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As the art of literature has progressed throughout time, one theme as consistently made its way to future generations. Impossible love is a theme that although can be written from different angles, generally speaking either a love that is forbidden, unnecessary , or not possible. The Aenid entails the life of the great hero Aeneas, who in time finds love in his relationship with the Queen of Carthage, Dido-resulting in a tragic spell of impossible love. Then, we also have Ovid's classic Metamorphoses which connects a variety of stories into one poem exploring the theme of transformation.
These tales told by Ovid's focus on the theme of impossible love-but especially the story of Pygmalion and his ivory maiden. The theme of impossible love is one that speaks through time because it is one that we as the reader can feel for, and also because where there is love you can almost guarantee trouble will follow.
In book four of The Aeneid, the theme of impossible love surfaces with Dido and Aeneas their love connection.
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We find that Dido does not want to marry Aeneas because of her focus on being a strong and loving leader for her people. From the very first moments of Dido's infatuation with Aeneas, Virgil foreshadows the chaos that love will bring. However, Juno, who as we know has hate for Aeneas burning within, convinces Dido to marry Aeneas to cause trouble for the warrior. Prior to the knowledge of Aeneas' love reaching Jupiter, everything seemed fine. However, once this information reaches the gods, Mercury sets off on behalf of the god also known as Jove to relay a subtle reminder.
Even as Aeneas enjoys his loving relationship with Dido, he knows that the Gods have plans for him to serve his great purpose which he had already known. Impossible love at its finest. As Aeneas tells Dido he must resume his journey, Dido falls into a state of love spawned depression.
Dido looks to her sister to help convay the feeling of sorry that she feels to Aenas, but to no avail. The Fates bar the way. and heaven blocks his gentle, human ears. (Virgil 142-143, lines 549-554) Following his reminder from Jupiter, Aeneas can no longer sympathize with Dido; he knows he no longer has time for his love. The strong and intelligent queen cannot bear to lose another husband and therefore throws herself upon a blade as Aeneas sails on. Even for a work of fiction, Dido's sudden irrationality and act of suicide is puzzling. Dido was used as a tool for Juno's plan to distract Aeneas; their love was not natural for it was formed through the Gods. Unlike the rest, especially the multiple characters in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Dido did not openly defy the Gods or do anything to spite them, resulting in Dido and Aeneas' relationship being one of the most tragic and impossible in all literature.
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the sculptor Pygmalion manufactures his own impossible love. Displeased by the imperfections of real earthly women, Pygmalion decides to fashion his own vision of a perfect woman out of ivory. Pygmalion falls madly in love with his ivory maiden, he kisses her, caresses her, dresses her, and even speaks to her. But, it is obviously impossible to love and marry an ivory statue. His statue is not a real human, however she still comes to be in the text. His beloved statue is, 'white as snow,' (Ovid 394, line 49), and it is a very specific that Ovid picked ivory instead of marble for Pygmalion's medium, signifying that his maiden is pure-a perfect image of feminine beauty. In a sense, Pygmalion began to live inside his own head, when he touched the statue he thought to himself, 'flesh or ivory? No, it couldn't be ivory now!' (255). Pygmalion wanted for the personified love to be, so he looked to the gods for aid. Luckily for Pygmalion, Venus heard his prayers, and knew that he really wanted his statue to live so he could marry it, and so she turned his impossible love into a reality.
When Pygmalion returned home he went to his statue and, 'fondled that longed-for body again and/ again.' (286-287). Pygmalion's unattainable woman is now standing before him, as a real human. In Metamorphoses, Pygmalion's statue is not given a name, she is completely Pygmalion's possession, she is not her own person, and she belongs to him. Thanks to Venus, now that the statue is a real woman she has absolutely no free will, she is forever indebted to Pygmalion and essentially turned into his own personal sex slave. She is unable to make her own decisions and is overall unable to choose whom she is able to love, which leads to another layer of unrequited, and impossible love. In both Virgil's The Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphoses, the theme of impossible love dominates the plots of the stories and essentially terrorizes the characters affected.
In The Aeneid, both Dido and Aeneas are forever changed by their brief relation, Dido gave up her life for the man that she loved and Aeneas had to live with the regret of knowing that he caused his beloved's suicide due to the fact that he had to complete his God given duty. On the other hand, in Ovid's Metamorphoses Pygmalion's impossible love with his statue reaches a satisfying solution… for him, however his ivory maiden is forced into a life not of her choosing, therefore resulting in an unrequited and impossible love. Though it is tragic, impossible love will forever be a timeless staple of literature.
Impossible Love Pygmalion. (2022, Apr 19). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/impossible-love-pygmalion-essay
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