Dante’s Inferno and Shakespeare’s play King Lear have many similar motifs within them that allude to human suffering. One such motif is as long as you can find the words to describe how bad a situation is, things can get worse. We see this concept in Dante’s Inferno when Dante the Pilgrim is traveling deeper into the depths of hell and he exclaims, “If I had words grating and crude enough that really could describe this horrid hole…I could squeeze out the juice of my memories to the last drop. But I don’t have these words, and so I am reluctant to begin.” While travelling through hell, Dante has seen the worst humanity has to offer, and the farther he goes, the less he can describe exactly what he is seeing, much like how in our lives, the deeper we travel within ourselves, the less we are able to describe what we are feeling. In King Lear, we see the same problem outlined through the fool when he warns Lear, “And worse I may be yet. The worse is not so long as we can say, ‘This is the worst.’” Both the Inferno and King Lear, explore the deepest parts of humanity in order to demonstrate that we may not always be able to explain what is within us because what is within us, is oftentimes unrecognizable to ourselves, so much so that even our language cannot put forth the words. Another motif found in both works is the matter of blindness, and when we are blind to the consequences of sin, it is much easier to jump into the unknown. In King Lear, Gloucester accepts death as a
Both Shakespeare’s King Lear and Dante’s Inferno explore the reasons for, and results of, human suffering. Each work postulates that human suffering comes as a result of choices that are made: A statement that is not only applicable to the characters in each of the works, but also to the readers. The Inferno and King Lear speak universal truths about the human condition: that suffering is inevitable and unavoidable. While both King Lear and the Inferno concentrate on admonitions and lamentations of human suffering, one of the key differences between the works is that Inferno conveys an aspect of hope that is not nearly as prevalent in King Lear.
In Dante’s Inferno, part of The Divine Comedy, Canto V introduces the torments of Hell in the Second Circle. Here Minos tells the damned where they will spend eternity by wrapping his tail around himself. The Second Circle of Hell holds the lustful; those who sinned with the flesh. They are punished in the darkness by an unending tempest, which batters them with winds and rain. Hell is not only a geographical place, but also a representation of the potential for sin and evil within every individual human soul. As Dante travels through Hell, he sees sinners in increasingly more hideous and disgusting situations. For Dante, each situation is an image of the quality of any soul that is determined to sin in
Lear can "see" through a sympathetic lens, after having exchanged the pride for shame, revealing to us that mental blindness can be more damaging than physical blindness. While Gloucester, who willingly admits that "[he] stumbled when [he] saw," is only able to "see," though sightless, after he has suffered (4.1.20). Only through the physical pain of losing his sight was Gloucester able to see the truth of his sons. Unquestionably, the plots of Lear and Gloucester run similar courses. However, Shakespeare employs Gloucester's plot to clarify Lear's plot. Through the physical blinding of Gloucester, Shakespeare provides an equivalent, which contextualizes King Lear's theme of consciousness and allows Lear's own metaphorical blindness to be fully
The poem Inferno is about a man who has “lost the path that does not stray” (Inferno, Canto I, line 3) where “the path” represents the path to Heaven. Dante, having strayed from the path, is in danger of being sent to Hell. When Beatrice, whom Dante loved before her early death, finds out that Dante has strayed she becomes worried that he will not be able to join her in Heaven. Beatrice wants to help Dante find God again, but because she is an angel, she cannot walk through Hell or Purgatory and in her stead she asks the Roman poet Virgil to guide Dante on a cautionary trip. Much the way Dante travels through Hell in the Divine Comedy, Macbeth must endure the consequences of his actions.
The movie's opening scene gives allusions to Dante's own life and his brief courtship with Beatrice. Chris (Robin Williams) begins, "When I was young, I met this beautiful girl on a lake," just as Dante had met Beatrice when he was young. This lake just happens to be on the boarder of Switzerland and Italy, Dante's native country. Anna, Chris' love, finds him sitting on a hillside overlooking that lake, and that scene will become a major focus for the rest of the movie. They believe that they are soul mates, and unlike Dante and Beatrice, Chris and Anna marry and have two children.
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,
The two stories, Inferno by Dante and Paradise Lost by Milton, were written about the biblical hell and its keeper: Satan. Both of these authors had different views about the hell and Satan.
Both Shakespeare’s King Lear and Dante’s Inferno explore the reasons for and results of human suffering. Both works postulate that human suffering comes as a result of choices that are made. That statement is not only applicable to the characters in each of the works, but also to the readers. The Inferno and King Lear speak universal truths about the human condition: that suffering is inevitable and unavoidable. While both King Lear and the Inferno concentrate on the admonitions and lamentations of human suffering, there is one key difference between the works: the Inferno has an aspect of hope that is not present in King Lear.
My father, poorly led? World, world, O world! But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee, Life would not yield to age. (Act 4 Scene 1 Pg. 207 lines 10-12) This parallels Lear’s death as he also condemns his daughter Cordelia. I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion I would have made ‘em skip. I am old now, And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you? Mine eyes are not o’ the best, I’ll tell you straight. (Act 5 Scene 3 pg. 317 lines 276-279) Both deaths run on the same train tracks, as King Lear and Gloucester die as better and wiser men than they showed themselves at first.
The gods have an effect on the way people live on earth. When Inferno was written by Dante, Christianity was being spread rapidly as majority of the people had embraced it as depicted in today’s world. Dante regards that polytheistic divine beliefs of ancient times were referred as sin against God. This is best reflected in Inferno when hero Odysseus and poet Virgil live in hell due to their anti-Christ
Shakespeare’s King Lear and Dante’s inferno touch on several major points that was important in the past but is still just as important in today's society. Although they differ in nature they both have the same understanding and perspective when it comes to human suffering. Suffering is inevitable because we are subject to the human condition therefore almost making it impossible to make the right choices. Shakespeare and Dante agree that the reason for suffering is a result of making wrongful decisions due to the human conditions of imperfection, both assertions speak truth about the human condition however inferno transmits an aspect of hope that king Lear does not.
Does hell have its own history? For Dante, the structural and thematic history of ‘hell’ in the Inferno begins with the Roman epic tradition and its champion poet, Virgil. By drawing heavily from the characteristics of hell in Book VI of The Aeneid, Dante carries the epic tradition into the medieval world and affirms his indebtedness to Virgil’s poetry. Moreover, Virgil becomes a central character in the Inferno as he guides Dante, the pilgrim, who has no knowledge of hell, through his own historical model. Similarly, the protagonist of The Aeneid, Aeneas, lacks the foresight necessary to make the journey through hell on his own and thus places his trust in the
In The Inferno, Dante explores the ideas of Good and Evil. He expands on the possibilities of life and death, and he makes clear that consequences follow actions. Like a small generator moving a small wheel, Dante uses a single character to move through the entire of Hell's eternity. Yet, like a clock, that small wheel is pivotal in turning many, many others. This single character, Dante himself, reveals the most important abstract meaning in himself: A message to man; a warning about mankind's destiny. Through his adventures, Dante is able to reveal many global concepts of good and evil in humanity.
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.
In King Lear, the recurring images of sight and blindness associated with the characters of Lear and Gloucester illustrate the theme of self-knowledge and consciousness that exist in the play.