Reflection Of Dante's Paradiso

Dante explains, “If I had words grating and crude enough that really could describe this horrid hole supporting the converging weight of Hell, 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.” On his journey, Dante states that he does not have the words to explain Dante believes that an individual has to see the circles of hell to understand it’s make up and importance. This is crucial to individualism because Dante believes that every person should have the chance to see the circles and form an opinion about hell based off of their own findings, not from what they hear from another individual. Dante understands that individuals should have their own intellectual development, their own thought process of thinking, learning, and questioning, by creating one’s own interpretations Dante questions his ‘master’ Virgil during the journey, which proves that authority figures, role models, or people of a higher status should not dictate how one lives their life.

In Dante, we read of the "wicked city" which represents hell (22), but it would be fair to say that human beings in Dante's conception are subject to temptation, sin, guilt and the loss of innocence wherever they are on earth---in the city or in the country. Heaven is the only locale which offers human beings respite from such corruption.

Dante’s work Inferno is a vivid walkthrough the depths of hell and invokes much imagery, contemplation and feeling. Dante’s work beautifully constructs a full sensory depiction of hell and the souls he encounters along the journey. In many instances within the work the reader arrives at a crossroads for interpretation and discussion. Canto XI offers one such crux in which Dante asks the question of why there is a separation between the upper levels of hell and the lower levels of hell. By discussing the text, examining its implications and interpretations, conclusions can be drawn about why there is delineation between the upper and lower levels and the rationale behind the separation.

Robert Herrick, an English poet, once said, “Hell is no other but a soundlesse pit, where no one beame of comfort peeps in it.” Picture any type of Hell with relief, happiness, or even the smallest crack of a smile. There is no place. In fact, one can only think of the complete opposite, whether it is a Hell filled with neglect, pain, disgust, or a never-ending life of horror. This is the place created by Dante Alighieri; The Inferno is exactly the type of Hell where no person would want to be. Even those who acted upon the lightest of sins suffered greatly. While each realm contained a different sinner, the punishment that each were forced to face was cruel, repulsive, and sometimes rather disgusting. Through grieving tears without an

Dante, being a devout follower of Western philosophy, had a hard time imagining paradise as non-hierarchical. For Dante, if every person in paradise were perfected equally, then nothing would set them apart. If they all had equal intellectual appetites, then they would all do the same acts, and thus be indistinguishable. This vision of paradise seems to be the same as the Eastern imagination of “nirvana,” in which individual beings are illusions which are really one whole. Staying true to his Greek philosophical roots, he devised a hierarchy based on differences in acts of caritas during life. He proposed that people have different innate potentials to love, and that these account for the differences in paradise. Dante starts with those who tried to do good acts but could not, then those who did but for less noble reasons, followed by the wise, the warriors of God, and a few other categories of acts of

Domenico di Michelino (1417-1491), an Italian painter and medieval poet was known best for his epic poem, The Divine Comedy, which includes sections representing the three tiers of the Christian afterlife: Purgatory (Purgatorio), Hell (Inferno), and Paradise (Paradiso). This poem was a great work of medieval literature and was considered the greatest work of literature composed in Italian. The Divine Comedy was a Christian vision of mankind’s eternal fate. When The Divine Comedy was written, Dante made a cathedral painting that represents his poem called Dante and His Poem. In the painting, the Dante shows the 3 tiers related to the Christian afterlife. Dante was standing in a red robed colossus, revealing his poem to the city of Florence. The painting was full of great meaning, inspiring so many artists from Rodin to Robert Rauschenberg.

With his writing style and the implementation of some literature firsts, Dante assured his name in history. His mastery of language, his sensitivity to the sights and sounds of nature, and his infinite store of information allow him to capture and draw the reader into the realm of the terrestrial Hell. His vast store of knowledge of Greek mythology and the history of his society assists Dante in the

As Dante makes his ascent through hell and purgatory, he is guided by two figures. The first is Virgil, who saves him from peril and accompanies him, as a friend, through the layers of both afterlifes. The second is Beatrice, who inspired Dante’s journey of salvation in the first place, and who he longs to be reunited with. Yet although these guides are leading him towards God, Dante mistakes their guiding as the end itself. He makes a God of Beatrice, sees her as the ultimate good towards which one strives, and makes a Jesus of Virgil, the man through whom this ultimate good is reached. In this way, Dante creates his own trinity, much to the detriment of his ascent to the True God.

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

In Dante Alighieri The Divine Comedy, Dante uses powerful imagery and goes into immense detail on a journey to the afterlife. Dante uses a lot of well-written imagery to make his story seem more relatable and real, to scare his readers into believing that you need only turn to God for the forgiveness of sin. At the beginning of the story, Dante is walking in the woods in darkness feeling sad and not right with God, after this Dante see a mountain and tries to go up but he is blocked by three beasts which represent sin. Most everything in this story is an allegory, he means two things, literal and figurative meaning.

Dante is saying that Virgil cannot enter heaven because he lived before Christ. Dante admires the classical Roman world but rejects it as the path of salvation to God.

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, 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.

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.

It is necessary to state that a journey through Heaven fascinates readers and gives a complete vent to the imagination. I believe that it is the last great portion of poetry from the period of Dante’s maturity. In it, more than in other parts of the poem, it is possible to see small but perfect fragments of lyrics. While