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Haven't been posting much lately. Busy with homework, fanfic, more homework... You know the drill. But for the potential amusement of others, I am copying in below my "outline" for my next paper.
This is my paragraph in which I say something reasonably clever about the comparison between these two speeches. For example, while I am not going into how much of a dick Aeneas comes across as, since all the research I've done so far has people whining that Aeneas is totally awesome and not dick-like at all in his response to Dido, it does rather highlight why these things worked out poorly. Perhaps it also suggests that if you go all PROPHECY and FATE at someone as your explanation while leaving them, and your prophecy does not have word one about them in it, that leaves room for them to counter with some interesting prophecies of their own.
So we start off by talking about the speech Aeneas gives to his men. Basic overview. He's pretending to be happy despite being anything but, and talking up the promises of the gods. There's a lot of focus on we and us in this. We did this together; we will be in a better place; the gods have destined something awesome for us. And it works. People are pretty happy at the end of that.
Now we discuss the speech to Dido, in a general sense. Similarities: he's talking about following the will of the gods, and faking calm despite being anything but. But there are significant differences. For one, he's not talking to someone who's under his command: he's talking to another leader-of-their-people, and she is not in a subordinate position to take his word as law. For another, his prophecy has nothing about /her/ in it. It's all "I gotta go, Zeus calls!" and "...so be nice about this?" Of course she's not happy at the end.
Now let's talk about some of the specific contrasts in more detail. First off: pronouns! Detailed analysis of every explicit pronoun used in each speech. Count 'em up, talk about the we and I and us and them and you of it. Surely I can say something interesting about this.
Next: prophecies in general, a natural transition from the specific pronoun use to the difference between speaking of a prophecy for /you/ and a prophecy for /me/. Most of the prophetic stuff given around here are other people speaking to Aeneas about prophecies for him and his descendants; does he even realize what he sounds like when he spouts this off to someone else? Because he doesn't leave any opening for Dido. Nothing about her future. Just me-me-me. That he is meaning it piously (ha!) does not change the effect.
So, moving on to the power positions between the two. "Let me, the leader, tell you, the followers, what's going to happen to all of us" is a particular dramatic leadership position. "Let me, the leader, tell you, another leader, what's going to happen to me" leaves...a gap. There is a distinct /hole/ in this where her return prophecy comes in. And because Aeneas was all me-me-me, she gets to go you-you-you and discuss her own actions, because his speech did not /cover/ her.
Then I should probably conclude with something interesting that recaps my thesis statement. Seriously, 1500 words? I need to double-check that in the syllabus. That does not sound like nearly enough to do even a narrowed topic like this justice. My wacky little summary is nearly 600 words, for god's sake. 1500! Sheesh.
This is my paragraph in which I say something reasonably clever about the comparison between these two speeches. For example, while I am not going into how much of a dick Aeneas comes across as, since all the research I've done so far has people whining that Aeneas is totally awesome and not dick-like at all in his response to Dido, it does rather highlight why these things worked out poorly. Perhaps it also suggests that if you go all PROPHECY and FATE at someone as your explanation while leaving them, and your prophecy does not have word one about them in it, that leaves room for them to counter with some interesting prophecies of their own.
So we start off by talking about the speech Aeneas gives to his men. Basic overview. He's pretending to be happy despite being anything but, and talking up the promises of the gods. There's a lot of focus on we and us in this. We did this together; we will be in a better place; the gods have destined something awesome for us. And it works. People are pretty happy at the end of that.
Now we discuss the speech to Dido, in a general sense. Similarities: he's talking about following the will of the gods, and faking calm despite being anything but. But there are significant differences. For one, he's not talking to someone who's under his command: he's talking to another leader-of-their-people, and she is not in a subordinate position to take his word as law. For another, his prophecy has nothing about /her/ in it. It's all "I gotta go, Zeus calls!" and "...so be nice about this?" Of course she's not happy at the end.
Now let's talk about some of the specific contrasts in more detail. First off: pronouns! Detailed analysis of every explicit pronoun used in each speech. Count 'em up, talk about the we and I and us and them and you of it. Surely I can say something interesting about this.
Next: prophecies in general, a natural transition from the specific pronoun use to the difference between speaking of a prophecy for /you/ and a prophecy for /me/. Most of the prophetic stuff given around here are other people speaking to Aeneas about prophecies for him and his descendants; does he even realize what he sounds like when he spouts this off to someone else? Because he doesn't leave any opening for Dido. Nothing about her future. Just me-me-me. That he is meaning it piously (ha!) does not change the effect.
So, moving on to the power positions between the two. "Let me, the leader, tell you, the followers, what's going to happen to all of us" is a particular dramatic leadership position. "Let me, the leader, tell you, another leader, what's going to happen to me" leaves...a gap. There is a distinct /hole/ in this where her return prophecy comes in. And because Aeneas was all me-me-me, she gets to go you-you-you and discuss her own actions, because his speech did not /cover/ her.
Then I should probably conclude with something interesting that recaps my thesis statement. Seriously, 1500 words? I need to double-check that in the syllabus. That does not sound like nearly enough to do even a narrowed topic like this justice. My wacky little summary is nearly 600 words, for god's sake. 1500! Sheesh.
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