Similarities Between Dante's Inferno And A Christmas Carol

Life is full of comparisons whether in television shows, sports, or literature, making it hard to go a day without seeing at least one comparison between two things. There are common comparisons that nearly everyone can make such as similar songs or a play in a game that are nearly identical to another, but some comparisons are more difficult to draw than others. Prime examples of this are hard to come by but one is most definitely the small comparison that can be made between “Dante’s Inferno” and “A Christmas Carol.” Although the similarities may seem to be hidden once you dive deeper into both they are quite obvious. The similarities that are seen between the two is that the main character learns about something from ghosts, that both

take place on religious days, and that both main characters have a midlife crisis.
The first way that these two texts give themselves up to comparison is that both main characters are taught by spirits.

In “Inferno” the main character, Dante, is walked around by the ghost of Virgil. In “A Christmas Carol” the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, gets taught by the three ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. While Dante is not so much taught anything by his ghost friend but instead shown how hell works, while Scrooge is shown his life in the past, his people feel about him in the present, and how people react to his death as compared to Tiny Tim’s death in the future. This similarity is clearly stated that both teachers of the main characters in “A Christmas Carol” and “Inferno” because the author of both plainly comes out and states that they are ghosts. In the “Inferno” Dante tells the reader that Virgil is a ghost through many quotes but the first one to be found in the book goes, “When I saw him in that vast wilderness, “Have pity on me,” were the words I cried “whatever you may be a shade, a man.”” This quote from “Inferno shows that Virgil is not a man but rather something like a shade, and it is not long after that the reader learns that he is fact a ghost. Because both of the main drivers behind the main characters in the books are no longer alive the comparison is quite easy to make. But this is not the only comparison that there is to be made between the two, there is also a comparison because they both take place on religious

days.
Although “Inferno” and “A Christmas Carol” do not take place on the same day they both take place on particularly important religious holidays.

“A Christmas Carol” takes place on Christmas Eve to Christmas day while “Inferno” is from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. These two holidays are two of the most important religious holidays for Christians and Catholics. This can be made into a comparison because both stories tell you that they take place on these days and it is not often that a story takes place on a holiday. Usually stories take place on any old day but these two go out of their way to inform the reader that they take place on these holidays. In “A Christmas Carol” one of many quotes that proves it takes place on Christmas Eve is said by the ghost of Christmas past when he says, “For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.” He states this when he is showing Scrooge himself as a child being happy and joyful. Although a very unique comparison it is still not the only one to be found between the

two.
The final comparison that can be seen between the two stories is that the main characters are going through a midlife crisis’. Although they are different types of midlife crisis’, they are both having them. Dante’s midlife crisis includes being banished from his hometown and never being able to go back. His crisis is apparent to him in the beginning of the “Inferno”, unlike Scrooge’s. Scrooge has a midlife crisis in that he is living his life in a way that he does not want to be remembered for. In the beginning of “A Christmas Carol” he is unaware of this fact but as the ghosts show him the errors of his ways it becomes more and more apparent to him until he decides that he needs change the way he lives his life. The quote that proves Dante is going through a crisis is stated by himself when he says, “In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost.” This quote shows that he has lost his way in life and longs to find the right path again.
Between being taught by ghosts, taking place on religious holidays, and both main characters going through crises these books are more alike than one could ever imagine. Although these books are about entirely different things the comparisons between the two seem to be endless. These books just go to show that a comparison can be made out of nearly anything.