Dante's Response To Dante : The Character Of Dante

Often, we cannot see the good until we have experienced the bad. Dante Alighieri, a poet who makes himself the main character in his Divine Comedy, finds himself lost in a dark wood at the start of The Inferno. Though he sees a safe path out of the wood towards an alluring light, he is forced to take an alternate route through an even darker place. As the ending of the pilgrim Dante’s voyage is bright and hopeful, Alighieri the poet aims to encourage even the most sinful Christians to hope for a successful end. Thus, Dante the pilgrim goes to hell in The Inferno to better understand the nature of sin and its consequences in order to move closer to salvation; his journey an allegory representing that of the repenting Christian soul.

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,

In this quote, the author is showing how Dante’s finally learns about how he has gotten mistreated throughout the whole prison affair. I chose this quote because it shows the how gullible and trusting Dante’s was as a person and how it quickly changed into a fury that would not be extinguished.

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.

Dante, the character, changes over the course of this journey. Dante begins his journey lost, and ignorant but then goes through a development when he travels through the inferno, purgatorio, and Paradiso. Experiencing the depths of Hell and light of Heaven, Dante’s life is then transformed.  The influencers and assistants that Dante comes across will change Dante and make him closer and more united with God in the end.

In The Inferno, Dante is the hero of the story. Dante is the man exiled from his home as a result of his political struggles and beliefs with the choice between evil and good. Dante’s heroism is in the form of humanity as he faces the challenge which all human beings struggle with. Dante’s courage is tested as he journeys through the rings of hell. According to Dante, “therefore look carefully; you’ll see such things/as would deprive my speech of all belief” (Alighieri, Dante. 1854). This is in contrast to Odysseus where Dante’s valor doesn’t encompass utmost bodily feats. The courage in Dante is displayed through analyzing his inner power. A vast setting in Inferno includes hell, Purgatory and heaven. Dante meets many shades while on his journey through

Furthermore, those he converses with had impacted Dante in some way during his lifetime. The combination of religion and nationality begin to form the prominent factors of Dante's identity as he commences his journey through Hell in order to reestablish himself as a committed Catholic.

He has morphed into a new man, with new values, a new character, and an almost completely different disposition. Ever since Abbe Faria solved the mystery to who framed him, Dantes has had a deep need for revenge. “At those moments Dantes' face would darken, for he remembered the oath of vengeance he had sworn, and he thought of how much harm a man could do to his enemies in our modern times with such fortune” (Dumas 72). With these thoughts there is no doubt Dantes has changed from his innocent, naive 19-year-old self to an educated vengeful man of 30. This shapes the entire story into the journey and the completion of a man's goal. Dantes becomes a dark man with only one purpose in life, to enact revenge upon his enemies. He begins by extracting the treasure from its resting place and repaying a man called Jacopo, who aided him once he was shipwrecked. Later, he returns to his home and disguises himself as a priest. Dantes will impersonate the voice of god in order to fulfill his vengeance. He speaks with Caderousse and finds all the men who are guilty and how they punished him. Then, he begins to carry out his plans, beginning with befriending Albert, Mercedes son, and Franz d'Epinay. As a whole, Dantes has become a man so set on revenge, he will not think of anything else. The very words he speaks reflect on what he will do to his accusers and what he thinks of the men he is speaking to. Dantes questions, “If a man has tortured and

Dante, the pilgrim, shows that he has concern for the condemned in life when he finds himself in the woods and felt horrified. In “The Devine Comedy,” he is shown sojourning through joy and grieves where he passes through Hell where it all begins. According to Dante, Hell had many experiences including sufferings of sinners (Carvalho, Flávio). He expresses his heroism when put forth that notorious human being can choose to learn from Hell. He shows pity and empathy to the sinners in Hell passing through hardships of their own. The experience here of Dante depicts a modern hero as compared to Beowulf. Beowulf is considered an epic hero due to his loyalty to the Germanic code. Loyalty is a sign of obedience in character. However, his symbol of allegiance was felt a call to fame and glory through his accomplishment, not like Dante who sought his acts in an unlikely situation. Dante was first frightened and cautious of the case but was reassured by Virgil’s hope (Carvalho, Flávio).

We see Dante’s first step is to acknowledge his inferiority to Virgil; it is to him he owes his modest authorial prowess. This sentiment is understandable indeed. It is only natural for Dante to have nothing but the utmost respect for the great poet who, having preceded him by thirteen hundred years, merits such treatment.

Reason, logic, and pure thought are the compasses of humanity. Unfortunately, today no one even bothers to look at the compass or to ask for directions. The lack of logic and reason in our everyday decisions leads to the larger scale chaos that results from apathetic actions. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, as in Dante's case, we have slipped from our guide of Reason and shown pity to people, like Francesca and Paolo, who fall to carnal lusts, or to those like in the Wood of the Suicides. Like Dante, we are only too eager to hear their stories and report back to those above, still in the Dark Wood, of their fate. We feel as though the punishment which God, in His great Wisdom, has dealt out for them were unfair. And we fear for our own

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.

At the same time, however, the religious function of Dante’s poem must not be neglected. In the opening lines of The Inferno, Dante embarks on a journey and finds himself “in a dark wood, for the straight way was lost” (Inferno, I, 2-3). Dante’s description of the dark wood indicates the lack of God’s light, and thus informs readers of the life he lived in the condition of sin. These opening lines establish the religious context for the poem, as Dante has deviated from “the straight way”, the way to God. Furthermore, Lee H. Yearley contributes to this religious perspective by

Dante's `Divine Comedy', the account of his journey through hell, purgatory and heaven is one of the worlds great poems, and a prime example of a most splendidly realized integration of life with art. More than being merely great poetry, or a chronicle of contemporary events, which it also is, the `Comedy' is a study of human nature by a man quite experienced with it. The main argument I will make in this essay is that Dante's `Comedy' is chiefly a work of historical significance because in it lies the essence of human life across all boundaries of time and place. I feel that such a reading is justified, nay invited, by Dante himself when he says;

Around 1314, Dante Alighieri completed the Inferno, the first section of what would make up The Divine Comedy, a collection of three poems reflecting Dante’s imaginative journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. In these poems, Dante the poet describes the pilgrimage that Dante the pilgrim must complete to attain salvation. With the Roman poet Virgil as his guide, Dante the pilgrim must purge himself of his own sinful nature, which can only be achieved by observing and learning from those that have landed themselves in either Hell, Purgatory, or Heaven. Described in Inferno, his excursion begins in Hell where Dante learns about the stories and the sufferings of many sinners. As Dante the pilgrim progresses through Hell it is clear that he assumes different personas. In some instances, Dante the pilgrim is portrayed as an empathetic man who pities the sinners while on other occasions, Dante the pilgrim is portrayed as a callous and indignant being in regard to the sinners. While Dante the pilgrim is depicted in these two completely different ways, it is the insensitive portrayal that more precisely depicts Dante the pilgrim, as that is his true identity when he leaves Hell. His journey affected him so greatly that by the end of his pilgrimage, Dante the pilgrim has transformed from a compassionate man into an impervious and even cruel individual.