1

The World War II film classic, Casablanca, recalls Vergil’s Roman epic, the Aeneid, in the broad
plot outline and in the major theme of sacrifice for the greater good. Both Aeneas and Rick have been
forced to leave cosmopolitan centers (Troy and Paris, respectively) which have been captured by a
ruthless enemy. Aeneas loses his wife, Creusa, and Rick loses his lover, Ilsa, in the chaos surrounding the
fall of each city. Both heroes are forced to wander around the Mediterranean until they land in North
Africa where Aeneas and Rick are united with the true loves of their lives. Aeneas eventually decides to
leave Dido and Rick decides to send Ilsa off with Victor Laszlo because they have become convinced that
the greater good of patriotism demands such a sacrifice. Both heroes have the opportunity to enjoy life to
the fullest with the object of their desires but make the noble sacrifice so that the summum bonum
(founding Rome and defending the Free World from Fascism) will occur. In their respective
Underworlds, both undergo initiations into a mindset that will have a major effect upon themselves, their
nations and the world as a whole. These similarities in plot and theme alone provide sufficient basis for a
comparison between these two epics.

The Aeneid and Casablanca have long been considered as classics in their respective genres.1
Both have been critically acclaimed and have enjoyed immense popularity. The Aeneid was greeted with
immediate praise not only from Augustus (who forbade its destruction in contravention of Vergil’s
express wishes) but from the Roman world as a whole. Vergil’s fame was such that he was revered as a
sage and prophet, as exemplified by the Sortes Verglianae. By the mediaeval era, Vergil was referred to
as the Poet, the Roman, the Philosopher, and the Wise One, as if no others existed.2 The Aeneid
continued to exert an enormous influence upon later Roman and European literature and formed the basis
for classical education for centuries.

Two thousand years later, Casablanca enjoyed similar popularity and critical acclaim. It won
Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Humphrey Bogart was nominated
for Best Actor, as was Claude Rains for Best Supporting Actor and Max Stein for Best Musical Score. In
the pre-cable and pre-satellite days of television, Casablanca proved to be one of the most popular ‘old
movies’ on TV.3 Casablanca soon attained cult status, the inception of which can be dated to April 21,
1957, when it was first shown in revival at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts.4 Numerous
revivals and festivals celebrating the ‘Casablanca experience’ followed. Woody Allen modeled his
ingenious and popular spoof, Play It Again, Sam on it. Casablanca has been acclaimed by the British
Film Institute as the ‘best film ever made’ and occupies second place on the American Film Institute’s list

1
The term ‘classic’ dates back as far as Aulus Gellius in the second century who posited that a
classic is a work that can be used as a model for modern works. (emphasis supplied). For a fuller analysis
of the term and its origins, see Frank Kermode, The Classic: Literary Images of Permanence and Change
(New York, 1975) p. 15-16. Calvino defines a classic as "a book that has never finished saying what it has
to say." Italo Calvino "Why Read the Classics?" in The Uses of Literature, tr. Patrick Creagh (New York,
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986) p. 128.
2
Clyde Pharr, Vergil’s Aeneid: Books I-VI (Lexington, 1964) p. 4.
3
Richard E. Osborne, The Casablanca Companion: The Movie Classic and Its Place in History
(Indianapolis, 1997) p. 255.
4
Aljean Harmetz, The Making of Casablanca: Bogart, Bergman and World War II (New York,
2002) p. 344 (Previously published as Round Up the Usual Suspects).
of ‘Top 100 Films.’5 Indeed, popularity and acclaim provide an additional basis for the comparison
between these classics.

As much as there are striking similarities in plot, theme, popularity and acclaim, the most striking
similarity between Casablanca and the Aeneid lies in the fact that these epics have transcended the level
of mere works of art and have become cultural phenomena. On one level, the Aeneid and Casablanca
represent the ideals of Roman and American cultures. In Aeneas and in Rick, we see the embodiment of
the Roman and American value systems. The continued popularity of these works serves as an indication
that they still speak to worlds far removed from Augustan Rome and World War II America. The
universality of these great achievements in Western thought is, in large part, due to the very human
tendency to learn about ourselves through comparison. On another level, both the Aeneid and Casablanca
investigate the central question of what sort of person a hero must be and what actions a hero must take in
order to create or protect his own society. This question is a central, core value theme - or archetype -
which ‘strikes a chord’ when we come across it in myth, literature or art. The stories of Aeneas and Rick
are myths which have sprung from the problems and concerns of Augustan Rome and America in World
War II, but on a deeper level, the source of the Aeneid and Casablanca is the universal soul of the human
race itself. These works of art strike a chord in us from the first century to the twenty-first century because
we can recognize our own potential for good and for evil, for right and for wrong, for success and for
failure in Aeneas and Rick.

As a framework for the comparison of these two classics, it is useful to employ Joseph Campbell’s
theory of the heroic monomyth as defined in A Hero with a Thousand Faces.6 Campbell posits that all
heroes embark upon a journey of self-discovery, the results of which will be of critical importance to their
own societies. According to Campbell, this journey is a vision quest, a spiritual odyssey of self discovery
in which the hero must: 1.) separate from the ordinary world of his prior life, 2.) undergo a series of trials
and overcome obstacles in order to 3.) achieve an initiation into ways he did not know about and 4.)
return to share what he has learned with his society:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder:
fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from
this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.7
The hero undergoes a deep, inner odyssey of transformation that heroes in every time and place seem to
share; this path will lead them through great movements of separation, descent, ordeal and return.8 The
hero’s transformation makes it possible for him to take action that will lead to the creation of a completely
new society at the end of each myth.

5
Of course, the acclaim has not been universal. Well known scholars have been visceral in their
evaluation of these works. Robert Graves thought of Vergil as an “incompetent, servile botcher” as related
by Kenneth Quinn in “Did Vergil Fail?” contained in Modern Critical Views Virgil edited by Harold
Bloom (New York, 1986). Umberto Eco is highly critical of Casablanca. He characterizes it as a ‘very
mediocre film’ and faults it for being a collection of clichés. “When all the archetypes burst in
shamelessly, we reach Homeric depths. Two clichés make us laugh, but a hundred clichés move us
because we sense dimly that the clichés are talking among themselves and celebrating a reunion.” “Cult
Movies and Intertextual Collage,” Substance 47 (1985) pp. 3-12.
6
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton, 1968)
7
ibid. p. 30.
8
Christopher Vogler, “Foreword” to Stuart Voytilla, Myth and the Movies: Discovering the Mythic
Structure of 50 Unforgettable Films (Studio City, 1999) p. ix
 Heroes, according to Campbell, are summoned to their journey by a call to adventure. Usually,
fate brings the call through a herald. This is the first occurrence in a chain of events that will separate the
hero from his home.
The call rings up the curtain, always, on a mystery of transfiguration - a rite, or moment, of
spiritual passage, which, when complete, amounts to a dying and birth. The familiar life horizon
has been outgrown; the old concepts, ideals, and emotional patterns no longer fit; the time for
the passing of the threshold is at hand.9
For the Homeric heroes, the call to adventure was the report of the Trojan War. Theseus responds to
hearing about the sacrifice of Athenian youth to the Minotaur by tricking his father into allowing him to
go to Crete. Jason sets off on the quest for the Golden Fleece after being challenged by the uncle who
usurped his father’s throne. Destiny summons the hero and transfers him from within his own familiar
society to a zone unknown.10

In the Aeneid, the ghost of Hector summons Aeneas to his heroic journey, ordering him to seek a
new city: “Go find for [the household gods] the great walls which one day you will dedicate, when you
have roamed the sea.”11 “his moenia quaere magna, pererrato statues quae denique ponto.” Aen. 2.294-
295. Venus, too, urges her son to flee: “Away, child, put an end to toiling so” (Eripe, nate, fugam
finemque impone labori.) Aen. 2.619. Even Anchises urges Aeneas to flee: “Make your escape” (Vos
agitate fugam.) Aen.2.640. The irony of Anchises’ advice lies in the fact that he refuses the call to his
own heroic journey by remaining in Troy at the same time that he is telling his son to go on his heroic
journey. If there were any doubt as to whether or not Aeneas is fated to set off in search of a new Troy, it
is laid to rest when Creusa’s ghost appears to Aeneas, telling him to go to Italy where he will establish a
new kingdom. Aen. 2.776-789. He gathers his family and followers and heads off as “[t]he morning star
now rose on Ida’s ridges.” (iugis summae surgebat Lucifer Idae ducebatque diem) Aen. 2.801-802. In
Book III, Polydorus, (Aen. 3.44), the oracle at Delos (Aen. 3.96), and Aeneas’ Penates (Aen. 3.163-171)
all point Aeneas in the direction of Italy for the fulfillment of his destiny. After seven years of fruitless
and, at times, aimless wandering around the Mediterranean world, Aeneas and his followers are washed
up on to the shores of Carthage, exhausted, destitute, and depressed. Dido’s kind hospitality eventually
leads to an offer to share power in this new and powerful city. The offer is as attractive to Aeneas as the
beautiful queen who makes it. After all he has endured (the loss of his city, his wife and his way of life)
who can blame Aeneas for wanting to accept Dido’s offer and, for once, enjoy life? Unfortunately for
Aeneas, Jupiter deems blameworthy the hero’s attempt to secure personal happiness; he therefore must
dispatch Mercury twice to remind Aeneas of his duty and to hasten his departure from Carthage (Aen.
4.265-276 and 4.560-570). In sum, the forces ordering Aeneas to go to Italy call with the persistence,
determination and frequency of modern telemarketers.

In Casablanca, a teletype report announces the murder of the two German couriers who were
carrying the Letters of Transit; this is the initial call to adventure. The report disturbs the ordinary
activities of the city as the ‘usual suspects’ are rounded up (and killed, if need be). Rick’s life is disrupted
by this report because ultimately Ugarte asks Rick to hold the Letters of Transit and begs Rick for help
before he is arrested. For Rick, the clarion call to adventure occurs when Sam, his herald, plays “As

9
Campbell, op. cit., p. 51.
10
ibid. p. 58.
11
All translations from Robert Fitzgerald’s translation of Virgil’s Aeneid (Random house, New
York, 1990)
Times Go By” 12 at Ilsa’s request. This is the wistful love song that served as the anthem of their love
affair. It recalls the utopia of Paris and acts as the musical and lyrical celebration of enduring love. It is
interwoven with the script at significant points throughout the film. After being abandoned by Ilsa in
Paris, Rick had ordered Sam to never play it again because of the painful memories it revived. When Rick
hears Sam playing it again at the cafe, it serves as his call to adventure and reintroduces the hero to his
eventual savior.

Heroes are often reluctant to respond to this call. Odysseus feigned madness; Achilles tried to
dodge the Trojan War by being disguised as a female on the island of Scyros. Both knew about the risks
and trials which the hero’s journey entailed and initially shrank from the undertaking. Campbell calls this
part of the hero’s journey the ‘refusal of the call.’ 13

Aeneas, the most reluctant hero, also refuses the call to his adventure. Instead of heeding Hector’s
advice, Aeneas rushes into battle hoping to die what he believes to be a heroic death. Even after his
mother’s specific command to leave Troy, “Away, child; put an end to toiling so.” (eripe, nate, fugam
finemque impone labori. Aen. 2.619), Aeneas still throws himself headlong into battle with the Greeks.
He is dissuaded from this plan only by the two unmistakable portents of his destiny: the sacred flame
licking Ascanius’ hair and the so-called Julian comet. Anchises is the first to respond to the portents: “
Now, now, no more delay. I’ll follow you where you conduct me, there I’ll be. Gods of my fathers, . . . I
yield. I go as your companion, son.” Iam nulla mora est; sequor et qua ducitis adsum, / di patrii . . . cedo
equidem nec, nate, tibi comes ire recuso.” Aen. 2.702-704. In Book IV, Aeneas again ignores the call to
adventure by choosing to remain in Carthage where he can enjoy an easy life sharing the rule of Carthage
with his lover. He must be told twice by Mercury that destiny requires that he leave Carthage and sail to
Italy. As much as Aeneas is a hero on a mission, he is also a human being who has needs and desires; he
tries to respond to them by remaining in Carthage with the woman he loves rather than undergoing the
trials, sacrifice and loss involved in establishing a new home for the Trojans.

Rick similarly refuses the call to adventure. After hearing Sam play “As Time Goes By” at Ilsa’s
request, Rick is livid and rushes toward him saying “Sam, I thought I told you never to play. . . “14 Later
that night, after Ilsa leaves the cafe, Rick starts drinking heavily. Rick then asks Sam to play “As Time
Goes By.” The scene dissolves to flashback of the dream-like days in Paris.15 Sam plays “As Time Goes

12
“You must remember this / A kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh /The fundamental things apply
/ As time goes by. / And when two lovers woo / They still say, "I love you" / On that you can rely / No
matter what the future brings / As time goes by/ Moonlight and love songs / Never out of date / Hearts full
of passion / Jealousy and hate /Woman needs man / And man must have his mate / That no one can deny
/ Well, it's still the same old story /A fight for love and glory / A case of do or die / The world will always
welcome lovers / As time goes by / Oh yes the world will always welcome lovers / As time goes by.”
Lyrics and Music by Herman Hupfeld; © 1931 Warner Bros. Music Corp., ASCAP.
13
Campbell, pp.59-68
14
All quotations from the movie are taken from Howard Koch, Casablanca: Script and Legend,
(Woodstock, 1973). Koch was one of the three principal screenwriters, but there were many other writers
who made significant contributions to the eventual product. This one fact alone makes it impossible to
attribute the success of the film to a single individual (as in Andrew Sarriss’ auteur theory) or even a
small group.
15
This flashback is the cinematic equivalent of the epic technique of commencing the action ‘in
medias res’.
By” in the cafe, La Belle Aurore.16 When the flashback ends, Rick is thoroughly drunk; at this point Ilsa
reappears by herself. Ilsa tries to explain why she had to abandon Rick in Paris; she starts to speak about
the ‘cause,’ “a whole beautiful world of knowledge and thoughts and ideals.” Rick’s retort is a total
rejection of Ilsa’s attempt to explain her behavior and enroll Rick in the cause: “Tell me, who was it you
left me for? Was it Laszlo, or were there others in between? Or aren’t you the kind that tells?” Rick
insults Ilsa’s integrity and refuses to let Ilsa explain why her sense of duty (or pietas, if you will) required
her to leave him in Paris. Rick has refused the summons to the adventure and call to the heroic journey.

Rick declines to become involved with Ilsa again. He does this at his peril because the refusal of
the call converts the heroic adventure into its negative. He loses the power of significant affirmative
action and becomes a victim to be saved. The flowering world becomes a wasteland and his life is
meaningless.17 Ilsa recognizes this as she observes in the outside bazaar that “Last night I saw what has
happened to you. The Rick I knew in Paris, I could tell him. He’d understand. But the one who looked
at me with such hatred . . . “ Before this hero can be rescued by his princess he must let his guard down
and be willing to be initiated into the ways of self-sacrifice for the greater good. Rick is too hurt to think
about anyone except himself. He makes this clear in the scene when Renault warns him not to interfere in
Ugarte’s arrest: “I stick my neck out for nobody.” He tries to explain and justify his refusal to help
Ugarte with the exact same words. Rick also tells Major Strasser: “Your business is politics. Mine is
running a saloon.” and proclaims “I’m not interested in politics. The problems of the world are not in my
department.” Campbell notes that the real problem with this stage of the hero’s journey is:
losing yourself, giving yourself to some higher end, or to another - you realize that this itself is
the ultimate trial. When we quit thinking about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we
undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.18
The transformation Rick must undergo is the same transformation heroes have undergone since Achilles
recognized the universality of the human condition and rediscovered his sense of sympathy for the
suffering of others when Priam begs for Hector’s body. Rick has not arrived at the point where he can
quit thinking about himself. He has refused to heed the call to adventure and will continue to do so until
his transformation.

Rick’s refusal to become involved in the fight against Fascism is mirrored on a national level by
American Isolationism. He tells Sam, as he is in the process of getting drunk, “Sam, if it’s December
1941 in Casablanca, what time is it in New York? . . I bet they’re asleep in New York, I’ll bet they’re
asleep all over America.” Heroes stand as representatives of the societies that create them. Rick’s refusal
to even listen to Ilsa’s explanation regarding her leaving him in Paris is symbolic of his unwillingness to
get involved in ‘the cause’ much like America’s attempt to ignore Europe’s problems as something that
did not concern the United States. Pearl Harbor awakened America from its slumber in the same way that
Sam’s playing “As Time Goes By” stirs Rick from his drunken complacency and heralds Ilsa’s return.

Heroes undergo their transformation in the ‘realm of the spirit.’ Campbell has noted that threshold
guardians try to prevent entry into this region. An angel with a flaming sword guards the entrance to the
Garden of Eden. Robbers try to prevent Theseus from reaching Athens on his way from Troezen.

16
The cafe’s name means ‘the beautiful dawn.’ As in the end of the second book of the Aeneid, the
writers focus on the dawn of a new day and the hope it symbolizes at the very moment of the enemy’s
triumph over the hero’s side.
17
Campbell, Hero, p. 59.
18
Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth (New York, 1988).
Monsters try to prevent the hero from physically reaching the promised land like the Sphinx or the Gray
Women of the Perseus legend. Benign threshold guardians like Thetis or Aegeas try to prevent young
heroes from embarking upon their odyssey because of their parental concern for their safety. Threshold
guardians can also be physical barriers, like the Symplegades of the Jason myth. Be they human or
monstrous, benign or deadly, their function is to be a gatekeeper to the area of enlightenment.

Cerberus is the three-headed dog who guards the entrance to the Underworld. Aeneas must
overcome this threshold guardian by using a magic potion to tranquilize the monster, ‘by throwing sop to
Cerberus.’ Rick must also overcome threshold guardians of his own. Rick’s realm of the spirit is his
relationship with Ilsa. Sam is a benign threshold guardian. When Ilsa first walks into Rick’s, Sam tries to
get rid of her by telling some boldfaced lies. After everybody has left the cafe on the first night Rick sees
Ilsa, Sam begs Rick, “Boss, let’s get out of here.” Rick tells him that he’s waiting for a lady, to which
Sam replies “Please Boss, let’s go. Ain’t nothing but trouble for you here. . . We’ll take the car and drive
all night. We’ll get drunk. We’ll go fishing and stay away until she’s gone.” Sam tries to prevent Rick
from entering the world of revelation by physically blocking any meeting between Rick and Ilsa. The
metaphorical barriers which prevent Rick from coming to terms with Ilsa are much more difficult to
confront than threshold guardians who obstruct true heroes only briefly.

As an emblem of their special status, heroes often receive some sort of divine assistance. Perseus
received the sandals, the shield and the sword with which he overcomes Medusa. Achilles receives the
armor crafted by Hephaistos. Aeneas receives the Golden Bough with which he is able to enter the
Underworld and meet with his father. Only a true hero like Aeneas may pluck the Golden Bough.
Williams observes that the Golden Bough is “a strange talisman of life and death, symbolizing light in
darkness, survival in destruction.”19 Later, Aeneas will receive the shield which Vulcan makes for him.
The divine assistance herein is not only the armor but, more importantly, the knowledge of a dimly lit
future.20 For Rick, the Letters of Transit are given to him by Ugarte who recognizes in Rick alone certain
heroic qualities which make him the perfect candidate to hold the letters temporarily.21 The letters cause
the deaths of the two German couriers and Ugarte and yet they provide passage to the Promised Land and
a life beyond Casablanca. The Golden Bough and the Letters of Transit are talismans, objects which can
produce an extraordinary effect. The talisman serves as a symbol of legitimacy which will be recognized
as such even by those who might oppose the hero, such as Charon who initially refuses to ferry Aeneas
across the Styx. The effect of the talisman is to permit the hero to escape the ties that bind him to this
ordinary world and permit him to enter a land of enlightenment. Without the Golden Bough or the Letters
of Transit, entry to the Underworld is impossible and enlightenment unattainable.

Aeneas’ trip to the Underworld follows the pattern defined in Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand
Faces. Aeneas, like most legendary heroes, founds something new, a new age, a new city, a new way of
life. “But in order to found something new, he must leave the old and go in quest of the seed idea, a
germinal idea that will have the potentiality of bringing forth that new thing.” 22 He must go down to the

19
Williams, p. 458
20
“All those images on Vulcan’s shield, his mother’s gift, were wonders to Aeneas. Knowing
nothing of the events themselves, he felt joy in their pictures, taking up upon his shoulder all the destined
acts and fame of his descendants.” Aen. 8.729-731, translated by Robert Fitzgerald.
21
“Rick, I have many friends in Casablanca, but somehow, just because you despise me, you’re the
only one I trust.” Koch, p. 33
22
Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth (New York, 1988) p. 136.
Underworld to gain this critical information, this ‘seed idea’ of the Roman society:
Roman, remember by your strength to rule
Earth’s peoples - for your strengths are to be these:
To pacify, to impose the rule of law
To spare the conquered, battle down the prooud.
tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento
(hae tibi erunt artes), pacisque imponere morem
parcere subiectis et debellare superbos. (Aen. 6.851-3)
As Williams points out, Anchises’ revelation of Rome’s future “expresses a picture of hope after death, of
virtue rewarded; it offers something of an explanation for the unexplained suffering of this life.” 23 His
own future, the future of his people and the future of Rome are all revealed to him at the same time that he
separates himself from relationships of the past with both Dido and his father.

It is only in the Underworld where Aeneas can finally try to come to terms with Dido. He tries to
explain why he abandoned her, i.e., why he sacrificed his personal feelings of love for her. His
explanations in Book IV, “But now, it is the rich Italian lands Apollo tells me I must make for: Italy.”
(Sed nunc Italiam magnam Gryneus Apollo, Italiam Lyciae iussere capessere sortes) (Aen. 4.345-346)
and “I sail for Italy, not of my own free will.” (Italiam non sponte sequar.) (Aen. 2.361) are completely
unheroic, for they shift the responsibility for his actions to the gods and fate.24 Dido sacrificed herself for
Aeneas; she cannot understand why he was unwilling to do the same for her. Rick and Ilsa communicate
and they learn to fully appreciate the other’s sacrifice and loss. Dido and Aeneas may deliver speeches to
each other, but they never manage to communicate or appreciate each other’s emotions. For centuries,
readers have felt frustration due to the lack of resolution in the relationship between Dido and Aeneas.25
The deficiency in Aeneas’ life is Dido’s love for him. When he fails to regain that love (or any satisfying
explanation for its loss) in the Underworld, it becomes apparent that this hero will not be complete. With
Dido, Aeneas has left the realm of the reluctant hero and has become an incomplete hero, if not a failed
hero. His insensitivity to Dido’s emotional state causes her to commit suicide. Aeneas’ only defense of his
actions is found in his pietas. In the Underworld, he learns that acting in accordance with the dictates of
pietas and fatum results in suffering, loss and death of those whom he once loved.

In the Underworld, Aeneas ceases to be Trojan and embarks upon his journey to become Roman;
it is at this critical point in the journey that Vergil first employs the term ‘Romane’ as applied to Aeneas
(Aen. 6.851). The hero dies symbolically on his trip to the Underworld. By the time he leaves the Elysian
Fields, almost all elements of Aeneas’ old life have all died or disappeared including Creusa, Anchises,
Troy, Palinurus, and Dido. In the Underworld, he comes to understand how glorious Rome will be and
the role he will play in bringing about that glory. But he cannot enjoy it. As Parry points out, Jupiter may
have given Rome an “empire without end” imperium sine fine, but, there is a terrible personal price for

23
Williams, p.502
24
This would be the ancient equivalent of ‘the-devil-made-me-do-it’ defense.
25
Williams’ note is particularly enlightening: “Aeneas attempts to explain his conduct , and his
reasons for sacrificing his personal feelings of love for her, just as he had in Book 4. . . but this time he
is pleading while she is not listening. . . . [W]hen Dido finally rejects him, he is still looking back,
tormented with guilt and remorse to the sorrows of the past, not yet turning (as at the end of his
experience in the underworld he learns he must) to a new future. He has to learn the hard lesson that he
has caused Dido’s death, that her ghost is implacably hostile to him, and that there is nothing he can now
do about what has happened except to leave the past behind.” Williams, p. 485.
this glory:

More than blood sweat and tears, something more precious is continually being lost by the
necessary process; human freedom, love, personal loyalty, all the qualities which the heroes of Homer
represent, are lost in the service of what is grand, monumental and impersonal: the Roman State.26
The dream of Rome ruling without limitation (imperium sine fine dedi) will become reality; however, any
dreams Aeneas might have for human freedom, love, and personal loyalty must exit the Underworld
through the horn of false dreams.

Rick’s Underworld journey begins at the railway station in Paris. A part of Rick dies on the
platform of the train station as the rain, symbolically suggesting his own tears, blurs the ink on Ilsa’s note.
He later tells Ilsa about “A guy standing on a station platform in the rain with a comical look on his face,
because his insides had just been kicked out.” The manner of Rick’s death has been a symbolic
disembowelment.27 He is then ferried into the Underworld on a train as gloomy as Charon’s skiff. Rick
then closes himself off from the world of emotional engagement and chooses to remain aloof and cynical.
This is shown in the shallow relationships he has with Yvonne and the many others like her.28 As with
Aeneas missing Dido’s love, something is missing in Rick’s world, i.e., the love that he once had for Ilsa.
The deficiency is symbolized by Rick’s refusal to let Sam play “As Times Goes By.” 29 Neither love nor
the anthem of love is permitted in Rick’s post-Parisian world. Richard Corliss’ observations30 on the
theme of death, love, and rebirth are particularly insightful on this issue:
Once [Ilsa] had been the repository of Rick’s romantic love and political idealism, to such an
extent that distinctions between personal obsessions and political affections blurred and then merged.
When the Nazis moved into Paris, she moved out of his life; Rick’s idealism and love, because they had
become inseparable, were fatally dissolved on the same day. The death of romance left a rancid crust of
cynicism upon Rick’s soul, and over the years the crust hardened to form a casket for his optimism and
nobility. The crucial dramatic question is whether her reappearance after such a long time - a lifetime, a
death time - will help revive that Parisian optimism or bury it for good; and whether, once Ilsa has
resurrected Rick’s romantic love and political idealism, he will be able to suppress the former for the sake
of the latter. 31

Casablanca is a purgatory for some, a place where they “wait, wait, wait.” until they can escape to
Lisbon and the Free World beyond as noted in the voice-over at the beginning of the film. For others, like
the young Bulgarian couple who are trying to escape a country where ‘the devil has the people by the
throat,’ Casablanca is a pure hell. For Rick, Casablanca is the Underworld is where he is dead
(emotionally) but unburied. He will, though, undergo a transformation from cynical and self-centered to
one who is committed to the cause and rebirth as a result of Ilsa’s expression of her love for him.

26
Parry, p. 77
27
Campbell observes that many heroes are killed, dismembered and disemboweled as part of the
death and rebirth cycle heroes undergo.
28
The dialogue between Yvonne and Rick is representative of how cold, detached and aloof he has
become: Yvonne asks Rick :”Where were you last night?” Rick with his back towards her replies “That’s
so long ago, I don’t remember.” When Yvonne asks him “Will I see you tonight?” Rick replies “ I never
make plans that far ahead.”
29
See Campbell, Hero at p. 37 for a discussion of the concept of symbolic deficiency.
30
Richard Corliss, “Analysis of the Film” contained in Koch, supra pp. 165-178.
31
ibid. p. 173
 In Casablanca, it is the talisman, the Letters of Transit, which brings Rick and Ilsa together again.
Ilsa goes to Rick’s apartment and pleads for these documents. She first appeals to Rick’s nobility, asking
him to put his “feelings aside for something more important.” Then she tries to remind him of the love
they once shared and finally she bluntly states the truth regarding Rick’s psyche and his cynical persona :
“You want to feel sorry for yourself, with so much at stake, all you can think about is your own feeling.
One woman has hurt you and you take your revenge on the rest of the world.”
She is finally reduced to pulling a gun on him and threatening to kill him. Rick tests her commitment to
the cause and the lengths to which she will go in order to fulfill her mission of securing the Letters of
Transit:: “If Laszlo and the cause mean so much to you, you won’t stop at anything. All right, I’ll make it
easier for you. Go ahead and shoot. You’ll be doing me a favor.” This is the turning point in the movie.
Shooting Rick actually would be doing him a favor for he does not want to live without Ilsa’s love. Ilsa
now has a choice: she can either kill him or she can rescue him from his emotional and psychological
casket. Killing Rick is not an option because she still loves him and also because the ends, i.e., acquiring
the Letters of Transit, do not justify the means, i.e., killing Rick. She breaks down and begins to tell him
why she left: “The day you left Paris, if you knew what I went through! If you knew how much I loved
you, how much I still love you!” Her expression of love melts the shell of cynicism which Rick has
hidden under since Paris. When Rick relents and allows Ilsa to tell him why she abandoned him in Paris,
he finally realizes that Ilsa left him so that she could rescue Laszlo and nurse him back to health. Rick
finally realizes that Ilsa sacrificed her happiness with Rick in favor of helping Victor Laszlo because she
believed that was the right and moral course of action despite the personal grief she would suffer. Much
like Aeneas, Ilsa’s pietas lies in her own willingness to sacrifice her own pleasure for the greater good.

Rick’s transformation is not entirely unexpected. First, he did fight on behalf of the ‘freedom
fighters’ in Spain and Ethiopia in the 1930’s. Next, when Rick sits down and has a drink with Ilsa and
Laszlo, Renault observes that Rick had never done that before: “Ricky, you’re becoming quite human. I
suppose we have to thank you for that, Mademoiselle.” Renault’s quip is designed to foreshadow Rick’s
transformation at the hands of Ilsa. Last and most significantly, Rick helps the young Bulgarian couple
after he is touched by the bride’s willingness to sacrifice her honor (by sleeping with Captain Renault) so
that she can get exit visas for herself and her husband. She seeks advice from Rick regarding what she
should do:
Annina: M’sieur, you are a man. If someone loved you very much, so that your
happiness was the only thing that she wanted in the whole world but she did a bad thing to make
certain of it, could you forgive her?
Rick: Nobody ever loved me that much
Annina: And he never knew and the girl kept that bad thing locked in her heart? That would be
all right, wouldn’t it?
Rick You want my advice?
Annina: Oh, yes, please.
Rick: Go back to Bulgaria
The cynic makes the verbal response, but the true hero arranges for the husband to win at the roulette
table. This seems to be a moment of recognition for Rick. It is only now that he fully realizes what is
missing in his life and seems to realize what he must do about it.

In both the Aeneid and Casablanca, the hero does not (in the terms of American cinema) ‘get the
girl.’ Aeneas’ pietas, his signature heroic quality, is the instrument which causes Dido’s death; we find
his Realpolitik in a romantic setting to be completely disturbing. In Casablanca, Rick also does not ‘get
the girl.’ Contrary to the sentiments in “As Time Goes By,” (“Woman needs man, and man must have his
mate, that no one can deny”), Rick sacrifices his relationship with Ilsa for ‘the cause.’ Ilsa made the same
sacrifice before in Paris when she left her true love behind to help Laszlo. Rick achieves purity and
redemption through a parallel self-sacrifice. In the ‘crazy, mixed-up world’ of 1941, even enduring love
must yield to preserving democracy and the freedoms it protects. Ilsa’s cause is the same as Rick’s cause
whereas Dido’s and Aeneas’ interests (as well as their nation) were diametrically opposite.32 In the
Underworld, Dido refuses to look at Aeneas and retreats to her first husband’s arms; Ilsa, on the other
hand, looks toward Rick in the scene at the airport with love and admiration. Like Dido, she ends up with
her husband, but everybody knows that she belongs with Rick. She too must sacrifice her love for the
hero in much the same way that Creusa nobly places the sacrifice of her relationship with Aeneas into
proper perspective.33 Both Creusa and Ilsa know that they must make sacrifices so that their hero/lover
will triumph. The nobility of the sacrifice Ilsa and Creusa make has a profound effect upon the heroes
who learn from the pietas being modeled for them by these women. As much as we admire Ilsa and
Creusa for their noble sacrifice, we pity poor Dido. Aeneas never gives her the opportunity to resolve her
feelings about the relationship. His defense that the gods made him leave her is as vain for Aeneas as it
was for the Nazis who tried to use it at Nuremberg. Dido’s tragedy is caused by her own passion, by
Venus and Juno (who use her as an instrument to be disposed of after she has fulfilled the divine plan for
Aeneas) and, most significantly, by Aeneas’ pietas.

On one level, the Aeneid can be interpreted as Augustan propaganda, i.e., a work to justify and
glorify the Augustan regime which managed to end the century of civil war. Casablanca, too, has a
propagandistic purpose, i.e., to justify American involvement in World War II and celebrate the nobility
of the sacrifice that all Americans would have to make in order to defeat Fascism. Rick goes off to fight
the good fight in the company of his new ally, Captain Renault.34 Casablanca indeed came out of the
same Hollywood which was co-opted in the war effort and which produced the wonderful Frank Capra
“Why We Fight” series. The Casablanca audience does not leave the theater questioning the actions and
motives of the hero as the reader of the Aeneid will undoubtedly question the morality of Aeneas’ actions
regarding Dido and Turnus. A plot inviting that type of moral judgment would have been highly unlikely
in the early days of a war when there was a public need to ratify policies that would lead to over 290,000
American dead, 670,000 wounded and 16 million citizens serving in the Armed Forces.35 It did not take
a Sybil to predict that the United States was in for “war, horrible wars” (bella, horrida bella.) The times
demanded, and Casablanca complied with, the dictate that the heroes be lionized, the cause be justified,
and the sacrifice be glorified.

The Aeneid is a product of its time, i.e., the era after the civil war; it tends to try to justify the
actions taken by Augustus and, more generally, the sacrifice that Romans have already suffered.

32
Vergil highlights this at the very beginning of the epic - Karthago, Italiam contra. . . (Aen. 1.13).
33
Creusa, of course, does not make a conscious decision to die so that Aeneas may reach Carthage
and Italy unencumbered by a wife. She does, though, realize that she has been sacrificed for the greater
good. She makes the best of the situation by nobly facilitating Aeneas remarriage.
34
This fight will move away from the cafe where the Germans can easily be drowned out by heroes
singing the Marseillaise to a bloodier battle field where the German 88’s will be more lethal than the
Wacht am Rhein. This time, according to Laszlo, ‘our side will win’ since Rick has rejoined the fight.
Rick and his new hero partner, Renault, march off to Brazzaville to the stirring strains of the
Marseillaise.
35
Encyclopedia Americana: International Edition (Danbury, 1989), 29.529-30.
Casablanca is also a product of its time, i.e., early in World War II; it justifies the sacrifices already
made, those being made, and those which will still have to be made in the future. As much as the Aeneid
and Casablanca are ‘still the same old story,’ the different time frames demand a different type of hero, a
different type of moral question, and a different type of outcome. The temporal setting for Casablanca
cannot support the moral ambiguity of the Aeneid or the dual voice of the Aeneid.36 Vergil wrote his epic
when the fighting was over and the victor declared; he had the luxury to sit back and examine from a
distance the actors and the actions surrounding the civil war. The screenwriters of Casablanca had no
such luxury. Villains had to be one-dimensional and the moral/political choices had to be clear.

Aeneas is a deficient hero.37 In our last glimpse of the hero, we find him repeatedly plunging his
sword into the chest of the vanquished enemy as the disarmed Turnus begs of Aeneas to be Roman and
“spare the conquered” parcere subiectis. This is the preview to the stark future of Rome, bella, horrida
bella. The death of Turnus is a prime example of Vergil’s unique ability to make it seem as if he has
snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. When it seems that Aeneas’ triumph is complete since he has
rid his world of impius furor, the effect of the Turnus’ murder makes it seem as if Aeneas has lost
something much more than a battle or duel, but rather any semblance of humanity which might have
remained after being enslaved for so many years by his master, pietas. In the end, pietas has many
victims but none more tragic than Aeneas.

36
Adam Parry, “The Two Voices of Virgil’s Aeneid,” Arion II.4 (1963) 66-80.
37
Williams notes that Aeneas’ “strength is limited, his resolution sometimes frail; he gropes his way
forward through darkness and uncertainty. We are never sure, as the poem develops, as to whether he
will succeed.” Supra at 154.
 It’s Still the Same Old Story
A Fight for Love and Glory
Vergil’s Aeneid and Casablanca

David McCarthy
Professor Emily McDermott
Vergil 510
December 12, 2002