Literary techniques and composition Flashcards
Composition of the epic
Virgil emphasises the tragedy rather than the triumph - RD Williams
RD Williams describe Virgil as ‘peace-loving’
RD Williams - The essence of the Aeneid is the interplay of opposing attitudes to life’s deepest problems, taken from past literature or from Virgil’s own experience of life, and presented in a whole series of poetically organised episodes through the poem.
4th century – Aelius Donatus on composition: As for the Aeneid, he first drafted it in prose and divided it into twelve books, deciding to construct it bit by bit, so that he could do each part as it seized his fancy, taking up nothing in order.
Structure of the epic
Virgil turns to the muse in a more emotional style, than Homer as if Virgil were shocked by his own story. Virgil asks for justification not facts unlike Homer
The unashamed partisanship of the Homeric gods was shocking. Virgil allows that vein of moral criticism into the epic itself - RD Williams
Language of the epic including the use
Speeches
Themes
Flashback
Similes
Homeric influence
The Sibyl escorts Aeneas out of Hades by the ivory gate which is the gate of false dreams. Why not by the gate of horn, the gate of true dreams. Virgil has taken the figure of the two gates from when Penelope says that deceptive dreams come to us through the ivory gate, ‘their message is never accomplished’ but those which issue through the gate of horn come to pass. It has been suggested that because Aeneas is not himself a true ghost, he cannot leave by the gate of horn. In the world of shadows it is perhaps he who is unreal. He has seen things the living ought not to see, and his vision of them can never be validated outside that ‘other dimension’. Certainly they are never mentioned or referred to again, a strange interlude in the tale of epic heroism now to be resumed - RD Williams
Homeric Influence - Book 6 and 11
Virgil’s Book 6 contains much of his own religious thought, according to RD Williams; Homer’s Book 11 on the other hand tells us little of Homer’s beliefs about the after life
Homeric influence - Dido and Ajax
In Dido’s refusal to speak, Virgil powerfully recalls Odysseus’ meeting with the ghost of Ajax, who had committed suicide because Odysseus had beaten him in the contest for the armour of Achilles. Odysseus says he is sorry that he had been the cause of Ajax’s death and Ajax turns away without replying - RD Williams
Homeric influence - to what extent is it Homeric influenced - Camilla
This is in Homeric style, but the details of bloodshed and death are even more horrifying in Virgil than in Homer because they are less acceptable to him, and he seems to be forcing himself to depict them. The brief scene describing Camilla’s death abandons the objective style and is presented in the liquid notes of sorrow so typical of Virgil – RD Williams
Homeric influence - Dido and Ajax reactions in the Underworld
Virgil plunders Homer and refashions what he
takes.
