"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom" -Aristotle. In Dante's Inferno, the author exemplifies the meaning of this quote, as he and Virgil spiral downward into the 9 layers of hell to realize Dante’s own self. On the two poets’ journey they witness the brutal punishments that past lives that have sinned must undergo. In seeing the pain and punishment of these souls, some of them people he once knew, accompanied with Virgil’s guidance and words; Dante goes from being squeamish and hypersensitive to a more collected and steady individual. In reality, Dante Alghieri was born to a family of politicians in Florence, Italy 1265. He grew up in love with Beatrice Portinari, though he was married to Gemma Donati. Ironically he was eventually exiled from Florence by a relative of his wife. In this exile, Dante wrote some of his most famous works including The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradisio, which were largely influenced by his love for Beatrice. These works are considered some of the greatest Italian writings. He eventually died in 1321. Just as fictional Dante found himself through his experience in hell in Inferno with Virgil’s and his friends’ above help, the journey of self-discovery serves a universal role in everyone's lives appearing in it's own unique way, and never without guidance. …show more content…
In the first part of The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Dante designs the fictional version of himself as a man who has sinned and can redeem himself only through a trip to hell and back, literally. Upon entering hell with his guide Virgil, Dante appears hysterical at many of the sights in hell. On a few occasions, he even faints, “…I swooned away as if I had been dying, And fell, even as a dead body falls.” or he becomes filled with emotion and weeps. This beginning character ends up being dynamic, transforming into a man who presents himself sturdily and acquires enough confidence to scale Satan’s body to escape the 9th layer of hell. Dante achieves his quest for redemption. In doing so he also proves himself worthy enough for gods love, his ultimate goal. Similar to most people, Dante faces obstacles and the motivation to get over them, the only difference being he takes the challenge that some don’t. Dante perseveres through his personal journey and reaches his goal, but not alone. Without Virgil and his help in heaven, Dante would not have been able to complete his journey. Virgil plays a key role in providing Dante with advice, directions and vital information about each layer of hell, allowing Dante to travel safely and reflect on what he witnesses with proper knowledge of the surroundings and events. His guidance not only leads Dante physically through hell, but subsequently through his internal self conflict as a weak individual. Virgil’s help does not go unmentioned however; Dante frequently gives credit to his guide for being there, “My Guide descended down into the boat, And then he made me enter after him, And only when I entered seemed it laden.” Dante also receives a healthy amount of indirect help from God, Beatrice, and The Virgin Mary.
They too make his passage safe and even possible in the first place. The most important of the help comes from Beatrice whom Dante loved in real life, and mentions often in the beginning of the story. Dante again has something many people have on their journey, but utilizes his guidance to its fullest potential and reaps the benefits as a new person. The whole poem Inferno rings allegoric to human life and challenge in Dante’s time and
currently. Human beings live a life of constant questioning and un-sureness. Generally speaking, everyone’s goal in life exists as that to fix that feeling and simply to know. To do this takes nearly a lifetime, evidently as one doesn’t see a young person as happy and carefree as an old person. Steps along this lifetime journey change people and a new sureness and knowing arises in them, but to have it really figured out stands rare to see as a young person. That is to say, unless something like what happens to Dante happens to you: a true life changing experience. The uniqueness of these journeys exists in time and circumstance; it could be that gradual life long walk, a hellish terrible event that ends in light or unfortunately in darkness, or a typical positive experience that continues in the positive direction. One could be blessed with guidance like Dante or have to brave it alone. Regardless, these experiences serve as pinnacles in the lives of people that can help them figure themselves out for the better or the worse (sometimes the journey ends up better than the destination), and can lead to an ultimate peace with life. Dante was fortunate enough to have been explicitly told what his journey was, how he would do it, and who would be there to help, a courtesy very few people get. However his story still accurately portrays the aspects and importance of a personal journey in the life of a human being. The over all message being that: a personal journey no matter how daunting or dangerous it seems, contains significance in the development of ones personality and ability to get through the central voyage of life itself.
Dante write one of the masterpiece of the literature, a book that even third fourths of a century later people still reading but behind dark lines like as “Through me you enter into the city of woes, Through me you enter into the eternal pain, Through me you enter the population of loss” (Dante 19.1-3) must exist a reason or a purpose to write these lines. Dante born in 1265 in the cradle of Florence. In his childhood only two things happen that has transcendental for his work in literature, her mother died in 1272 (when Dante had 7 years old). Also, in may 1 of 1974 he meets Beatrice when he was nine years and her eight years and Dante instantly falls in love with her. “She began in a soft angelic voice”(Dante 13.47), this type of word Dante
On the other hand, the Inferno centers on those who turned their back to their “creator” and “source of life” in the fulfilling of earthly desires, and are thus damned for eternity. In between these two extremes is Purgatorio, which deals with the knowledge and teaching of love, as Beatrice and others help outline love for Dante so he can make the climb to paradise and be worthy. For the reader to understand the idea of Dante’s love, one must understand the influence of Aristotle, Plato, and Dante’s “love at first sight” Beatrice in transforming his concept of will and of love in life. In his Divine Comedy, Dante gains salvation through the transformation of his will to love, and hopes that the reader will also take away the knowledge and concept of love he uses to revert to the right path of
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.
In the Inferno we follow the journey of Dante as he wanders off the path of moral truth and into Hell. The Virgin Mary and Santa Lucia ask Beatrice, Dante’s deceased love, to send some help. Thus, Virgil comes to the rescue and essentially guides Dante through Hell and back to the mortal world from which he came. However, things begin to seem kind of odd. When reading the Inferno one may begin to question the way Dante describes Hell and the things that occur within, or even the things we have always believed about Hell. Despite the way it is described and well known in western civilization, Hell is not at all how we expect it to be because of Dante's use of irony throughout this poetic masterpiece.
...ards monstrous figures and sympathy towards those who seem to be tortured unjustly. In his perverse education, with instruction from Virgil and the shades, Dante learns to replace mercy with brutality, because sympathy in Hell condones sin and denies divine justice. The ancient philosopher Plato, present in the first level of Hell, argues in The Allegory of the Cave that truth is possible via knowledge of the Form of the Good. Similarly, Dante acquires truth through a gradual understanding of contrapasso and the recognition of divine justice in the afterlife. Ultimately, Dante recognizes that the actions of the earthly fresh are important because the soul lives on afterwards to face the ramifications. By expressing his ideas on morality and righteousness, Dante writes a work worth reading, immortalizes his name, and exalts the beliefs of his Christian audience.
Dante had access to these teachings and uses them to relate to the reader in a more straightforward way of why there is delineation. In this function Aristotle is not the agent of knowing, but rather a way to relay the reasoning and rationale behind God’s judgment; in this way God is not limited by Aristotle. Dante’s Inferno presents the reader with many questions and thought-provoking dialogue to interpret. These crossroads provide points of contemplation and thought. Dante’s graphic depiction of hell and its eternal punishment is filled with imagery and allegorical meanings.
Dante's "Inferno" is full of themes. But the most frequent is that of the weakness of human nature. Dante's descent into hell is initially so that Dante can see how he can better live his life, free of weaknesses that may ultimately be his ticket to hell. Through the first ten cantos, Dante portrays how each level of his hell is a manifestation of human weakness and a loss of hope, which ultimately Dante uses to purge and learn from. Dante, himself, is about to fall into the weaknesses of humans, before there is some divine intervention on the part of his love Beatrice, who is in heaven. He is sent on a journey to hell in order for Dante to see, smell, and hear hell. As we see this experience brings out Dante's weakness' of cowardice, wrath and unworthiness. He is lead by Virgil, who is a representation of intellect. Through Dante's experiences he will purge his sins.
Dante was a genius, having being said at the cost of sounding trite. He was also the master who wrote the masterpiece appropriately called La Comedia which, most clearly of all his works demonstrates his genius profoundly. Dante lived in Florence, Italy in the late 13th and early 14th century. This was at a time when Florence was in political turmoil. Dante, however, was not a commoner. In fact, Dante's party, who were called the Guelfs, took control of Florence during Dante's time in 1266 (Fergusson, Francis, 26). Sadly, however, Dante was banished from Italy at the turn of the century, which was around the time of the writing of La Comedia, which included three books: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. When Dante died, however, he was very highly praised for his cantos and their "beautiful, polished, and ornate style."(Boccaccio, Giovanni and Lionardo Broni Arentino, 4). After his death, he obtained many names from great people like Chaucer, who called him "the grete poete of Ytaille" (6), and from artists like Michelangelo saying many things like "It is impossible to say how much we owe to him, be cause his splendor blinds ." (6) The Inferno is not only a story about the wretched torments of hell, but it also has rhyme, and the numbers encoded in rhyme have theological significance (e.g. the number three is symbolic of the holy trinity). Dante Alighieri expresses these numbers in his construction of rhyme, lines, stanzas, and La Comedia to express his love of and the glory of GOD.
In his first article of The Inferno, Dante Alighieri starts to present a vivid view of Hell by taking a journey through many levels of it with his master Virgil. This voyage constitutes the main plot of the poem. The opening Canto mainly shows that, on halfway through his life, the poet Dante finds himself lost in a dark forest by wandering into a tangled valley. Being totally scared and disoriented, Dante sees the sunshine coming down from a hilltop, so he attempts to climb toward the light. However, he encounters three wild beasts on the way up to the mountain—a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf—which force him to turn back. Then Dante sees a human figure, which is soon revealed to be the great Roman poet Virgil. He shows a different path to reach the hill and volunteers to be Dante’s guide, leading Dante to the journey towards Hell but also the journey seeking for light and virtue.
From the beginning of the journey, Dante knew from the moment he saw “Abandon every hope, all you who enter” (Canto 3) his life was about to change. At this point of the journey he has met his guide Virgil. Virgil showed him the rightful way in life and he also introduced Dante to everyone who influenced him throughout his
As Dante climbs the mountain he happens upon Manfred, who had been excommunicated by Pope Clement IV on the grounds that he was a Ghibelline, a political party against the pope, and practicing religious heresy. To Dante, Manfred represents what will occur to those souls that have been partially saved. With God’s grace, those that are placed in purgatory are able to learn from their sin. Dante reminds us, the reader, that it is by our own doing that our souls are preserved in this predicament, “scrupulous not to o’erstep the flame.” (Dante, The Divine Comedy II: Purgatory, p. 276) This is not the place for the light-hearted, to the contrary, it is a place for a second chance to right one’s wrongs, to “transform into a stronger and better [person].” (Dante, The Divine Comedy II: Purgatory, p. back cover) Faced with the final challenge Dante, like all of us, must face our own fears and overcome them. Dante stands to face a wall of fire, there is no other way, he must go through the fire. From the other side, Dante hears, “Beati mundo corde” which translated means “Blessed are the pure in heart.” (Dante, The Divine Comedy II: Purgatory, p. 286) finding the courage within himself steps through the fire to find Beatrice, who was once the one he loved from
The primary characters in Dante’s poem include himself, who is also the narrator, Virgil, a poet he has admired, who serves as his guide through most of the first two sections, and finally, Beatrice, his inspiration, who greets him at Paradisio and escorts him through the remainder of his journey.
Dante’s The Divine Comedy illustrates one man’s quest for the knowledge of how to avoid the repercussions of his actions in life so that he may seek salvation in the afterlife. The Divine Comedy establishes a set of moral principles that one must live by in order to reach paradiso. Dante presents these principles in Inferno where each level of Hell has people suffering for the sins they committed during their life. As Dante gets deeper into Hell the degrees of sin get progressively worse as do the severity of punishment. With that in mind, one can look at Inferno as a handbook on what not to do during a lifetime in order to avoid Hell. In the book, Dante creates a moral lifestyle that one must follow in order to live a morally good, Catholic
...eral chronicle of Dante’s life. This is not the case, as historical information proves, Dante led a full life separate from his love of Beatrice. This story instead serves as a description of the power that Love wields over the sensitive and romantic. Indeed, Love could wield this power over anyone He chooses, though he chooses only those with the poet’s soul, through which God can speak and tell humanity of the power of Love. God inspires those who are open to him, in a way that they can understand. In the case of Dante, God spoke to him through Love and produced a tale that will convey the same message to all those who are able to hear. Dante was not writing for those without a poet’s mind, a fact he makes clear throughout the text, and the reason for this is evident: they would simply not understand.
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 . . . and the multitude of woes" (Inferno 9).1 Dante’s purpose is to witness and learn from the perils of hell so he can li...