It is important to submit your emotions to your mind, because otherwise you will be unable to perform your duty. Dido is a perfect example of this. At the beginning of the Aeneid she is a very good queen[1]. By the time Aeneas leaves, however, she has forgotten her duty to her people, and thinks only of her pain and how to end it[2]. Because she has ceased to care, her city stops functioning and becomes vulnerable to attack[3].
Aeneas, on the other hand, does not sacrifice his duty for the sake of love. For a short amount of time he does forget his duty, but when the gods remind him of his fate he acquiesces[4]. He had to choose between love and duty, and picked duty, forcing his emotions to submit to his reason[5].
If you allow your emotions to reign, you may go mad. “And so Dido was overwhelmed by grief and possessed by madness”[6]. Dido’s love certainly seems to make her go mad. This is because if you submit your mind to your emotions it ceases to function logically because emotions are not logical.
If, however, you submit you emotions to your reason, your emotions, while paining you for a while, will eventually give up the fight. When Aeneas chooses to obey the gods and leave
So, in conclusion, “Love is a cruel master”[10], because it ought not be master. We were created so that our minds need to in control. Our emotions do matter, but they cannot be allowed control. When emotions are allowed to rule, chaos and anguish will eventually result. In the ensuing chaos, duty will be forgotten or ignored, and become nearly impossible to do.
1 comment:
Good. But note also that part of Aeneas' duty was love for his father and his son. Aeneas used his head, but he certainly did not lack emotion, not even when he was doing his duty. Part of his duty was choosing which emotions were most worthy of satisfaction, not ignoring his emotions entirely.
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