What Are The Transitions In Dante's Inferno

In the First book of the Divine Comedy, the character Dante experiences first hand horrors of Hell. Throughout his journey through Hell, Dante struggles with maintain a balance between learning from the damned souls and becoming too involved with them. Dante often shows pity to those who do not deserve it. Throughout the text Vigil tried many times to teach him the correct way to treat souls. But it is not until Canto 32 that Dante transitions into a man with a full understanding of Hell. Dante’s interaction with Bocca Degli Abati in Canto 32 occurs in three stages during which increase Dante’s understanding of hell and transitions him to a better understanding of the lesson that were to be learned earlier in the book.

Dante encounter with

As the spirit begins to curse Dante and deny him the information he wants, Dante forgoes pity and tries to reason with the spirt. Dante because he is “alive, and can be precious to you if you want fame” (32.91) the spirit soul listen to him. It is clear that Dante has realized that pity is not a reasonable approach, which shows his growth. Similarly, he has realized the power of his poetry, a lesson which he learned in an earlier canto. But just as he has not fully traversed the Inferno, Dante has yet to reach full understanding. This is evident in the fact that he tried to reason with the soul at all. By trying to reason with the soul he has neglected the fact souls are in Hell because the betrayed logic or reason in some way. They cannot be reasoned with at all and Dante has yet to grasp that at this part of his

During the confrontation, Dante’s appears to act very out of character and his actions change very rapidly and. However, Dante’s changing personality and actions throughout the encounter are representative of the different transitions between the level of understanding that Dante goes through. He began as mentally very far behind Virgil. He was full of misplaced pity for the souls in the Inferno. Though Virgil tries to teach him many times throughout the test it is through this scene that we see Dante truly shows that he has understood the lessons. This scene is both a summary of the lessons learned earlier in the book and a showcase of Dante’s transition to