The Divine Comedy Essay - 1620 Words

In Dante Alighieri’s personal narrative poem, The Divine Comedy, he describes a fictional journey that he underwent through hell in the section titled Inferno. He tells the audience that â€Å"midway along the journey of our life I woke to find myself in a dark wood, for I had wandered off from the straight path† (Dante 1:1-3). Dante must go on a journey through hell and purgatory and learn important lessons with his guide, Virgil, in order to reach heaven. Dante integrates â€Å"exemplum†, or examples, and personal experiences with the shades in hell to portray lessons that he must learn, such as how he must learn to not pity the sinners, to differentiate between his respect for faith versus his respect for people, and that he must not get too much†¦show more content†¦At the end, Dante quickly reveals that his name is Filippo Argenti, who was a man who lived in Florence at the same time as Dante, which is most likely why Dante mentioned that he recogni zed the soul. This canto is important because it is not long after his encounter with Francesca and Paolo, where he pitied the two lovers so much that he passed out. In this canto, Dante has already started to change his vision of the souls stuck in hell because he does not pity Filippo Argenti for ending up in hell. Dante has even started to gain pleasure from seeing the souls in hell, because he says that he still thanks the Lord for allowing him to see the sight of Argenti being attacked by the other shades. In addition to his reaction to the shade, it is clear that Dante is learning his lesson about not pitying the souls in hell because Virgil encourages Dante’s lack of pity towards Argenti in this canto. In the nineteenth canto, Dante has an encounter with a pope who ended up in hell for committing simony. He is curious about the fact that there are small holes everywhere with feet sticking out of them, and a specific pair of feet which are â€Å"writhing more than any of his comrades† and â€Å"licked by a redder flame† (Dante 19:32-33) catch his attention. Dante asks the soul to make a sound if he can hear Dante speaking. The soul replies by asking if it is Boniface speaking to him, which Dante is dumbfounded by, but he quickly respondsShow MoreRelatedEssay about The Divine Comedy1224 Words   |  5 Pagesgoing through hell, keep going. If you were to describe Dante’s Divine Comedy as simply as possible you would use this quote. However, Dante’s Divine Comedy has never been that simple. Sure, it is about religion and hell and heaven. But it is also about political ideas. The way spirituality and politics commingle in Dante’s world has interested literature fiends and political theorists alike. So what exactly is Dante’s Divine Comedy? How did Dante’s everyday life affect this piece of literature?Read More The Divine Comedy Essay728 Words   |  3 Pagesdepth of spiritual vision and was known for his intelligence (Encarta, 1). Between the years of 1308 and 1321, Dante wrote the epic poem, The Divine Comedy,; which described a journey through the afterlife. It takes place during the three days of Good Friday, when Jesus died, and on Easter Sunday when he rose body and soul to heaven. It is a moral comedy, and was written to make readers evaluate their own morals. The journey was to show readers what could happen if they live a sinful life, or ifRead MoreDivine Comedy Essay Questions1737 Words   |  7 Pagesgroups of poets, one group from the classical tradition and one from the school of the Sweet New Style. (If you do not remember what this expression means, you have to go back to one of the lectures at the beginning of the semester. 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Virgil’s underworld is largelyRead More The Divine Comedy vs. Paradise Lost Essay3038 Words   |  13 Pages Full Circle – from Sin to Salvation nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Great works of literature have been written throughout history. However, The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost have the inept ability to stir the soul and cause a person to examine and re-examine their life. The brilliant descriptions, use of imagery, metaphor and simile give a person a vivid picture of the creation of man and the possibilities for life in the hereafter. This is done, as a person is able to see, full circle, from