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Literary analysis of dante's inferno
Literary analysis of dante's inferno
Literary analysis of dante's inferno
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Within The Inferno Dante, the protagonist wanders off the moral path and gets lost in the dark woods. Almost attacked by wild animals he is saved by the ghost of Virgil, a popular Roman poet. Virgil guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell and through this journey Dante unveils his true feelings toward the political world during the medieval time. While Dante unleashes his hatred towards clericalism, in the epic poem of Canterbury Tales, Chaucer documents various social tensions in the 1300’s due to the explicit portrayal of thirty- four characters. Within The Inferno and Canterbury Tales, these vernacular writings illuminate anti-clericalism inspired by personal experiences during the medieval time.
Starting off with The Inferno, Dante Alighieri was born in Florence, Italy in 1265. He came from a moderate wealthy family who immersed themselves in the complex Florentine political environment. While his family had a tremendous impact on Dante, he started to study philosophy, which only intensified his political views. Dante’s personal life during the late thirteenth century parallels greatly with the comedy, Inferno. During this time period the struggle between the church and state for temporal authority affected Italy in various ways. Specifically in Florence, two parties were developed as a result to this crisis, one being the Guelph’s loyalty, supporting the papacy and the Ghibelline loyalty focusing on the imperial power. Dante being apart of the White party, supporting the independence of Florence from papal authority eventually has personal issues with Pope Boniface VIII, supporting the black party. This specific ground had individuals who were willing to work with the pope in order restore power; Boniface eventually exi...
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... inspire his future texts, such as The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer lived through brutal events during the 1300’s, such as English social sphere, the Black Death and the Hundred Years Wars. Due to the Black Death wiping out roughly fifty percent of England and remaining widespread throughout, social statuses were demolished creating new ones. The labor force took this opportunity to increase leverage resulting to resentment from the nobles and propertied classes. And while the nobles and others held resentment towards the labor force they will eventually have the same feeling when the peasantry revolts against them. As time went on merchants capitalized on demand for luxury, which resulted into a merchant oligarchy rule over London. Although Chaucer’s political views are unclear, social satire during the medieval era is undoubtedly relevant with The Canterbury Tales.
Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence, Italy, into a moderate wealth household. In his late twenties, Dante Alighieri wrote the Vita Nuova around 1292, during a period when he began studying philosophy and intensified his political involvement in Florence. Dante held multiple significant public offices in Italy. In 1302, at the age of 35, Dante was exiled from Florence by the leaders of the Black Guelphs, the political faction in power at the time. During this time, Dante wrote Inferno. Throughout both Inferno and La Vita Nuova, Dante develops the story through the use of themes such as love’s motivation, the conflict in god vs man, in which he demonstrates his strong religious influence, and the power of storytelling, in which he also
While reading, one has no choice but to come to the simple realization that nothing has really changed from Chaucer's time to ours. In "The Canterbury Tales" Chaucer depicted people from all walks of life. Society then had three basic classes of virtue that most people fell under: the Revered, the Commonfolk, and the Despicable. In the days of Chaucer, these people could be found in any village or town, just as they can be found today in our towns. Times were different then, but the people haven't changed a bit.
Dante begins his struggle when he becomes lost in the dark forest and then later finds himself in the deep depths of hell with Virgil. “Everyman—that is, any human being—finds himself in the dark state of sin and error after having wandered from the true moral course established by God” (Rudd 10). He encounters a ghostly guy named Virgil who was the amazing Latin/Roman poet that guides him through the nine chambers of hell ba...
Dante Alighieri's The Inferno is a poem written in first person that tells a story of Dante’s journey through the nine circles of Hell after he strays from the rightful path. Each circle of Hell contains sinners who have committed different sins during their lifetime and are punished based on the severity of their sins. When taking into the beliefs and moral teachings of the Catholic Church into consideration, these punishments seem especially unfair and extreme.
...ards monstrous figures and sympathy towards those who seem to be tortured unjustly. In his perverse education, with instruction from Virgil and the shades, Dante learns to replace mercy with brutality, because sympathy in Hell condones sin and denies divine justice. The ancient philosopher Plato, present in the first level of Hell, argues in The Allegory of the Cave that truth is possible via knowledge of the Form of the Good. Similarly, Dante acquires truth through a gradual understanding of contrapasso and the recognition of divine justice in the afterlife. Ultimately, Dante recognizes that the actions of the earthly fresh are important because the soul lives on afterwards to face the ramifications. By expressing his ideas on morality and righteousness, Dante writes a work worth reading, immortalizes his name, and exalts the beliefs of his Christian audience.
Dante Alighieri was a very well known and influential poet in early literature. “He was not only a poet, he was also a philosophical thinker, an active politician, and a religious visionary'; (Holmes 1). Dante was born in Florence in 1265, into the Guelph political party, one of the two main parties in Florence. The Guelphs were aristocrats and nobles. They supported the church and papacy and were against the Renaissance. Their opposition was the Ghibellini Party who consisted of the rising merchant class. They supported the emperor and wanted to gain power from the pope (Holmes 22). During his earlier years Dante was neutral politically, but he eventually rose to become a high political figure in the Florentine government. He joined the White Guelphs, who split from the Black Guelphs. When the Blacks took over, Dante was banished from political office and exiled from Florence (Parish Internet). His life changed drastically during his exile, enabling him to concentrate on his writing.
In The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, the stereotypes and roles in society are reexamined and made new through the characters in the book. Chaucer discusses different stereotypes and separates his characters from the social norm by giving them highly ironic and/or unusual characteristics. Specifically, in the stories of The Wife of Bath and The Miller’s Tale, Chaucer examines stereotypes of women and men and attempts to define their basic wants and needs.
Throughout the epic poem Inferno, Dante the Pilgrim travels into the different circles of Hell told by Dante the Poet. The story examines what a righteous life is by showing us examples of sinful lives. Dante is accompanied by his guide Virgil, who takes him on a journey to examine sin and the effects it has in has in the afterlife to different sinners. Through the stories of Francesca and Paolo, Brunetto Latini, Ulysses and Guido da Montefeltro, we are able to understand that people are self-interested in the way they act and present themselves to others and that those in Hell are there because they have sinned and failed to repent their sins and moral failings.
The Canterbury Tales is a great contemplation of stories, that display humorous and ironic examples of medieval life, which imitate moral and ethical problems in history and even those presented today. Chaucer owed a great deal to the authors who produced these works before his time. Chaucer tweaked their materials, gave them new meanings and revealed unscathed truths, thus providing fresh ideas to his readers. Chaucer's main goal for these tales was to create settings in which people can relate, to portray lessons and the irony of human existence.
Inferno is the first and most famous of a three part series by Dante Alighieri known as the Divine Comedy that describes his journey to God through the levels of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise written in the early fourteenth century. Scholars spanning over nearly seven centuries have praised its beauty and complexity, unmatched by any other medieval poem. Patrick Hunt’s review, “On the Inferno,” states, “Dante’s extensive use of symbolism and prolific use of allegory— even in incredible anatomical detail—have been often plumbed as scholars have explored the gamut of his work’s classical, biblical, historical, and contemporary political significance” (9). In the story, each of the three main characters, Dante, Virgil, and Beatrice, represent
Dante’s Inferno presents the reader with many questions and thought provoking dialogue to interpret. These crossroads provide points of contemplation and thought. Dante’s graphic depiction of hell and its eternal punishment is filled with imagery and allegorical meanings. Examining one of these cruxes of why there is a rift in the pits of hell, can lead the reader to interpret why Dante used the language he did to relate the Idea of a Just and perfect punishment by God.
The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, was written in the 14th Century during the Hundred Years War. Each of the characters was made to represent one of the 7 sins. In Paradise Lost, written by John Milton, every character has a direct connection to an earthly comfort. Both stories are written with the intent to teach its readers; however, Paradise Lost was written in in the 17th century, which means the writing style and the social standard on what the difference is between right and wrong, and how salvation is received is very different.
... Moreover, such belief in human reason signifies Dante's hope towards a bright society and the pursuit of God’s love as the other part of self-reflection. In conclusion, a great deal of tension and contrast between “dark” and “light” in The Inferno helps us to explore Dante’s self portrait—he fears dangerous desires and sinful darkness, but shows much courage and hope towards life since he nevertheless follows his guide Virgil to dive into horrible Hell. As shown in Canto I, such emotional reaction to dark and light symbols lays a great foundation for developing Dante’s broad and universal traits as his journey progresses.
Geoffrey Chaucer was a on a mission when he wrote The Canterbury Tales. That mission was to create a satire that attacked three major institutions. Raphel displays, “Medieval society was divided into three estates: the Church (those who prayed), the Nobility (those who fought), and the Patriarchy. The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is an estates satire.” Chaucer wanted to shed light on the institutions that were taking advantage of the everyday man. Chaucer does this by making up tales about certain people that she light to the undercover world of the institutions. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses satire to attack the Church, the Patriarchy, and the Nobility.
“Inferno” by Dante Alighieri, written in the fourteenth century, is the first part of Dante’s epic poem, “Divine Comedy.” “Purgatorio” and “Paradiso” followed it. “Inferno” was an allegorical account of Dante as he descends through the nine levels of Hell with his guide, Roman poet Virgil. As Dante travels through the levels, or concentric rings of Hell, he begins to have a new understanding of religion and begins also to question his own morals and ethics. In the first few rings, Dante feels a large amount of pity for the tortured souls he sees. However, as he reaches the inner rings, he is less inclined to feel pity for the sinner souls, and eventually realizes that to feel pity for those in Hell is to demonstrate a lack of understanding. This is because divine justice is infinitely perfect and sinners receive punishment in proportion to their sins. The Sullen choke on mud, the Wrathful attack each other, the Gluttonous are forced to eat excrement, and so on. Dante refused to believe that every sinner is destined to suffer in the same Hell regardless of the severity of their sins. This highlights one of the major themes of “Inferno”: the idea that God’s justice is perfect. As harsh as it may seem, this punishment is completely deserved by the sinners.