Love is a destructive force. This is the common theme shared by the story of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the ancient Roman text The Aeneid by Vergil. The deer and fire imagery that highlights the disastrous love of Dido and Aeneas is referenced through Victor Frankenstein. Both texts comment on powerful emotions and unavoidable fate.
The tragedy itself begins with the realization that love is painful. In the Aeneid, Dido doesn’t realize how strong her feelings for Aeneas are until it’s too late. For her, love is felt as physically and painfully as a weapon to a defenseless animal. “Unlucky Dido, burning, in her madness roamed through all the city, like a doe hit by an arrow from far away by a shepherd hunting in the Cretan woods—hit …show more content…
Victor compares himself to a deer that is looking for a place to die after noticing how strong his love for Elizabeth is, saying he is, “A wounded deer dragging its fainting limbs to some untrodden brake, there to gaze upon the arrow which had pierced it and to die,” (Shelley 64). Shelley’s reference to the deer metaphor from the Aeneid hints at the themes of love and death that both texts share along with the fate of the main characters. Both texts describe love as a fatal wound followed by madness and death. However, in the Aeneid, Dido is oblivious to her predicament. In Frankenstein, Victor has accepted that he will die and all he can do now is “gaze upon the arrow.” The extent of both characters’ awareness of their situation will be reflected in their …show more content…
Shelley chose to highlight the ruin of Victor Frankenstein and the death that surrounded him by comparing it to the ruin of Carthage and the deaths that were caused. All the characters thought of love as painful; something that would kill them if they felt it long enough. Yet, although it ended badly there was an unwavering dedication to the importance of love and disregard of fate in Frankenstein that the Aeneid did not have. Frankenstein was entirely aware of how doomed his relationship with Elizabeth was yet he still tried. Shelley chose to have him die in the way that he did because, although he suffered at the hands of love, he never regretted being with Elizabeth. The creature’s death matched Dido’s, because Shelley wanted to readers to see how important love was to the creature and his devastation at not being able to obtain it. Dido died because she had felt love and it destroyed her. The creature died because he couldn’t find it and was left with an aching hole. The real message of Frankenstein is to show that love is dangerous yet without it, life would have no
The tragedy itself begins with the realization that love is painful. In the Aeneid, Dido doesn’t realize how strong her feelings for Aeneas are until it’s too late. For her, love is felt as physically and painfully as a weapon to a defenseless animal. “Unlucky Dido, burning, in her madness roamed through all the city, like a doe hit by an arrow from far away by a shepherd hunting in the Cretan woods—hit …show more content…
Victor compares himself to a deer that is looking for a place to die after noticing how strong his love for Elizabeth is, saying he is, “A wounded deer dragging its fainting limbs to some untrodden brake, there to gaze upon the arrow which had pierced it and to die,” (Shelley 64). Shelley’s reference to the deer metaphor from the Aeneid hints at the themes of love and death that both texts share along with the fate of the main characters. Both texts describe love as a fatal wound followed by madness and death. However, in the Aeneid, Dido is oblivious to her predicament. In Frankenstein, Victor has accepted that he will die and all he can do now is “gaze upon the arrow.” The extent of both characters’ awareness of their situation will be reflected in their …show more content…
Shelley chose to highlight the ruin of Victor Frankenstein and the death that surrounded him by comparing it to the ruin of Carthage and the deaths that were caused. All the characters thought of love as painful; something that would kill them if they felt it long enough. Yet, although it ended badly there was an unwavering dedication to the importance of love and disregard of fate in Frankenstein that the Aeneid did not have. Frankenstein was entirely aware of how doomed his relationship with Elizabeth was yet he still tried. Shelley chose to have him die in the way that he did because, although he suffered at the hands of love, he never regretted being with Elizabeth. The creature’s death matched Dido’s, because Shelley wanted to readers to see how important love was to the creature and his devastation at not being able to obtain it. Dido died because she had felt love and it destroyed her. The creature died because he couldn’t find it and was left with an aching hole. The real message of Frankenstein is to show that love is dangerous yet without it, life would have no