Subjects:
think about their own morals. The poem could have been used almost as a
and what not to do to get into Heaven for the medieval people. Dante
a journey through the "afterlife" to imprint in the readers minds what
if they don't follow a Godlike life and to really make the reader think
go when they die and where they would like to go when they die. In the
Dante uses his imagination and his knowledge of the people's perception of
to create a somewhat realistic yet somewhat imaginary model of the
In the first lines of the Divine Comedy, Dante says "In the middle
our life I came to my senses in a dark forest, for I had lost the straight
lines 1-3) This is the typical stereotype of today for when a person
consumed in sin. The sinful life is a dark life and a sinless life is a
life. Dante's coming to his senses in a dark forest symbolizes his
he truly was and realizing that he needed to do som
. . .
entire basis of Hell is that it is for those who died unrepentant of their
sins. Purgatory is a place for people whom either repented shortly
before they died
or have not yet completed the process of repentance or all of the seven
sacraments. It would be a great challenge to
go back and try to
write your own picture of the afterlife. If you commit an act of sin you will be automatically
condemned to Hell. People
are eager to see, hear,
and read about violence, blood, and gore and the Inferno is full of it
which helps the reader
to pay closer attention to it. This is one of the more
imaginary elements of
the Divine Comedy because we do not know much about it, although we really
do not
know much about Heaven or Hell either except for what we read about in the
Bible and
there really are not many references to Purgatory in the Bible. All our lives people are
taught that if you sin
you will go to Hell and if you don't sin you will go to Heaven; there has
never been any in
between.
The Divine Comedy was a somewhat realistic yet somewhat imaginary
story that
entertained millions and was used as a guide for the medieval people. In order
to repent you must go through the seven sacraments of baptism,
confirmation, matrimony,
extreme unction, Eucharist, ordination, and penance step- by-step. Many portions of it would be the same as some
people's pictures
of it but many portions are different. The white rose is a fitting word picture
for God, but is just
different from what people would imagine as the home or throne of God.
Unlike Hell where it is eternal, people in Purgatory will eventually
complete their penance
and make it to Paradise the Kingdom of God. If you are in Purgatory you
are on your way
to Paradise or Heaven but you still need some cleansing but you will
eventually make it into
Paradise.
Essay's Topics
All research is for reference purposes only.