Movement and Stasis in the Divine Comedy Essay

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 Alighieri’s poem Inferno relies heavily on the usage of topography to closely mimic the sins and characterizations of the sinners involved in the poem. A common topography trope, alongside rivers and the temperature, is Dante’s inclusion of forests. Although only present in the first and thirteenth cantos, the forest is one of the few landscapes Dante mentions both outside and inside hell. The uncertainty and doubt caused by forests, because of their seclusion and frightening atmosphere, represents Dante’s sentiments towards his expulsion from Florence.

In another sense, I feel as Francesca kind of manipulates him in her language. The way Francesca speaks in my opinion is someone of charismatic. She tells Dante the story in a way she never blames herself, but she blames love and the book for her wrong-doings. For example, “Love, quick to kindle in the gentle heart, seized this man with the fair form taken from me. The way of it afflicts me still. ‘Love, which absolves no one beloved from loving, seized me so strongly with his charm that, as you see, it has not left me yet. ‘Love brought us to one death.” (Canto 5.100-106). Francesca simply blames the adultery her and Paolo

First, Dante is a man who is trying to successfully travel through the path without getting tempted by the sin that lies within it. “Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost. Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say

Dante structures the Commedia in such a way as to enable the pilgrim to function as a progressively more sophisticated reader of confessional texts throughout his journey, and as such he becomes a reflection of our own possibilities as interpreters of these canti. Our initial attempts at interpreting the equivocal texts provided by the sinners are fitful, inadequate, and constantly in need of later correction and reassessment, thus reflecting the pilgrim's own progress. In the reading and re-reading, these confessional passages and canti define themselves as exercises in humility: as understanding becomes the product of a series of misreadings and revisions of the text. In the case of Francesca we have a confession that is more a literary rationale for her offense than an admission of individual culpability, for Francesca seeks to use the language of dolce stil novo poetry as a kind of cloaking device to hide herself as the historical agent or subject who bears responsibility for her

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

The notion that the sinners Virgil and Dante meet are historical figures tempts readers to interpret Dante’s symbolism in a historical sense. Paul G. Chevigny, for example, argues that Dante’s view on betrayal originates from his ethical concerns in a “political milieu” (Chevigny, 790). For Dante, the most severe crime was the most human, the one that most clearly exhibits the misuse of free will: the betrayal of trust. Dante believes that crimes of betrayal were the most serious not only because they required the most deliberate practice of free will, but also because they did the most damage to the ethical net of obligations in society. As previously mentioned, Dante’s political role in Florence established his ideal of a stable society built among the trust of political leaders and their followers.

Dante is truly a great poet. When he describes a place, he goes truly deeply than what’s on the surface. In Purgatory, when Dante and Virgil are walking through the gateway, Dante describes each step when walking in. “Once there, Dante and Virgil have to climb three steps to ascend to the gate (Purg. IX, 76-77; Sayers 1955b) which is guarded by an angel. These three steps signify the confession of sin, contrition for sin and satisfaction for sin”. He first describes the first step by saying, “We came to the first step: white marble gleaming/ so polished and so smooth that in its mirror/ I saw my true reflection past all seeming” (IX 94-96). In these first stanzas to the entrance of Purgatory demonstrates the color white as hope and desire of improvement. This is very

    Some people think that the medieval churches view on sin, redemption, heaven and hell was very complex, but actually the churches views were straight and to the point. I will discuss with you what sin, redemption, heaven and hell were to the medieval churches and I will also share some examples in the story that will help you better understand The Inferno and the medieval churches views.

“I came to a place stripped bare of every light and roaring on naked dark like seas wracked by a war of winds” (Canto 5 inferno), this when Dante goes into the second circle of hell and watches as the lustful are swirl around in this never-ending storm of lust. Dante is using this point of view to try and give a realistic vibe to the readers. He talks to Francesca and Paolo two lovers who were murdered after found having affair against Francesca husband Giovanni Malatesta. After talking to them Dante is starting to get a sense of how real his journey is, he is feeling overwhelmed Dante falls to the ground and pass is out. “And while one spirit Francesca said these words to me, the other Paolo wept, so that, because of pity, I fainted, as if I had met my death. And then I fell as a dead body falls.”(139-142)

The rise of tension between characters is another characteristic of comedic plays. After Oberon sees the way that Helena has been treated by Demetrius, he orders Puck to apply the juice to the eyes of Demetrius. Puck accidentally applies the juice to Lysander’s eye, which causes him to fall in love with Helena. After the mistake had been caught, Oberon sends Puck to watch Helena and Oberon applies the juice to Demetrius’ eyes. This causes both men to fall for Helena and now the battle is for Helena and not Hermia. Helena is convinced that this is a joke or prank because neither of the two men loved her before. Now because of Puck’s mistakes the four decide to find a

When alluding to the leopard in line two, Dante refers to it as "she" and uses "lithe" to describe its movement, indicating a strong sense of the feminine. Also, the usage of "quick of foot" and "blocking the path," shows a feeling of rapidity which creates a serious situation like a sudden attack. From the allegorical level, it is not hard to find out the moral of a female leopard: the dangerous but attractive desire of lust. In the next line, Dante expresses his fear of this leopard by saying "more than once she made me turn about to go back down". Here the leopard cuts Dante's way towards light, which is a signal of God’s love and the way to peace, and makes him return by the way he came, so he becomes frustrated. Another emergency starting with "But not so much that the next sight wasn't fearful" follows immediately. The second beast appears as a fierce lion. His “roaring with hunger” is so severe that “the air appears to tremble,” revealing a slaughterous animal nature and symbolizing great power in an allegorical plane. Apparently, the lion has a huge appetite for human, so Dante almost feels like dying at this point. What is worse, a grim she-wolf comes into sight. The reference to her “leanness seemed to compress all the world’s cravings” and she “had made miserable such multitudes” contributes to an intense longing for everything, which is concluded as another human

Often when we set out to journey in ourselves, we come to places that surprise us with their strangeness. Expecting to see what is straightforward and acceptable, we suddenly run across the exceptions. Just as we as self‹examiners might encounter our inner demons, so does Dante the writer as he sets out to walk through his Inferno. Dante explains his universe - in terms physical, political, and spiritual - in the Divine Comedy. He also gives his readers a glimpse into his own perception of what constitutes sin. By portraying characters in specific ways, Dante the writer can shape what Dante the pilgrim feels about each sinner. Also, the reader can look deeper in the text and examine the

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;

Dante, the pilgrim, meets a man in Purgatory named Marco Lombardo, and he explains to Dante how everyone has free will, and that, “intellect” (Dante, Purgatorio XVI. 80) is what frees him “from the heavens’ influence” (Dante, Purgatorio XVI. 81). Lombardo is telling Dante that the more intellectual knowledge one has, the more control one has over their own fate. Lombardo goes on to tell Dante that, “The spheres [are what] start your impulses along” (Purgatorio XVI. 73) and that the soul “turns eagerly to all that gives it pleasure” (Purgatorio XVI. 90). Thus, our souls are drawn towards beautiful and pleasurable things first, and in order to make sure that these beautiful things aren’t coming from a “simple soul” (Purgatorio XVI. 87), which will deceive, one must “guide its love to higher things” (Purgatorio XVI.93). But thankfully Lombardo reassures Dante that he is “headed the right way to reach the stair that leads above” (Purgatorio XVI. 49). By following his desire for Beatrice, he is on his way to the divine. The idea that love is what is leading Dante in the direction of heaven is evident in Lombardo’s words.