A strong affection for another rising out of kinship or personal ties, warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion, object of attachment, devotion, or admiration. These are a few of the many definitions of "love" according to Webster's dictionary. Love can be defined in so many different ways, so how do we know what real love is? And if we are able to define love, how do we know that love doesn't change over time? In the Aeneid love is shown in a few different ways but the most common passage is the love between Dido and Aeneas. Using the story of Dido and Aeneas, we look at the different steps of love and compare them to the actions of people in our everyday life. We read as Dido was blinding to everything about Aeneas, we read as Dido tries to justify all actions of her "love" for Aeneas, and we read as love finally pushes her over the edge. Love plays a powerful emotion in the life of Dido, but does love have the same effect on women of today?.
Have you ever heard the expression or called someone, "a love-sick fool?" In my opinion this is exactly what Dido was, a love-sick fool. Dido is blinded by all these emotions that are running through her head, that she can't comprehend or even contain. Dido loses herself and her role as a queen when she begins to fall for Aeneas. Dido doesn't enforce her men to work anymore, she can't think of anything except Aeneas. Which is exactly what being a love-sick fool is all about. When we look at the women of today, the blindness of the faults of people is a little bit more serious. Women of today allow men to get away with so much just because they believe that this is what love is. Women allow men to treat the horribly, they are called names, they are cheated on, they are discarded when of no use, and in the worst cases women are often used as "punching bags." The blindness of love may be at different levels now then how it is described inthe Aeneid but it definitely is still there.
