Prat Crit Essay - 2282 Words

Heroides X tells narrates the myth of Ariadne, in the form of a letter, describing her grief following her abandonment by Theseus. She bemoans Theseus’ treachery and describes her distraught, her lack of options for the future and her fears, such as her eventual death unburied on the island. This dramatically puts the audience into the mind of Ariadne through the required use of the first person giving greater understanding of her character, although this could be said to cause literary compromises. As a result in these lines most of the major themes, such as her character and the relation to other myths such as Catullus 64 are explored.
One such factor that must be considered is Ovid’s use of narrative technique in this passage. A strong example of this is the theme of the two lovers as a pair and the irony that this is unfulfilled. This is seen by the repetition of ambos (l51) the bed will not accept them as a couple and the placement at the end of the line is emphatic especially as it is in conjunction with the personification of the bed. It is the bed itself qui nos accepterat, inanimate objects are conspiring to tear them apart not just Theseus. This is made more dramatic when she starts addressing the bed itself ‘...te duo, redde duos!’. This repetition of duo shows her wish to be reunited, and this is reinforced by the repeated ‘d’ sounds as well as the desperation of her actually willing the bed to return Theseus, as if the location that brought them closest had separated them. This separation is then taken further in line 57 ‘…venimus huc ambo; cur non discedimus ambo?’. This juncture of their souls is expressed by the use of the first person plural and the repeated use of ambo, the separation is powerfully seen by the contrast in verbs ‘we came, we depart’ as well as the break in the line and the caesura, while the rhetorical question expresses her incomprehension that this could be the case. This separation is also expressed by another point that demonstrates Ovid’s narrative technique; Ariadne’s portrayal of Theseus. Her bitter feelings are clear ‘…vivimus, et non sum, Theseu, tua’, first they are ‘we’, living together, then this is cut off by ‘not’ and she becomes one ‘sum’, separated by Theseus himself (even in the word order) from being ‘yours’, the separation of word order and the mixture of persons powerfully conveys this distance. However this becomes even bitterer when associated with Theseus’ promises which Ariadne quotes
‘per ego ipsa periculo iuro/ te fore, cum nostrum vivet uterque meam’
73
He could make no firmer promise, and in his words the separation of ‘te’ and ‘meam’ make their eventual conclusion together as ‘uterque’ even more powerful. The certainty of his promise, as evinced by Ariadne’s word for word quote, makes him seem even more villainous, after all she believes she is soon to die, rendering a certain irony to the use of ‘vivet’, soon she will not be his problem anymore. Another good example of Ovid’s narrative technique is the negativity of any thoughts of escape or the future. This is introduced by her desperate uncertainty asking in reality no one ‘quid faciam? Quo sola ferar?’ l59, she is truly without any options as seen by these rhetorical questions. She then escalates this, answering it not with ideas, but with denials of any avenues of escape. She creates a tricolon of the island being empty of cultivation ‘insula cultu’, men ‘hominum’ and the workings of oxen ‘boum’, the way in which this is introduced by ‘vacat’ makes it immediately clear that there is no positive answer. The use of ‘sola’ here is particularly interesting, as expressed by M Catherine Bolton1, it appears three times in the passage (ls47, 59, 129) and summarises her three separations that leave her isolated; Theseus, her homeland and civilization, all of which follow the use of ‘sola’ in line 59 (i.e ‘cultu’ ‘terra paterna negat’ ‘non..Theseu, tua’. Although sola is a general theme throughout the Heroides,

Show More