but does not act upon it because he feels he has committed no wrong and he has obligations to fulfill. Even when he visits the underworld, he still does not understand how Dido felt or how much he was at fault for her death. He asks her, “Was I, was I the cause?” (VI, 616). His ignorance as to how she felt and what she wanted shows his inability to be cognizant of others’ feelings, which makes him look stupid. The least Aeneas could have done was to have said goodbye, but instead he excuses himself by claiming the gods forced him to leave her.

From now on dido…no longer kept her love a secret…but called it marriage…‘ [4.170-174]. It take the angry prayers of a king from another land for Jupiter to intervene ‘…this is not the man promised us by his mother…it was not for this she twice rescued him from the swords of the greeks’ [4.227-230] he sends mercury to tell aeneas ‘so now you are layign foundations for the high towers of carthage and builign a a splendid city to please your wife? Have you entirely forgotten your own kingdom and your own destiny?’ [4.267-270] Aeneas is described as ‘dumb and senseless’ at the sight of mercury [280] but it reminds him of his duty and makes the decision to leave dido and carthage despite reasoning with her that ‘it is not by my own will that I search for italy’ [361]

When people fall in love, they are willing to give up things they otherwise wouldn’t. In the Aeneid book IV, Queen Dido was so willing to give up duties such as running her kingdom of Carthage, to be with Aeneas. Instead of taking on her important duties and trying