Movement and Stasis : The use of dynamics in the Divine Comedy
Movement is a crucial theme of the Divine Comedy. From the outset, we are confronted with the physicality of the lost Dante, wandering in the perilous dark wood. His movement within the strange place is confused and faltering; `Io non so ben ridir com'io v'entrai'. Moreover, it is clear that the physical distress he is experiencing is the visible manifestation of the mental anguish the poet is suffering. The allegory of the image is one of mid-life crisis, but it is physically represented by the man losing his way in a dark wood. Such an observation may seem far too simple and obvious to be worthy of comment. However, I would argue that it is from this primary example of the deep connection between the physical and the mental, that one can begin to categorise and explain the varying types of movement in the work. The first section of this essay will be a close analysis of several important moments of physical activity or the absence of such. The final section will be an overview of the whole and a discussion of the general structure of the Comedy, how movement is governed and the implications of this.
To begin with, it is useful to summarise the different types of movement (or indeed stasis) that can be found in the Comedy. There is a full range - from the violent movements of the `bufera infernale' of Canto V, Inferno, through the slow, laboured movements of the proud in Canto X, Purgatory, to the frozen stasis of the prisoners in deepest Hell in Canto XXXIII. There is not a simple immediate explanation. Fast movement does not equate a greater sin than the frozen solidity of the treacherous nor vice versa. By analysing several key passages from all t...
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...ucture of the cosmos, it becomes rapidly clear that her placing in Hell is appropriate. She is unable, through her inconstancy and lack of intellect to accept the divine order. Her movement is due only to the punishment of her sin, her overall position in Hell is due to her ignorance and inconstancy.
Movement then, is a complex issue in the Comedy. And yet, difficult as it is to unravel, it plays a crucial schematic and poetic role in the work. The dual relationship between the internal and external examples of motion increases the poetic and ideological intricacy of the eipc. Within the individual canti, movement is used as either a vehicle for punishment, penance or reward. This coupled with the drama and the implicit order of the overall structure creates the backdrop and props for a poetry and philosophy which can quite reasonably be labelled `divine'.
...tric question to represent all that he has been seeking and the solution to be a mathematical or numerical Beatrice. If that is the case, then we might be forgiven for suspecting that even if Dante has obtained the answer, he himself cannot decipher, let alone transcribe, her. Beatrice has escaped again and the chase continues, in a motion that is described at one and the same time with the verb “volgeva” (think volgere, capovolgere—winding, turning on its head, ie both without end and dizzying and disorientating) and as a “rota ch’igualmente é mossa”, an image that brings to mind both a cyclical and thus endless motion (the circular turning of the wheel) as well as a movement forward (the wheel as transportation). “L’amor che move il sole e l’altra stelle” spurs Dante himself on, mystified by that which he cannot reach, seeking to write the ever-elusive Beatrice.
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Inferno. Trans. Allen Mandelbaum. Notes Allen Mandelbaum and Gabriel Marruzzo. New York: Bantam Books, 1980
Jacoff, Rachel and Jeffrey T. Schnapp. The Poetry of Allusion: Virgil and Ovid in Dante’s Commedia. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1991.
Thesis- Dante and Virgil have an interesting relationship that changes throughout Dante’s Inferno. They started off very different and Virgil didn’t care much for Dante. Dante looked at Virgil differently after he had heard Beatrice sent him to guide him. Throughout their travels, their relationship changed as they went through every layer of hell. Something happened in each one that changed their relationship either drastically, or barely at all. Their travels are very intriguing and their relationship is very complex. They become very close, so much that Dante acquires a deep trust in Virgil. They are no longer “just friends.” They are both poets and can communicate very well through words and Literature.
The Divine Comedy, written in the 14th century by Dante Alighieri, is a heroic epic. Throughout Dante’s literary work, he outlines his scientific understandings of the world, his political views and provides the reader with a moral compass and spiritual map of which to follow. This poem is written in three parts, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradisio, each of which is broken down into individual cantos. Inferno includes 34 cantos, whereas Purgatrio and Paradiso each contain 33 cantos, however, the first canto of Inferno is really an introduction to the poem.
The Inferno is a work of transition between two points, as attested by the opening lines: "When I had journeyed half of our life's way,/ I found myself within a shadowed forest,/ for I had lost the path that does not stray" (I, 1-3). Echoes of these famous lines can be heard in Robert Frost's "The Road Less Traveled"; whereas Frost's poem concerns itself with the duality and firmness of decision, Dante's tercet implies an interval of great indecision and limbo. Indeed, he is anything but entrenched in position: "I cannot clearly say how I had entered/ the wood; I was so full of sleep just at/ The point where I abandoned the true path" (I, 10-12). Dante is nearly sleepwalking, yet another fusion of two worlds, the conscious and unconscious. This division of self can best be explained by Dante's exile and his loss of national identity. He examines this alienated state through a geographic metaphor: "And just as he who, with exhausted breath,/ Having escaped from sea to shore, turns back/ To watch the dangerous waters he has q...
Dante, an Italian poet during the late middle ages, successfully parallels courtly love with Platonic love in both the La Vita Nuova and the Divine Comedy. Though following the common characteristics of a courtly love, Dante attempts to promote love by elevating it through the lenses of difference levels. Through his love affair with Beatrice, although Beatrice has died, he remains his love and prompts a state of godly love in Paradiso. Dante, aiming to promote the most ideal type of love, criticizes common lust while praises the godly love by comparing his state of mind before and after Beatrice’s death. PJ Klemp essay “Layers of love in Dante’s Vita Nuova” explains the origins of Dante’s love in Plato and Aristotle themes that designate
Deceived perspective and impaired logic lure vulnerable individuals to frolic in the meadows of sin; therefore, in order to achieve ultimate freedom, one must first be stripped clean of all earthly and common expectations. Dante contorts Earth from a palace to a prison. Bound in earthly limitations, man “by his own fault” (Dante 307) engenders “grief and toil” (Dante 307) causing the “the winds of earth and sea to rise” (Dante 307). Men adhere to addictive habits ignorant of God’s presence on earth. By contrast, purgatory cuts men’s binds to these traps through punishment, enlightening individuals to their mistake. These conversions prompt “singing” (Dante 109) not moaning—as one would expect during punishment—and as the cleansed souls free themselves of their burdens of sin, their climb “up the sacred stairs”(Dante 133) seems “lighter”(Dante 133) and “easier by far” (Dante 133). Dante uses these paradoxe...
“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 availability, The Inferno is a nationalistic symbol. With this widespread availability also comes a certain social responsibility; even though Dante’s audience would have been familiar with the religious dogma, he assumes the didactic role of illustrating his own version of Christian justice and emphasizes the need for a personal understanding of divine wisdom and contrapasso, the idea of the perfect punishment for the crime. Dante acts as both author and narrator, completing a physical and spiritual journey into the underworld with Virgil as his guide and mentor. The journey from darkness into light is an allegory full of symbolism, much like that of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which shows a philosopher’s journey towards truth. Therefore, Dante would also agree with the maxim, “Wise men learn by others’ harms; fools scarcely by their own,” because on the road to gaining knowledge and spiritual enlightenment, characters who learn valuable lessons from the misfortunes of others strengthen their own paradigms. Nonetheless, the only true way to gain knowledge is to experience it first hand. Dante’s character finds truth by way of his own personal quest.
In the written text, Shakespeare emphasis's the hidden reality through the use of dramatic techniques of imagery and symbolism. There is a constant use of light and dark imagery which is used by the protagonist , MAC...
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