Essay on A Critique of Lines 46-57 of Dante's Inferno

Dante made it through many different obstacles and layers of hell, but he could not of made it through his journey without Virgil. The character in the book is being alluded to the Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro. Maro believed and wrote a legendary piece of literature that stated the mission to civilize the world under divine guidance. He not only wrote about these ways of life but he did his best to

The Inferno is a tale of cautionary advice. In each circle, Dante the pilgrim speaks to one of the shades that reside there and the readers learn how and why the damned have become the damned. As Dante learns from the mistakes of the damned, so do the readers. And as Dante feels the impacts of human suffering, so do the readers. Virgil constantly encourages Dante the pilgrim to learn why the shades are in Hell and what were their transgressions while on Earth. This work’s purpose is to educate the reader. The work’s assertions on the nature of human suffering are mostly admonition, with each shade teaching Dante the pilgrim and by extension the reader not to make the same mistakes. Dante views his journey through hell as a learning experience and that is why he made it out alive.

In the 24th canto of Dante’s “Inferno”, we see how Dante depicts forgiveness and the idea keeping an excellent mindset through troubling times by enlisting an epic simile. “The peasants who lack fodder then arise and look about and see the fields all white… go back to the house, walk here and here, pacing, fretting, wondering what to do… I saw my masters eyebrows lower, and my spirits fell and I was sorely vexed”. This quotation compares Virgil to a humble farmer: both are stumped by a seemingly impossible problem to conquer, are both mad that it’s happening and also that no matter what they can’t overcome it. However, both stories continue, “Despair falls from them when they see how the earth’s face has changed in in so little time… he stood and turned on me that sweet and open look”. We see that, like how the farmer is pleased to see that winter has finished so he can feed his herd, Virgil has seen that there is another way down. This simile that shows forgiveness is an important and underlying theme through the entire comedy. Had all of these people repented and asked forgiveness while still in their mortal life then they would have to suffer tar pits or hands bound by snakes. This is also a subliminal message to those that read it that he should no longer be banished from Florence.

Dante is like the son Virgil never had. This comes to light most apparently in their flight from the two-timing demons. In lifting Dante to his chest and carrying him as he sprints toward safety, Virgil becomes a mother figure to the terrified Dante. Hmmm, father and mother? You’re right in guessing that something bigger is going on here. As an unofficial poet laureate of the Romans, Virgil is a kind of patron spirit of Italy. Moreover, as the consummate speaker and writer of Latin – the ancestor language of Italian – Virgil is, in a sense, the fore-father of Dante’s native language. The two poets’ kinship traces back to their respective languages.

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

Dante and Virgil have just left limbo, the first circle of hell, and are now on their way into the second circle of hell, where hell really begins. It is here that Dante first witnesses the punishment brought upon the sinners. They encounter Minos, the beast-judge who blocks the way into the second circle. He examines each soul as they pass through and determines which circle of hell they must go to by winding his tail around himself. Minos warns Dante of passing through but Virgil silences him. Dante encounters a dark place completely sucked of any light and filled with noises more horrible than a tempest and sees the souls being whirled around in a

Virgil and Dante proceed down into Hell; in Hell Dante sins in every circle, committing the sin that represents each circle. After Dante sins in each circle he begins to learn and grow as a person realizing his mistakes but Dante is still his proud, careless self. In the circle of the wrathful, containing the sinners full of anger, Dante scolds one man saying “may you weep and wail to all eternity, for I know you hell-dog”. Dante is becoming angry just like the

Dante’s descent into Hell in Inferno, the first part of his Divine Comedy, tells of the author’s experiences in Hades as he is guided through the abyss by the Roman author, Virgil. The text is broken into cantos that coincide with the different circles and sub-circles of Hell that Dante and Virgil witness and experience. Inferno is heavily influenced by classic Greek and Roman texts and Dante makes references to a myriad of characters, myths, and legends that take place in Virgil’s Aeneid, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Some of the most important references, however, are the most obvious ones that are easily overlooked simply because of the fact that they are so blatant. Dante is being escorted through Hell by the

But Virgil comes to the poor, powerless Dante. He will never really do anything alone from this point on, which is good because in order for Dante to understand and learn he must have a teacher, t here must be some authority for Dante. There is a grey hound that is mentioned (canto 1, line 78-88, Alighieri). I think that this grey hound is Virgil, because he represents the savior of Dante. He is said to represent intellect, and in Dante's mind that is what is needed to be reasonable, and reason conquers all desires and weaknesses.

Journeys can be taken many ways. Some people take the path less traveled and some people take the easy way out. Dante happens to be on journey that is less traveled, by exploring the depths of Hell in the Inferno. The epic poem’s story is about self-realization and transformation. It sees Dante over coming many things to realize he is a completely different person from the start of the Inferno journey. Dante sees many things that help him gain courage in order to prove to himself and the reader that accepting change and gaining courage can help one to grow as a person and realize their full potential. After seeing people going through certain punishment Dante realizes that he must not seek pity on himself and others in order to fully realize his true potential.

Dante’s Inferno begins in a dark forest, a place of confusion, because he lost his way on the “true path”. Seeking an escape, Dante finds a hill where the sun glares down on him. This light seen in Dante’s Inferno symbolizes clarity as the sun represents God. After encountering three beasts and turning back to the murky forest, Dante crosses paths with the great Roman Poet, Virgil. Virgil is an aid and guide to Dante to Heaven, the ultimate Paradise. He warns Dante he must pass through Hell and Purgatory in order to reach his salvation in heaven. Virgil is depicted as nature or human reason perfected by virtue. It is strongly emphasized that Virgil can only take Dante so far in his journey by guiding him to heaven. Much like St. Thomas Aquinas’ reasoning, nature or human reason can only bring you so far in the journey to God. As Virgil and Dante approach the mouth of Hell, Virgil preaches to Dante about a woman in Heaven who took pity upon Dante when he was lost in hell. The woman Virgil speaks of is Dante’s departed love Beatrice. After Dante hears that Beatrice is heaven he now sheds the fear of traveling through Hell and Purgatorio.

Before Virgil arrives to guide Dante on his journey, Dante shares that he doesn’t recall how he lost his way. He tells “How I entered [the dark wood] I cannot truly say, I had become so sleepy at the moment when I first strayed, leaving the path of truth” (Inferno I.10-12). Because he strayed from the holy path, Dante finds himself lost and trying to find his way back on the right track. Dante’s ultimate goal is to to free himself from the dark wood of confusion and chaos. Looking up from the wood, Dante sees “the hilltop shawled in morning rays of light sent from the planet that leads men straight ahead on every road” (Inferno I.16-18). Dante begins to move towards the light, but is blocked from passing by three

Dante however proves himself to be a hypocrite and often reflects his own sins and hubris in his work. His guide throughout hell, and later purgatory, is none other than Virgil, one of history’s finest and most accomplished epic poets. In the very first circle of hell, Limbo, he places himself among the other great epic poets: “He is Homer, sovereign poet, next comes Horace the satirist, Ovid is third, the last is Lucan. ‘Since each is joined to me in the name the one voice uttered, they do me honor and doing so, do well.’ There I saw assembled the fair school of the lord of loftiest song, soaring like an eagle far above the rest. After they conversed a while, they turned to me with signs of greeting, and my master smiled at this. And then they showed me greater honor still, for they made me one of their company, so I became the sixth amidst such wisdom.”-Divine Comedy, Dante’s Inferno, Canto IV, lines 88-102.

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

After emerging from the dark woods after Dante’s vision, Dante and Virgil find themselves at the gates of Hell, which were inscribed with “Abandon every hope, Ye that Enter.” ( This should be found in the second or third Canto of The Divine Comedy, at the place that Dante and Virgil are about to enter Hell). If it is not there, just leave the sentence and remove the brackets for the citation) Hell is a funnel shape pit that is divided into nine terraces. Virgil, Dante’s escort resides in the area known as Limbo. He is placed in this area because he died before Christianity. Nevertheless, Virgil is not subjected to Hell. Each terrace provides living space for individuals who were in Hell for the different categories of sin for which they were suffering. The lower the terrace, the more severe the punishment. Satan resides in the very bottom level of Hell. Dante gives a very vivid description of his first sight of Satan when he writes, “The emperor of the despondent kingdom so towered—from midchest—above the ice, that I match better with a giant’s height than giants match the measure of his arms; now you can gauge