Dido: The Tragic Heroine

When we first meet Dido, she is busy leading her people to build a great city. She is a strong leader and is loved by her fellow citizens. Through the eyes of Aeneas, we see that she is beautiful, intelligent and not afraid of hard work. Last but not least, Dido is loyal, loyal to her people and to the memory of her deceased husband. All of these traits add up to describe a woman …

…scorned woman, the heroic leader, and the jilted lover. Her ultimate flaw is that she does not exercise any restraint once she allows herself to feel passions and her irrational behavior becomes a huge character flaw in the eyes of Romans. Her tragic end brought about by the love affair with Aeneas foreshadows Carthage’s later fall to the Roman Empire. Dido finally transpires as a heroine of her time but a tragedy of ours.