Catarineau 1

Keeley Catarineau

Dr. Nayar

HON 1120

8 April 2018

Passion Drives a Woman Mad: An Analysis of the Circumstances

Surrounding Women’s Deaths Throughout Literature

This paper analyzes how female characters’ passionate feelings lead them to act in
ways that eventually propel them towards their untimely deaths. Also, it evaluates
each authors’ purpose in manipulating this theme. The theme’s occurrence in
various literary works is pointed out and a myriad of scholars’ works are also
drawn upon to enhance these ideas in the paper. The analysis considers Virgil’s
Aeneid, from which the nature of Dido’s desire is evaluated in terms of how it
influences her suicide. Ovid’s work Metamorphoses is also examined for the
character Myrrha. The paper specifically considers her passions and how they
drive her towards taking her own life. The Thousand and One Nights is also taken
into account in this analysis—namely, the depth to which King Shahrayar and
King Shahzaman’s wives’ passions lead them to an affair that their husbands
murder them over. This paper also reflects on the impact of the wives’ infidelity
on the kings and their kingdoms in the Thousand and One Nights. Specifically,
the analysis includes the deaths of the King’s brides after they succumb to their
libido and sleep with him. The paper contemplates Dante’s work Inferno as well.
In particular, the character Francesca is analyzed for the lustful sin she commits
and the causation of her demise. Finally, the paper analyzes Boccaccio’s
Decameron for the tale of Nastagio degli Onesti. In which, the analysis focuses on
Guido degli Anastagi’s lover for her sin of seduction and the many deaths she
must endure to compensate for it.
A recurrent theme of many historically important literary works is the idea of women’s

desires dominating them completely, causing them to lose their inhibitions and then to act only

out of a drive to achieve these aims. These actions present themselves in different ways

throughout various works. However, most have a similar, rather finite, conclusion: death.

Women’s passionate acts are the driving force towards their deaths across a wide swath of

canonical literature, as is exemplified in Virgil’s Aeneid, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the Thousand

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and One Nights, Dante’s Inferno, and Boccaccio’s Decameron. Despite sharing in this collective

theme, however, each piece of literature utilizes females’ amorous actions propelling them

towards death differently to convey varying messages.

Virgil includes Dido’s ardor in the Aeneid to transmit the concept that women allow

emotions to dominate their actions rather than logic and reason. Dido develops a frenzied passion

for Aeneas in Virgil’s work that has devastating consequences. From the moment Aeneas steps

foot in Carthage, Dido grows lustful for him and consequently neglects her duties to her city.

Dido recognizes the feeling instantly but is negligent in pushing it aside. She says: “‘I recognize /

The signs of the old flame, of old desire’” (Virgil 804). Though Dido identifies both the feelings

and the negative impacts associated with them, she still succumbs to her emotions. This is

unsurprising, however, due to Virgil’s general portrayal of Dido. Michael Bryson and Arpi

Movsesian comment in Love and its Critics that “Dido…is portrayed as wild, out of control,

made insane with passion” (87). Virgil hyperbolizes Dido’s frantic passion to characterize

females as unable to overcome their emotions, causing them to play truant to their duties. Dido’s

shunning of her duties begins almost instantaneously upon Aeneas’s arrival to Carthage. Virgil

claims that after Aeneas and Dido meet “towers, half-built, rose / No farther; men no longer

trained in arms / Or toiled to make harbors and battlements / Impregnable” (806). Therefore, due

to her lust for Aeneas, she becomes unfit to lead her city’s construction. Hence, Virgil portrays

Dido’s passions for Aeneas to be so potent that she neglects her duties to her city and allows her

emotions to best her.

Furthermore, Virgil deepens his message that women are unfit leaders due to their

frivolous natures when Dido allows her fervor to consume her to take her own life, resulting in

Dido shirking her duties to Carthage one final time. When Dido learns of Aeneas’s decision to
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leave Carthage, her grief overwhelms her, and she seeks to find respite in death. Virgil

foreshadows Dido’s death from the moment her passionate feelings for Aeneas appear. After

Dido first meets Aeneas, Virgil says: “That day was the first cause of death” (809). Ergo, it was

Virgil’s intention from the start to pose Dido as an example that females are not mentally strong

enough to lead through her suicide. Bryson and Movsesian agree with this sentiment, claiming:

“Dido’s fate…is to die for love” (89). The inclusion of Dido’s suicide seems like an ode to love,

but upon further analysis reveals his true thoughts regarding women at the time. Even after

Dido’s death, Virgil continues to portray her as driven crazy with passion. He states that “since

she died, not at her fated span, / Nor as she merited, but before her time / Enflamed and driven

mad” (824). Virgil includes this to ensure that the audience will understand the underlying

message that women are unfit leaders due to the strength of their emotions. Dido and her

suicide’s portrayal by Virgil attempts to illustrate Dido’s position as victim to her feminine

nature. Delving further into the topic, Bryson and Movsesian claim that “Virgil puts Dido into a

completely untenable position, violently transforming a figure of legendary faithfulness to the

passionate victim of love he portrays in the Aeneid” (85). Hence, Virgil depicts Dido as a

common female who submits to her passionate feelings and is unfit to lead because of it. Virgil

utilizes Dido’s character to serve as his opinion of an archetypical female through her allowance

of emotions to cloud her judgement. Accordingly, the theme of feminine passion as inevitably

driving women towards their deaths provides cover for Virgil’s ideal that women are unfit

leaders.

Contrary to Virgil, Ovid gives Myrrha illicit feelings for her father in his work,

Metamorphoses, to reveal the true nature of Roman society. Once Myrrha comes of age to marry,

she discovers that the only man she longs for is her father, Cinyras. Though Myrrha is aware of
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the forbidden nature of her feelings, she still cannot be rid of them. Instead, she pines after her

father, saying: “‘if I were not the daughter of great Cinyras / I would be able to have intercourse

with Cinyras’” (Ovid 873). Therefore, Myrrha’s passionate feelings are too strong to eradicate

and become a crucial aspect of her character. Ovid also utilizes these actions to reveal the more

devious nature of Roman society. According to the Norton Anthology of World Literature, Ovid

“turned to different themes” than Virgil’s celebration of Rome’s foundation, rather embracing

“the sophisticated and somewhat racy life of the urban elite in Rome” (840). Myrrha is

consequently utilized as an example, perhaps hyperbolic, of occurrences in the lives of the

Roman elite through Ovid’s eyes. Hence, Myrrha is given desirous feelings towards her father by

Ovid to serve as a revelation of aspects of Roman society.

In keeping with the framing of women’s desire as inevitably destructive, Ovid also allows

Myrrha to gravitate towards death by means of an attempted suicide to illustrate the impact of

females’ emotions. After a period of Myrrha battling her desire for her father, she accepts that

her wants will not disappear. Myrrha then decides to take her own life is the only means to end

her misery. Ovid describes Myrrha’s decision stating: “nor is she able to find any rest from her

passion / save but in death. Death pleases her, and she gets up, / determined to hang herself from

a beam with her girdle” (873). The decision to take her own life because of her passionate

feelings illustrates Ovid’s indebtedness to the view that women’s passions drive them towards

their demises. The usage of an attempted suicide by Ovid also serves to reveal the power to

which he credited women’s feelings. In his book chapter, Winthrop Wetherbee states that “we

see Myrrha as the victim of a desire” (99). Ovid depicts Myrrha as having no control over

emotions to exaggerate their potency. Myrrha’s feelings drive her to seek escape in death,

however, she is unable to find peace as her efforts were thwarted. As Wetherbee describes, the
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attempt was failed because “Myrrha, saying her words of farewell to Cinyras, is overheard by her

nurse, who rushes in to prevent her suicide” (99). Despite the suicide’s incompletion, Ovid still

uses it to represent the power that women’s sentiments hold over them. Thus, Ovid exercises the

theme of women’s amorous acts driving them towards their deaths to share aspects of feminine

personalities and Roman society with the audience.

Unlike Ovid’s work, the narrative catalyst of the Thousand and One Nights is women’s

infidelity, which works to share with the audience the impact of a female’s seductive acts on the

men that surround them. In this work, two brothers, who each rule a kingdom, discover both of

their wives are cheating on them. Once the wives’ adulterous acts are found out, they are quickly

executed. As soon as King Shahzaman found his wife with one of the kitchen boys, he “dragged

them by the heels and threw them from the top of the palace to the trench below” (Thousand and

One Nights 1053). The quick nature with which King Shahzaman kills his wife represents the

impact that her extramarital relations had on him—he realizes he has lost control of his own

household and works to regain it. King Shahzaman’s brother, King Shahrayar, reacts similarly

when he first witnesses his wife’s infidelity. After King Sharayar witnessed “a black slave

jumped from the tree to the ground, rushed to her, and, raising her legs, went between her thighs

and made love to her” he had his wife killed to punish her for her treachery (Thousand and One

Nights 1054). However, differing from the actions of his brother, King Shahrayar’s attempt to

regain control of his household does not end with the murder of his adulterous wife, but rather

spans to all his later wives as well. In “Infidelity and Fiction” Judith Grossman claims that when

King Shahrayar is “faced with the appearance of interiority in his wife, he responded by

abolishing it–and by continuing to abolish it everywhere in his vicinity” (124). King Shahrayar

refuses to let any woman best him again, so he kills them before they are granted the
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opportunity. In consequence, the adultery of the two king brother’s wives in the Thousand and

One Nights serves to illustrate the impact that a woman’s passionate acts can have on their male

counterparts.

Also, the Thousand and One Nights further explores the theme of women’s passions

leading them towards their deaths through the brides that King Shahrayar only takes for one

night. Due to King Shahrayar’s wife’s treachery, he does not trust women, but he cannot live

without them. His solution to this is to take a new bride each night, and then have them killed in

the morning. This aspect of the theme is utilized in the work to show the depth to which King

Shahrayar is impacted by his wife’s infidelity. Once he reflected on his wife’s treachery, “he

then swore to marry for one night only and kill the woman the next morning in order to save

himself from the wickedness and cunning of women” (Thousand and One Nights 1058). King

Shahrayar is so influenced by his wife’s adultery that he refuses to allow it to ever happen

again—unfortunately, to the detriment of his kingdom. Ritualistically, in King Shahrayar’s

kingdom sex and death grow together as one due to the king’s unwillingness to trust a female. In

“1001 Words: Fiction Against Death” Wendy Faris claims “the reason that King Sharayar sleeps

each night with a virgin and has her beheaded in the morning is that he and his brother have

discovered that many women–including their own wives–are unfaithful” (816). The discovery of

Shahrayar’s wife’s adultery resonates deeply with him and causes him to act erratically through

the killing of his brides. The brides’ deaths also serve as punishment for the adulterous behavior,

since Shahrayar generalizes all females to be evil after this event. Grossman comments by saying

“King Shahryar, wounded and enraged by betrayal, fixed his world in the image of that event,

and over and over again enacted the ritual of killing the ‘evil wife’” (126). Thus, so enraged by

the passionate exploits of his wife, Shahrayar enacts the theme of female lustfulness driving
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them towards their deaths as retribution. In this way, the tendency for female passions to lead

toward death appear twice in the Thousand and One Nights and is on both occasions used to

illustrate a woman’s impact on the men surrounding her.

Similar to the Thousand and One Nights, Dante’s Inferno wields the character

Francesca’s affair with Paolo to inform the audience that females should not be trusted to engage

in pleasurable actions of any kind, even reading, because they are not in control of themselves. In

Dante’s work, Francesca explains that she was caught by her husband committing adultery with

Paolo. The shared study of a famous love scene in literature propels Francesca and Paolo into

their relationship. Francesca describes the situation, stating that “‘it was when we read about

those longed-for lips / now being kissed by such a famous lover, / that this one (who shall never

leave my side) / then kissed my mouth’” (Dante 1230). Dante includes the story that the lovers

read together as the catalyst of their entanglement to illustrate that women are so capricious and

indulging in anything pleasurable can entice them to give into their desires and act in ways they

should not. Francesca, though married, takes no action to stop her romance with Paolo.

Teodolinda Barolini states in “Dante and Francesca da Rimini” that “Francesca experiences love

as a compulsive force, as a desire that cannot be withstood, even if it leads to death” (9).

Francesca, who undoubtedly knows the price to pay at her husband’s discovery of her affair, still

gives into her lust and becomes an adulteress. Thus, Dante uses Francesca to depict the devious

nature of females when pleasurable acts are involved.

Dante utilizes Francesca as well in his story to frighten the audience into not committing

the same atrocities as she did through her punishment in death. When Dante introduces

Francesca, she is already in Hell serving her punishment. Since Dante meets Francesca after she

has died, the audience is aware from her introduction that her husband likely discovers her affair.
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She explains this to Dante, stating: “‘love led us straight to a sudden death together’” (Dante

1229). Therefore, Dante incorporates the theme that female passions lead them to their deaths.

For her sins, Francesca faces multiple punishments in death for the rest of eternity. Barolini

claims that “Dante places Francesca among the carnal sinners, driven by a relentless wind in hell

as they were driven by their passions in life” (8). Hence, the audience gathers they must be aware

of giving into passionate acts, lest they like to end up punished the same as Francesca.

Accordingly, Dante utilizes the theme of a woman’s lust driving her towards death to illustrate

that women are creatures easily enticed by pleasurable acts and to warn readers of the

consequences of such actions.

Unlike Dante’s Inferno, Boccaccio’s Decameron includes the story of Nastagio degli

Onesti to promote the ideal that the sexual acts of flirtation and seduction are prohibited, unless

the women act upon them. Nastagio, when seeking escape from issues with his lover, discovers

Guido degli Anastagi having similar problems with his own lover still, after each of their deaths.

Both Nastagio’s and Guido’s lovers lead them on in the story. Nastagio is stated to have

“persisted in wooing the girl and spending money like water, certain of his friends and relatives

began to feel that he was in danger of exhausting both himself and his inheritance” (Boccaccio

1353). Likely a fan of the attention, Nastagio’s lover allowed him to shower her with it through

flirtation, stringing Nastagio along. Guido’s lover, too, led him on, but for her it is too late to

resolve the issue. Guido tells Nastagio that “‘I am no longer her lover but her enemy’” (1355).

Hence, a transformation is illustrated in Guido and his lover, from infatuation to hatred. This

metamorphosis of feelings serves as the result of Guido’s lover using passionate acts to toy with

him, and the punishment that follows in their deaths. Ray Fleming claims in his article that “here

in Boccaccio’s Nastagio story the amorous theme is so intimately linked with the theme of death
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that an equivalent relationship is established” (35). Consequently, through this association,

Boccaccio promotes the ideal that flirtation and seduction are not allowed for females. Therefore,

Boccaccio uses the seductive actions of Nastagio and Guido’s lovers to provide a warning to

females about spinning their enchantments with no further action.

Boccaccio also includes the harsh, deadly punishment of Guido degli Anatsagi’s lover in

Nastagio degli Onesti’s tale to persuade his female audience into giving their male suitors

minimal issues in their courting. Guido is chasing his lover through the woods, as is consistent

with their punishment, when Nastagio first meets him. True to the theme, the punishment Guido

is enacting on his lover for her seduction is death. However, differing from other literary works,

Boccaccio includes a continual cycle of death, in which Guido says “‘I tear from her body that

hard, cold heart to which neither love nor pity could ever gain access’” (1355). The vivid

description of Guido’s lover’s punishment is included to frighten his female audience into

capitulating to their suitors’ desires. A transformation occurs as well in Guido’s lover, from the

flirtatious aggressor to the victim. Fleming describes “that cruelty now makes the former beloved

maiden the despised victim who screams aloud for mercy” (34). Boccaccio emphasizes this

metamorphosis in the female character to coerce his female audience to give their suitors few

problems with their courting. Thus, Boccaccio incorporates the theme of a woman’s passionate

actions driving her towards her demise to encourage women to actively engage with their suitors

in a positive way.

In conclusion, the theme of women’s ardent feelings ushering them towards death is

implemented in various literary works and is portrayed in a miscellany of ways. The varying

portrayals in each work attempt to reveal aspects of the author’s society as well as attempt to

shed light on new ideas found in the works. The theme continuously appears, not just in works
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of historical importance, but in rare contemporary ones as well. Through analysis of the theme’s

presence in literature, women’s roles can be evaluated in their society based off the passionate

actions female characters take and the cause of their deaths.

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Works Cited

Barolini, Teodolinda. “Dante and Francesca Da Rimini: Realpolitik, Romance, Gender.” Speculum,

vol. 75, no. 1, Jan. 2000, pp. 1–28. CrossRef, doi:10.2307/2887423. Accessed 25 April 2018.

Boccaccio. “Decameron.” The Norton Anthology World Literature, Trans. G.H. McWilliam, 2nd ed.,

vol. 1, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2009, pp. 1328-1364.

Bryson, Michael, and Arpi Movsesian. “Channeled, Reformulated, and Controlled: Love Poetry from

the Song of Songs to Aeneas and Dido.” Love and Its Critics: From the Song of Songs to

Shakespeare and Milton’s Eden, Open Book Publishers, 2017, pp. 37–96. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1sq5vd6.6. Accessed 25 April 2018.

Dante. “Inferno.” The Norton Anthology World Literature, Trans. Mark Musa, 2nd ed., vol. 1, W.W.

Norton & Company, Inc., 2009, pp. 1214-1326.

Faris, Wendy B. “1001 Words: Fiction Against Death.” The Georgia Review, vol. 36, no. 4, 1982, pp.

811–30. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41399116?seq=8#page_scan_tab_contents. Accessed 25

April 2018.

Fleming, Ray. “Happy Endings? Resisting Women and the Economy of Love in Day Five of

Boccaccio’s Decameron.” Italica, vol. 70, no. 1, 1993, pp. 30–45. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/479987.

Accessed 25 April 2018.

Grossman, Judith. “Infidelity and Fiction: The Discovery of Women’s Subjectivity in ‘Arabian

Nights.’” The Georgia Review, vol. 34, no. 1, 1980, pp. 113–26. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/41397912?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. Accessed 25 April 2018.

Ovid. “Metamorphoses.” The Norton Anthology World Literature, Trans. Charles Martin, 2nd ed., vol.

1, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2009, pp. 844-881.

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Simon, Peter, editor. “Ovid.” The Norton Anthology World Literature, 2nd ed., vol. 1, W.W. Norton &

Company, Inc., 2009, pp. 840-843.

“The Thousand and One Nights.” The Norton Anthology World Literature, Trans. Husain Haddawy,

2nd ed., vol. 1, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., pp. 1052-1073.

Virgil. “The Aeneid.” The Norton Anthology World Literature, Trans. Robert Fitzgerald, 2nd ed., vol.

1, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2009, pp. 795-840.

Winthrop Wetherbee. “History versus the Individual: Vergil and Ovid in the Troilus.” Chaucer and

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JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt1g69x5q.8. Accessed 25 April 2018.