Point of View

The narrative of Lavinia is told in the first-person from the point of view of the titular character, Lavinia. At the beginning of the novel, Lavinia announces that her story, told from her point of view, exists in relation to the account of her life given by the poet from his point of view in his poem. In the poem, Lavinia is mentioned only as the daughter of king Latinus and the bride of Aeneas. In his account, Lavinia has no interiority. Thus Lavinia tells the story of her life in order to supplement what the poet left unsaid. The events of the Lavinia's narrative therefore cover the same set of events that take place in the poem, however they are told exclusively from Lavinia's point of view.

As the daughter of the king, Lavinia is limited by the expectations that her society imposes on...