Le doute chez Virgile

In Virgil's view Rome is etemal and is charged with a providential mission; he is not, however, the triumphal announcer of imperial ideology and propaganda. In his poetry doubt is the constant counterpoint underlying the certitude expressed in the acceptance of Aeneas's and Rome's providential mission. It is grief and defeat which make even the fiercest enemies of the plan of providence more human and closer to the reader. The Aeneid is in a sense the search for a meaning of universal suffering and the presence of evil in the world. Virgil expresses the need for a theodicy and divine justice, which appears to be blatantly contradicted by reality. The poet's tom soul is reflected in his protagonist. Aeneas accepts the mission, which forces him to look forward to the future, whereas his own nature would rather bring him to look toward the past. His opponents refuse the transcendent, but fight to save their own world. The tragedy is that everyone is right, but there is no possible communication between the two parties. Basically, though, all are brothers, because all are subject to the suffering inseparable from the human condition