The Divine Comedy Essay
The Divine Comedy EssayDante Alighieri's, The Divine Comedy, Inferno, was written during a very uncertain time of his life. He is middle aged and exiled from his beloved city of Florence. Dante is economically and politically ruined (Cervigni and Vasta 6). He reflects on the past and is repulsed by its significance. The consumption of his guilt, depression, and anger was the impetus for writing this book. In the first paragraph in Canto I, "Midway in the journey of out life I found myself in a dark wood, for the straight way was lost. Ah, how hard it is to tell what that wood was, wild, rugged, harsh; the very thought of it renews the fear! It is so bitter that death is hardly more so. But, to treat of the good that I found in it, I will tell of the other things I saw there." (Alighieri 3) provides a sense where his mind was at the time. Dante is at a crossroads in his life and cannot find the road ahead. The dark wood refers to the uncertainty he was facing at the time. The prospect of death, for Dante, is an escape out of his torment. Dante made Hell with circles to express the different levels of guilt, depression, and anger. Throughout the circles, you find great poets, writers, biblical characters, and ot
I am sure he felt that he and his other White counterparts were doing what was best for the city of Florence before thrown into exile. A way out of his depression because of all that has happened to him. I think his guilt was based on the Bible's commandment that states "Thou shalt not commit adultery". Dante's guilt in reflected in Canto V, where he makes reference to his forbidden lustful love for Beatrice. Dante also makes reference that he maybe could not help himself, of the feelings he had for Beatrice, because "I learned that to such torment are condemned to carnal sinners, who subject reason to desire. Canto XXIII is in circle seven, where he puts people who have committed violence against themselves. In my view, this implies that he feels lost and alone and cannot see a way out because of the darkness. Dante asked Virgil to question the stub more, because Dante is so upset and cannot do it himself. Although it was still dark when they came out of Hell, his guilt, depression, and anger had been lifted and he could see hope, where he states at the end of the book, "we climbed up, he first and I second, so far that through a round opening I saw some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears; and thence we issued forth to see again the stars. His anger is great and he lets the reader know that Florence will be back like it once was when he says, "But if near morning our dreams are true, you shall feel ere long what Prato, as well as others, craves for you. I believe Dante began to see that at the end of the book, where he and Virgil "entered on that hidden road to return into the bright world;"(Alighieri 369).
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