Virgil and Dante Essay

The Allegory of the Cave and Dante “If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” This maxim applies to the poet Dante Alighieri, writer of The Inferno in the 1300s, because it asserts the need to establish oneself as a contributor to society. Indeed, Dante’s work contributes much to Renaissance Italy as his work is the first of its scope and size to be written in the vernacular. Due to its readability and…

Inferno, justice is not a merely cruel and unusual punishment designed to elicit cheap shock from onlookers. Inferno portrays God’s justice as springing from primal love, and thus is conditioned with compassion, however difficult it may be to recognize. Dante ensures the concept of contrapassor, which translates literally as "counter-penalty." Here, sinners are punished according to the nature of their sin, so that their punishment fits their crime. Some sinners literally become the embodiment of their…

In Dante’s Inferno, Dante creates inventive imagery between ones sin and the punishment they would receive in Hell. One of the main themes that Dante uses in the book is allegory, or how the punishment fits the sin. This theme illustrates what happens to people who sin on earth. In this theme Dante created a hell that had nine levels, each worse than the first. Starting with a lesser heaven and ending with the icy cold ninth circle, where Lucifer resides. In each circle, sinners are punished according…

allegory in the Inferno greatly varies from Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" in purpose, symbolism, characters and mentors, and in attitude toward the world. An analysis of each of these elements in both allegories will provide an interesting comparison. Dante uses allegory to relate the sinner's punishment to his sin, while Plato uses allegory to discuss ignorance and knowledge. Dante's Inferno describes the descent through Hell from the upper level of the opportunists to the most evil, the treacherous…

Virgil Virgil came to be regarded as one of Rome's greatest poets. His Aeneid can be considered a national epic of Rome and has been extremely popular from its publication to the present day. Virgil- Beatrice sends Virgil to Earth to retrieve Dante and act as his guide through Hell and Purgatory. Since the poet Virgil lived before Christianity, he dwells in Limbo (Ante-Inferno) with other righteous non-Christians. As author, Dante chooses the character Virgil to act as his guide because he admired…

In the beginning of Dante’s Inferno, Dante engages the reader in a personal way by including them in his story. He allows the reader to relate and emphasizes that they will or most likely have gone through an experience of losing their path in life. Midway on our life’s journey, I found myself/ In dark woods, the right road lost (Dante, 1408). The Inferno is often described as the quintessence of the medieval worldview, a codification of the values of the high Middle Ages in art, science, theology…

between Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil the Guide In Dante’s Inferno, the relationship between Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil the Guide is an ever-evolving one. By analyzing the transformation of this relationship as the two sojourn through the circles of hell, one is able to learn more about the mindset of Dante the Poet. At the outset, Dante is clearly subservient to Virgil, whom he holds in high esteem for his literary genius. However, as the work progresses, Virgil facilitates…

true love. Both Dante and Odysseus have a woman who waits for them and in their travels must search themselves and make the right choices to get back to them. Odysseus longs to be with his wife Penelope and Dante to be with the woman he wants to marry Beatrice. Both men are very much love the woman in their lives, go to their own hell and back and can think of nothing other than finding their way back to them. Beatrice even after death has a spirit that is very much in love with Dante. She has faith…

paper in a never-ending wind storm. Welcome to Dante 's Inferno, his perspective on the appropriate punishments for those who are destined to hell for all eternity. Dante attempts to make the punishments fit the crimes, but because it is Dante dealing out the tortures and not God, the punishments will never be perfect because by nature, man is an imperfect creature. Only God is capable of being above reproach and of metering out a just punishment. While Dante 's treatment towards the tyrants is fitting…

Ovid wrote the Metamorphoses nearly two thousand years ago and Dante wrote Purgatorio 1600 years after that - two pieces of literature that dealt with topics which transcend humanity's perceived reality. Each piece of literature attempts to arrive at a truth concerning the essence of human existence, Dante seeks answers within the confines of Catholic dogma while Ovid approaches existence from a paganistic perspective. This demonstrates two very different approaches to the same exact query. Mankind…