The Aeneid Love Analysis

In Book IV of The Aeneid, Queen Dido and Aeneas go through a lot of emotions (ie. love, betrayal, etc), resulting in disastrous consequences. It begins with Dido and Aeneas falling in love, even after Dido promises her deceased husband she would never marry again. It ends with Queen Dido killing herself because Aeneas leaves for Italy without her. Virgil uses the love between Dido and Aeneas to display how love pushes people to do impetuous things. Instead of portraying love as a good and happy thing, he connects it with madness and despair.
Queen Dido is overcome with sorrow and mourning after her husband passes away. According to The Aeneid Book IV, “Alone she mourned in the great empty hall and pressed her body on the couch he left.”(109-110). Dido is grief stricken after her husband dies, and she becomes a widow. She finds herself falling for Aeneas, though does not act on
Mercury comes to Aeneas at the order of his father and says, “...if you will not strive for your own honor, think of Ascanius, think of the expectations of your hei, Iulus, to whom the Italian realm, the land of Rome, are due.” (354-358) Aeneas is promised his own kingdom by the Gods if he leaves Queen Dido, to which he has no choice but to agree to. It is shown in the text that Dido has no notion of the men , “As to the cause for a change of plan, they were to keep it secret, seeing the excellent Dido had no notion, no warning that such love could be cut short...” (377-379) Aeneas does not know how to tell Dido about his departure, so he tries to secretly sneak away with his men on ships. Unfortunately, it is not easy to sneak away on humungous boats. His attempted egress leads to disastrous consequences as Dido catches him trying to leave without her. Queen Dido is not a happy queen as she screams at the man for endeavoring without