“Anchises warns and terrifies; I see the wrong I have done to one so dear, my boy Ascanius, whom I am cheating of Hesperia, the fields assigned by fate. And now the gods’ own messenger… has brought his orders through the swift air… My ears have drunk his words. No longer set yourself and me afire. Stop your quarrel. It is not my own free will that leads to Italy.”
These lines by Aeneas reveal much of Aeneas’ character and his motivations, and show that he and Dido are two very different characters. Aeneas makes a point of telling Dido that his decision to leave Carthage is not his own decision; rather, the decision was made for him by the gods: “It is not my own free will that leads to Italy.” This is in contrast with Dido, whose character is one that follows her own desires (even to her own death) and not the desires of others. However, though Aeneas pins all the blame on the gods, part of Aeneas also wants to leave Carthage and establish his own “foreign kingdom.” Aeneas’ mention of his father, Anchises, and his son, Ascanius, provide us with two reasons for Aeneas’ departure and subsequent abandonment of Dido. It’s clear that Aeneas respects his father, as he travels to the underworld later in Book VI to converse with him. His respect for his father’s advice and his trust in his father’s words lead him to leave Carthage and Dido behind. Also, as any good father would want for his son, Aeneas wants Ascanius to live a proud and happy life; Aeneas knows that for that to happen, he must follow the Jupiter’ plans. So while Aeneas may seem as if he mindlessly following the wants of the gods, he is also following what he knows is best for his family, which Dido is not a part of.
I was planning to compare the similarities between the relationships of Aeneas vs. Dido and Creon vs. Antigone, also pointing out similarities in their motivations and actions. I was also going to make the argument that Aeneas, in a way, chose family over desire, opposite of Creon, who chose state over family (especially if Creon's choice of state was his desire as well as his duty."), which was the clear difference in their outcomes, as Creon's life was ruined where Aeneas was able to achieve his destiny of founding Rome.
Jerikko, this is a good start, but make sure your paper has a lens or some kind of premise of comparison-- one way to think about this would be ask the question of how Aeneas' choice allows us to get a better understanding or insight into Creon or even Antigone's? It would also be useful to think about the possibility of choice, particularly in Antigone...
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