From canto XVII up until canto XX, the pilgrim soul and his guide journey through the first four levels of the eighth circle of hell. The eighth circle consist of different categories of sins that fall under ordinary fraud. The first four sins of this circle include: panders & seducers, false flatterers, simonists, and diviners, astrologers & magicians. Through their journey through these levels, one can observe the relationship these two characters have with each other.
The two seem to have a good understanding of one another. Virgil as the guide is aware of the pilgrim soul’s limitations. He also knows what the pilgrim soul needs in means of learning. They have built a necessary foundation trust with each other and it is seen through their words, but even more so through their actions. In canto XVII, lines 37 to 40, Virgil displays his trust in the pilgrim soul when he tells Dante: “So that/ you may experience this ring in full, / go now, and see the state in which they are. /But keep your conversation with them brief”. These lines show that Virgil both trusts and believes in Dante
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“I stayed to study him; / my gentle guide had stopped together with me/ and gave me a leave to take a few steps back.” (XVIII, 43-45). The soul is taking the initiative to learn, which is an obvious sign of progress. However, this sign is emphasized by the interaction between the soul and his guide. Telling Dante to “take a few steps back” says a lot both literally and symbolically. It makes readers question whether this initiative from the soul is good. Making readers analyze and question this initiative is how the pilgrim soul’s development is highlighted by their relationship. However, this also reminds readers that Virgil is present as a guide to pilgrim soul; both as a literal tour guide through hell, and as an
...he realisation of an aberrant knowledge, a painful truth. The closely relative journeys of Santiago and Orpheus are equally linked in abject failure, however are far more closely bound by the fact that both of them were enriched from loss. They both received a victory from defeat.
In review, Dante had to travel through Hell in order to save his soul from eternal damnation. His guide, Virgil, was not an angel, but was not technically in Hell either. He was in Limbo. He was sent to guide Dante by Beatrice, an angel of heaven who loved Dante. Dante’s straying from the path of righteousness set all of these events into motion.
Within Oliver Sacks, “To See and Not See”, the reader is introduced to Virgil, a blind man who gains the ability to see, but then decides to go back to being blind. Within this story Sacks considers Virgil fortunate due to him being able to go back to the life he once lived. This is contrasted by Dr. P, in “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat”, Sacks states that his condition is “tragic” (Sacks, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat (13) due to the fact that his life will be forever altered by his condition. This thought process can be contributed to the ideas that: it is difficult to link physical objects and conceptualized meanings without prior experience, the cultures surrounding both individuals are different, and how they will carry on with their lives.
It is difficult to determine the true nature of Virgil in Dante's Commedia. At times, he grants incredible advice that parallels the wisdom of some early church fathers, and other times he shows no expertise in any situation, to the point of conferring entirely misinformed counsel. This disparity is confusing mainly because Virgil looked like he would be an infallible guide at the beginning of the Divine Comedy. Yet there are plenty of occurrences confirming Virgil's shortcomings beyond doubt. So what is Dante trying to convey in Virgil's personage? Virgil is not shown to be completely wicked or just in his appearances in the poem, but there is no moral middle ground, as shown by the structure of Dante's afterlife. So, all the reader is left with is Paradise's estimation of Virgil, which is the only ensured truth the Poet gives the reader. Since Heaven chose Virgil to guide escort Dante the Pilgrim to Heaven, but Virgil can continue no further than the entrance to earthly paradise, Virgil must represent a transitional phase that Dante must shed in order to achieve full salvation.
Their travels are very intriguing, and their relationship is very complex. They become very close, so much so that Dante acquires a deep trust in Virgil. They are no longer “just friends.” They are both poets and can communicate very well through words and literature. Dante and Virgil are both poets.
In The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri there are two main guides who help Dante on his journey to salvation. These guides help demonstrate the consequences of sin and teach him how to overcome the temptation of it. These guides are each a crucial part in Dante’s transformation to allow him to fully grow and learn to be pure on his own.
After Dante demands the narrator to leave, and then calls him a scrub, the narrator is confused and wonders if Dante is right. “You’re confused almost to the point of paralysis. Because what did you do wrong? Why does he hate you? Your heart thump-thump-thumping inside of your chest. Doubt setting in. Maybe he's right. Maybe you really are a scrub. Maybe you shouldn't be allowed to show up like this everyday, uninvited” (de la Peña). The narrator’s thoughts contribute to the character’s motivation because at this moment it seems like the narrator is thinking of giving up. However, the narrator doesn’t give up which shows he is persevering and has confidence in himself. With these thoughts we can infer that the character builds up motivation to prove Dante wrong about all the things he
Despite fear, Virgil reasures Dante with indirect and divine love. Virgil and Dante are anxious and weary about the journey that they are about to take on. However, Virgil reassures Dante that he will not leave him in the underworld. Instead, they both will eventually ascend to paradise. He believed that sometimes it is important to live through other people's happiness in order to seek happiness.
In conclusion, we can see that Dante presents the reader with a potentially life-altering chance to participate in his journey through Hell. Not only are we allowed to follow Dante's own soul-searching journey, we ourselves are pressed to examine the state of our own souls in relation to the souls in Inferno. It is not just a story to entertain us; it is a display of human decision and the perpetual impact of those decisions.
When “Dante” speaks to “Virgil” near the beginning of Inferno, he understands that he is not yet like Aeneas and Paul (Dante 1.2.32). He says that, unlike these two voyagers, his travels cannot profit others because of his soul's state of habitual sin. “Dante” briefly explains his reluctance to begin his odyssey, saying, “if I consent to start this journey, / I fear my venture will be wild and empty” (Dante 1.2.34-35). In this section, Dante uses Virgil's characterization of Aeneas to provide a strong contrast to the character “Dante” of Inferno. According to Dante, Aeneas completes a heaven-sent mission in founding his city, because Rome eventually becomes the home of the Papacy and the Church. In direct opposition to the mindset, at the start of the Commedia, “Dante” perceives himself as a man astray from the True Path; he does not believe that his voyage can ever ultimately lead to salvation in the way that Aeneas's did.
In Dante’s Inferno, the relationship between Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil the Guide is an ever-evolving one. By analyzing the transformation of this relationship as the two sojourn through the circles of hell, one is able to learn more about the mindset of Dante the Poet. At the outset, Dante is clearly subservient to Virgil, whom he holds in high esteem for his literary genius. However, as the work progresses, Virgil facilitates Dante’s spiritual enlightenment, so that by the end, Dante has ascended to Virgil’s spiritual level and has in many respects surpassed him. In Dante’s journey with respect to Virgil, one can see man’s spiritual journey towards understanding God. While God loves man regardless of his faults, His greatest desire is to see man attain greater spirituality, in that man, already created in God’s image, may truly become divine, and in doing so, attain eternality.
Dante successfully completes his journey of enlightenment through hell by learning through active observation and self-reflection about himself and his journey. With the beneficial observation and reflection, Dante learns from the sinners and gains knowledge about himself. There is a strong emphasis on perception throughout the novel. It is through sight that Dante acknowledges hell and learns from it. At the commencement of his journey into hell, Dante says to Virgil, "lead me to witness what you have said. . .
“There is no greater pain than to remember, in our present grief, past happiness…”(Canto 5) is what Francesca mentioned to Dante and I believed that this is where Dante himself founded that he shouldn’t dwell on the past and this is also where he learned that lust isn’t truly needed in life. That there is love, but lust is an unnecessary part of life. The deeper that Dante would go feel started to change his view towards people. He began to feel pity and sadness towards each and every soul he met during his journey. Once he met Brunetto Latini, Dante explained that he lost himself in a valley and that 's why he was sent there. The Pilgrim explaining himself proves that he was truly on a journey of self-discovery. Once he met Satan himself Dante realized, “the lovely things the heavens hold” (Canto 34) which one of the steps to self-discovery, finding the beauty in
... Moreover, such belief in human reason signifies Dante's hope towards a bright society and the pursuit of God’s love as the other part of self-reflection. In conclusion, a great deal of tension and contrast between “dark” and “light” in The Inferno helps us to explore Dante’s self portrait—he fears dangerous desires and sinful darkness, but shows much courage and hope towards life since he nevertheless follows his guide Virgil to dive into horrible Hell. As shown in Canto I, such emotional reaction to dark and light symbols lays a great foundation for developing Dante’s broad and universal traits as his journey progresses.
...te become surer of himself and less of a coward. Dante lost respect for some of the shades, at the beginning of the poem he spoke with respect to the shades and pitied them immensely. Towards the ending of the poem Dante lost most respect for the shades and went as far as kicking a shade in the head demanding that the shade answers him. This shows a decline in the value of respect rather than gaining more knowledge in how to be respectful. Excellence is a core value related to personal development and Dante shows in increase in excellence as his journey comes to an end. Over all Dante’s character improves by the ending of the poem. Though he has been through hell he comes out with a new understanding of life, appears less depressed and more courageous.