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The Tragedy Of The Odyssey And The Inferno Essay

Decent Essays
Although in both works human suffering is a key part of the story, the different characters of the divine in the Odyssey and Inferno result in a unique take on the role of suffering. We see that people who suffer in the Odyssey sometimes do not deserve their punishment, whereas in the Inferno we see that the people who suffer are suffering justly.
Suffering is a very important topic when it comes to writing tragedies or similar genres. It is a topic that authors take very seriously and are meticulous when implementing it in their works. Suffering is the experience of physical or mental distress. It can occur internally or externally. There are many ways in which human can suffer, for instance, human can suffer through physical pain, or going through mental hardships. When we look at both the Odyssey and the Inferno, we will find that without suffering, the story will lack its meaning and that is because suffering is arguably the central piece in both plots. Joye states, “The causes or the events of suffering are often situated outside of the human control or will of the sufferer.” (4). Many times, in the works we are going to examine, suffering is caused by God, but other times, it is caused by the actions of the sufferer. Certain questions emerge when people in both works suffer or witness suffering, like, why would a deity allow such thing to happen or exist? But there are deeper meanings in suffering and we are going to examine those meanings in both works.
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