Dido And Virgil's Aeneid: A Comparative Analysis
Regarding the dynamics of temporality, the monuments in Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage and Virgil’s Aeneid constitute a center for the past, present and future to come together. Such temporal centers are subject to temporality themselves, just like the texts presenting them. In that sense, the question of permanence through memory and repetition applies to both types of monuments: monuments as works of art produced after the death of a person and textual monuments created by poets or authors. In the light of the works of Timothy D. Crowley, Sheldon Brammall, Roma Gill, Donald Stump and Andrew Hui; the paper aims at exploring how Marlowe approaches Virgil’s future-oriented perspective in regard to the construction of the relationship between
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The statue, by its own nature, is the representation of the past. Yet, Aeneas perceives it in the present moment so vividly that he convinces himself that the stone is in fact Priam, saying that “He is alive, Troy is not overcome.” There, Marlowe establishes the connection between the past and the present by turning this work of art, crafted in and representing the past, into life at the present moment. However, he does not place the future somewhere near the center of such connection. In the scene where Aeneas sees the statue and loses his sense to the extent of being delusional, what brings Aeneas back to reality is his son Ascanius, who embodies the future regarding both his age and his future position promised by gods, by saying “Sweet father, leave to weep, this is not he: For were it Priam, he would smile on me.” The future, thus, exists in the connection, although it is only slightly touched upon. One other thing Marlowe changes in this scene is that it is not the pictures on the walls which moves Aeneas, but a three dimensional statue. Such appropriation serves to further emphasize the presently being of the past and eases the way of Aeneas’ delusion. Even though Marlowe satirizes Virgil’s usage of an artefactual monument, he does so by inheriting Virgil’s approach to monuments as centers of temporality and manipulates the usage of monuments into an extreme example of how they could disturb the linearity of the
The statue, by its own nature, is the representation of the past. Yet, Aeneas perceives it in the present moment so vividly that he convinces himself that the stone is in fact Priam, saying that “He is alive, Troy is not overcome.” There, Marlowe establishes the connection between the past and the present by turning this work of art, crafted in and representing the past, into life at the present moment. However, he does not place the future somewhere near the center of such connection. In the scene where Aeneas sees the statue and loses his sense to the extent of being delusional, what brings Aeneas back to reality is his son Ascanius, who embodies the future regarding both his age and his future position promised by gods, by saying “Sweet father, leave to weep, this is not he: For were it Priam, he would smile on me.” The future, thus, exists in the connection, although it is only slightly touched upon. One other thing Marlowe changes in this scene is that it is not the pictures on the walls which moves Aeneas, but a three dimensional statue. Such appropriation serves to further emphasize the presently being of the past and eases the way of Aeneas’ delusion. Even though Marlowe satirizes Virgil’s usage of an artefactual monument, he does so by inheriting Virgil’s approach to monuments as centers of temporality and manipulates the usage of monuments into an extreme example of how they could disturb the linearity of the