Similarities Between Dante's Inferno And A Christmas Carol

Life is full of comparisons whether in television shows, sports, or literature, making it hard to go a day without seeing at least one comparison between two things. There are common comparisons that nearly everyone can make such as similar songs or a play in a game that are nearly identical to another, but some comparisons are more difficult to draw than others. Prime examples of this are hard to come by but one is most definitely the small comparison that can be made between “Dante’s Inferno” and “A Christmas Carol.” Although the similarities may seem to be hidden once you dive deeper into both they are quite obvious. The similarities that are seen between the two is that the main character learns about something from ghosts, that both

In “Inferno” the main character, Dante, is walked around by the ghost of Virgil. In “A Christmas Carol” the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, gets taught by the three ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. While Dante is not so much taught anything by his ghost friend but instead shown how hell works, while Scrooge is shown his life in the past, his people feel about him in the present, and how people react to his death as compared to Tiny Tim’s death in the future. This similarity is clearly stated that both teachers of the main characters in “A Christmas Carol” and “Inferno” because the author of both plainly comes out and states that they are ghosts. In the “Inferno” Dante tells the reader that Virgil is a ghost through many quotes but the first one to be found in the book goes, “When I saw him in that vast wilderness, “Have pity on me,” were the words I cried “whatever you may be a shade, a man.”” This quote from “Inferno shows that Virgil is not a man but rather something like a shade, and it is not long after that the reader learns that he is fact a ghost. Because both of the main drivers behind the main characters in the books are no longer alive the comparison is quite easy to make. But this is not the only comparison that there is to be made between the two, there is also a comparison because they both take place on religious

“A Christmas Carol” takes place on Christmas Eve to Christmas day while “Inferno” is from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. These two holidays are two of the most important religious holidays for Christians and Catholics. This can be made into a comparison because both stories tell you that they take place on these days and it is not often that a story takes place on a holiday. Usually stories take place on any old day but these two go out of their way to inform the reader that they take place on these holidays. In “A Christmas Carol” one of many quotes that proves it takes place on Christmas Eve is said by the ghost of Christmas past when he says, “For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.” He states this when he is showing Scrooge himself as a child being happy and joyful. Although a very unique comparison it is still not the only one to be found between the