Joseph Haddad
Mrs Pasillas
Composition and Rhetoric
November 11 2015
Dante's Inferno Canto 23 In Canto 23, Dante and Virgil seem to be walking to get to the next bolgia through a bridge that the devil had told them was unbroken. Dante writes “we to the next bolgia can descend. We shall escape from the imagined chase." Thus, they foresee being attacked by the demons escorting them. In fact they immediately see the devils flying after them “with outstretched wings”. Dante and Virgil escape to the next bolgia to be safe. In a ditch they find monks wearing clothes that are very pretty on the outside but “all leaden and so heavy” on the inside. This represents the hypocrisy of these people. Dante sees one of the hypocrites crucified. Virgil then
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Dante wanted to see the condition of this bolgia by looking at the pitches and what types of souls were on them. Virgil starts talking to one of the souls and finds out that in this location, souls get tortured by the demons. When two demons get distracted chasing a soul, Dante and Virgil take the opportunity to leave and this is where Canto 23 begins. Canto 24 continues from the broken bridge in Canto 23. The path is very difficult and filled with sinners being chased by serpents. Virgil speaks to a soul named Vanni Fucci who tells him that bad things will happen in Florence. So this chapter is very similar to Canto 23 in that the settings are similar but Dante and Virgil see different …show more content…
Historically, Dante is the author, Virgil is his guide and is the historical ancient Roman poet . Dante was most likely influenced as a writer by Virgil’s work. The hypocrites seem to allude to the Pharisees in the Bible whom Jesus criticized. The man crucified to the ground is most likely referring to the crucifixion of Jesus. The friars Catalano and Loderingo probably represent people in the Church who abuse their positions and live lavish lives rather than serving God and the people humbly. The demons and the devil obviously refer to themselves in our world – the doers of evil and
Dante's and Virgil's scorn seems at first glance to echo the sin of intemperate anger which infects the foul waters of the Stygian marsh. Filippo Argenti, the weeping sinner who emerges from the mire, is eternally punished for his anger. However, the pilgrim's denunciation of Filippo is not only permitted, but lauded by Virgil with the praise given Jesus: "Blessed is the womb that bore thee!" (VIII, 43-44) Even the pilgrim's further, seemingly sadistic request to see Filippo attacked by his brethren is granted and accepted as appropriate. This seeming discrepancy in behavior can be reconciled by understanding the underlying motivations of the speakers. The pilgrim and Virgil travel with Divine sanction through Hell. The pilgrim's entire being learns to become entirely subject to the will of God. Virgil's journey is in obedience to the three angelic women who are Dante's patronesses: Our Lady, St. Lucia and Beatrice. However, Filippo Argenti is described by Virgil as "full of arrogance" (VIII, 46) Filippo Argenti's primary concern is Filippo Argenti. The essential element that separates the pilgrim from the sinners in the marsh is his subservience to God. Due to their divergent natures, the treatment of Filippo Argenti by the pilgrim and Virgil reflects the supreme triumph of the righteous over evil and serves as a warning to the reader.
Is there a possibility that violence and fraud both have a lot in common? Is Dante’s reverence of the classical scholars more vivid in this canto despite his brevity? Does Virgil’s explanation of why usury was a sin convincing? Why did Dante raise the question on usury at this point since there seems to be no relevant connection to the other two main vices? These are the kinds of questions that make this canto very interesting. Canto XI offers us something different from all the action of the past by providing a map of what lies ahead; and what moral concepts would come to surface. In other words, Virgil gives Dante a quick overview of Hell’s structure.
It is difficult to determine the true nature of Virgil in Dante's Commedia. At times, he grants incredible advice that parallels the wisdom of some early church fathers, and other times he shows no expertise in any situation, to the point of conferring entirely misinformed counsel. This disparity is confusing mainly because Virgil looked like he would be an infallible guide at the beginning of the Divine Comedy. Yet there are plenty of occurrences confirming Virgil's shortcomings beyond doubt. So what is Dante trying to convey in Virgil's personage? Virgil is not shown to be completely wicked or just in his appearances in the poem, but there is no moral middle ground, as shown by the structure of Dante's afterlife. So, all the reader is left with is Paradise's estimation of Virgil, which is the only ensured truth the Poet gives the reader. Since Heaven chose Virgil to guide escort Dante the Pilgrim to Heaven, but Virgil can continue no further than the entrance to earthly paradise, Virgil must represent a transitional phase that Dante must shed in order to achieve full salvation.
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.
Virgil represented Dante and his humanity, that he still has sin that is holding him back, and when he must stay behind it shows Dante’s change. Virgil is stuck in hell, not able to move past the sin from his life on earth, like how Dante was at the beginning of the novel. When Dante crosses the river to Beatrice the reader is shown how Dante is leaving his sin behind him and is changing into something greater. The reader can tell that he is being transformed because the guides teach him different aspects that needed to be changed. When a person is changing, he must realize his past, which is what Virgil is teaching him, and then how to use this change for the better, which is what Beatrice is teaching him. They each represent the two stages of Dante’s transformation; Virgil showing Dante the effects of sin and Beatrice helping Dante learn and see the truth in purity. Dante the poet also want the readers to realize with this change that Dante in the novel has overcome his sin. When Virgil leaves him in the hands of Beatrice he is confident that he has done his part, that Dante is freed from his temptation, and he is confident that now Dante can follow his heart and not let it lead him to sin. When Dante follows Beatrice, the reader knows that his selfish ways have been wiped away, that Virgil and Beatrice know that Dante is on his way to holiness. The different things the guides teach Dante highlight this change. Virgil taught Dante more about the effects of his lifestyle now, that if he did not change he will be crushed by his sin in the afterlife. The Dante that was with Virgil was very proud and cared too much for the sinners in hell, and Virgil needed to show him how wrong he is being. When Dante meets Beatrice, we can see the change Dante has made, that he is less caught up with himself and sees the effects of his actions. Beatrice reprimands Dante,
For centuries humans have been drawing parallels to help explain or understand different concepts. These parallels, or allegories, tell a simple story and their purpose is to use another point of view to help guide individuals into the correct line of thought. “The only stable element in a literary work is its words, which if one knows the language in which it is written, have a meaning. The significance of that meaning is what may be called allegory.”(Bloomfield) As Bloomfield stated, it is only how we interpret the words in an allegory that matters, each person can interpreted it in a slightly different way and allegories are most often personalized by a reader. Dante’s Inferno allegory is present throughout the entire poem. From the dark wood to the depths of Dante’s hell he presents the different crimes committed in life as they could be punished in death.
Throughout this canto, Dante continually references back to the cold and filth of the landscape. He alludes to the land itself as a “sodden mess” and speaks of the “huge hailstones, dirty water, and black snow” which “pour from the dismal air to purify the putrid slush that waits for (the gluttons) below”. It is also notable that while many other
...s Minos's warning to Dante and his unusual illustration of how the sinners are judged. The monsters also form strategic narrative devices, as their confrontations with Dante and Virgil continue the pattern of incident and movement in the text, adding variety and tension.
...taneously praises Virgil (Dante, 1.2.82-87) and then provides evidence that he himself is a type of Virgil. He refers to “Dante” as a type of Aeneas in the scene with Cacciaguida; therefore, by extension, Dante too would be a type of Virgil. Dante shows himself to be a new (and better) Virgil at the allegorical level upon which the Divine Comedy can be seen as guiding every Christian to salvation. Dante uses typology in order to make this point– for him, Virgil is not only a great poet, but a figure in literature that prefigures or foreshadows another, greater figure. So Dante is, in this way, a fulfillment of Virgil, both as a character and a poet.
Though there are countless disturbing moments throughout Dante’s Inferno, one can dare to say that Canto 34 is the most unsettling and borderline irreverent Canto in Inferno. In Canto 34, Dante and Virgil meet the sinners who are deemed to be the most evil; those who have betrayed their benefactors (the individuals who extended their kindness towards them.) It is also the canto where Dante meets Satan, the king of hell. Dante opens Canto 34 with a sentence in Latin that reads: “Vexilla, regis prodeunt inferni.” In translator Mandelbaum’s notes, the words are said to mean: “The banners of the king of Hell draw closer.” At first glance, the reader might dismiss the fact that this is the only line in canto 34 that is written
In Canto XVI of the Inferno, Dante and Virgil discover the third ring in the seventh circle, which is the sin of the lion, where the souls that were violent against god, nature and art are held. The sinners in the third ring walk on burning sand, which scalds their feet. Minotaurs, born by union of the Moon Goddess and one of Poseidon’s beasts, guard the circle of the violent. Dante and Virgil walk along the banks of the Phlegethon River and end up at a waterfall. Along the way to the waterfall, Dante and Virgil speak to three Florentine souls: Guido Guerra, the leader of the Guelfs (a faction that supported the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor), Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, a Guelf noble and knight, and Jacopo Rusticucci, a Florentine knight. Dante speaks to the souls about current Florence and the souls encourage him to make him and his works of poetry and writing “immortal”, so he can be forever remembered in history. In the seventh circle of Hell, Dante uses multiple vivid literary devices to describe the Inferno and to paint a picture for the reader. He constantly employs literary devices and imagery to describe his idea of Hell. Multiple times, Dante uses dramatic literary devices to aid the readers of the Inferno and to make people believe that his story could actually be evident.
When Dante is slow to learn these lessons, such as when he sympathizes with sinners or remains too long in one circle of Hell, Virgil often grows impatient with him, a trait that humanizes his usual impersonal nature. He is wise, commanding, and resourceful, but he is often helpless in protecting Dante from the true dangers of Hell and completing the journey. In Canto VIII, we see the inept side of Virgil when he requires assistance from an angelic messenger to enter the City of Dis. Allegorically, this trouble shows that even reason and wisdom cannot overcome every obstacle and that divine intervention is far more powerful than anything a human has to offer. However, reason is necessary in life to provide morals to a soul by helping him distinguish between and understand good and evil, explain the nature of moral law, and even lead him to the threshold of perfection, but reason cannot offer redemption. Only divine love provides the purification and final salvation. This is why in Purgatorio, Beatrice must take over as the guide in the Garden of Eden, where man is restored to
Canto XI serves the purpose in a twofold way; literally as a pause to the character Dante to prepare himself for the foul stench of the lower depths of hell, and as a pause to the reader to discuss the rationale of divine punishment. When the canto begins Virgil and Dante stop to prepare for the coming levels. Dante asks Virgil to find a productive way to pass the time. Virgil obliges Dante and tells him a graphic depiction of the levels to come; both the geography and the rationale behind these levels are discussed. After the discussion Dante poses the questions “But tell me, the souls in the sickening swamp, and those wind drives, and those rain pelts, and those who collide with such harsh words, why are they not punished in this charred city if God’s wrath is upon them? And if it is not, why do they suffer such a sorry fate?” (Canto XI 70-75). Dante’s questions can be viewed in two lights. First out of condemnation of all sinners, “Why are they not punished in this charred city” (Canto XI 73), if the souls of previous levels are sinner...
Dante's "Inferno" is full of themes. But the most frequent is that of the weakness of human nature. Dante's descent into hell is initially so that Dante can see how he can better live his life, free of weaknesses that may ultimately be his ticket to hell. Through the first ten cantos, Dante portrays how each level of his hell is a manifestation of human weakness and a loss of hope, which ultimately Dante uses to purge and learn from. Dante, himself, is about to fall into the weaknesses of humans, before there is some divine intervention on the part of his love Beatrice, who is in heaven. He is sent on a journey to hell in order for Dante to see, smell, and hear hell. As we see this experience brings out Dante's weakness' of cowardice, wrath and unworthiness. He is lead by Virgil, who is a representation of intellect. Through Dante's experiences he will purge his sins.
Then Dante sees a human figure, which is soon revealed to be the great Roman poet Virgil. He shows a different path to reach the hill and volunteers to be Dante’s guide, leading Dante to the journey towards Hell but also the journey seeking for light and virtue. In terms of structure, Canto I functions as an introduction, explaining the two major characters and the motivation for their journey. Dante portrays himself as the protagonist and speaks in the first person from a subjective perspective. Through the establishment of such a strong voice, readers are given clear insight into his emotions and motivations.