Italy is known for its architectural achievements, beautiful constructed arches and domes which have inspired and influenced designs in many other countries. In Dan Brown’s novel, Inferno, the city Venice is portrayed in a blissful way through Robert Langdin’s encounters with the monuments, the city’s character, and the people. Dan Brown’s knowledge of literature and history vividly described which allow us, the reader, to relive each scene’s emotions and brings the book to life. The main spots in Venice were described in great detail with metaphors and personification. Saint Marks Basilica and Doge’s place mentioned in the book in detail are the main points of interest in Venice. As a tourist one would usually visit these historical places in Venice. Dan Brown uses a lot of imagery to describe the Byzantine architecture, and Gothic style of both these destinations. He leads the reader on a journey of Italy’s history which makes the reader want to gravitate to these lovely places and experience the global cultural city of Venice.
Robert Langdon boards a train, the Frecciargento which was bound for Venice, La Serenissima, and arrives at Santa Lucia Station. On the train, he discusses Dante’s medieval verses with Sienna and Dr. Ferris:
“Seek the treacherous doge of Venice who served the heads from horses… and plucked up the boned of the blind” (275).
These phrases allude to the city Venice where there may be a doge’s grave somewhere. “The doges of Venice were similar to the dukes of the other Italian city-states, and more than a hundred of them rules Venice over the course of a thousand years, beginning in A.D. 697. Their lineage had ended in the late eighteenth century with Napoleon’s conquest…” (276). The poem continues:...
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...he 1860’s has become part of a new kingdom of Italy. Venice’s architecture and buildings have produced conservation efforts that retain a great sense of atmosphere but flooding and pollution remains a problem. Many movies were shot in Venice, one of my favorites, The Italian Job. It is a city where people from all over the world come to enjoy, appreciate, and educate themselves. Dante’s midevil poem: “I am the shade” alludes to hell by the utilization of the word “shades” and “dolent”city where he will die and use as a city for the extinction of human kind. This is ironic to me because Italy is the country of love. I believe Zobrist chose Italy as a main target because of this. “Zobrist believed wholeheartedly in Transhumanism—in bettering the species through technology; however, he also believed our species would go extinct before we got a chance to do that” (295).
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 there are many literary topics. One of the main parts of this book is symbolism it uses this to some of the most gratifying results; it does this through the way that it uses the representation of blood and how it reflects a humans soul, also when the author uses fire as a key symbol for many different points as well as using a phoenix to describe mankind towards the end of the novel which has a great effect on how mankind can be adaptable. All of these symbols work together in the novel to help bring more of the characters to life and to give a deeper meaning to the novel, as well as to make the
Inferno follows the story of Dr. Langdon and Sienna Brooks as they travel through Florence trying to stop a mad man from setting loose a disease that could wipe out huge amounts of populations as a way to solve the world’s overpopulation problem. This disease being later shown to be a vector virus that make’s 1/3 of humans actually sterile instead. Langdon however has no memory of anything and has to retrace his steps in order to stop the possible outbreak. Many of the places told in the story all have to deal with significant areas within Florence herself. Florence is the breeding ground of the world’s most famous artists and have inspired books and even video games alike. From the Boboli Gardens to the Florence Baptistry.
Bruni explains that Florence is a beautiful city, one which cannot even be described in words. He notes that Florence is not ostentatious, but rather, it is elegant in its moderation (23b). The city is physically beautiful, but it also “possesses the clearest and purist speech” (42a). “The study of literature in Florence grows in full vigor,” Bruni points out. Pitti indirectly shows that he agrees with the art of literature by writing a sonnet in his diary (Pitti 71). Everything from the buildings to the land it sits on, Florence is claimed by Bruni to be the most gorgeous city in the world. The city is also amazingly clean (24a). Everywhere you go, Bruni is positive that you will find nothing “disgusting to the eye” (24a). However, according to Pitti, his family had to leave the city because “they had taken refuge from the plague then raging in Florence” (Pitti 64). Pitti again mentions how he and his family had to leave because of the plague in 1411 (Pitti 87). Dati also states that “there was a plague” in the year 14...
Ruud, Jay. Critical Companion to Dante: a Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On
While I read Dante’s Inferno, I caught myself reading an underlying message. It wasn’t about the Christian faith, or the soul’s road to salvation. It was Dante’s own political views. While the book may have been written for the religious message, I believe that Dante added his take on politics as well. I believe Dante uses religious principles to punish his political opponents.
When we are first introduced to Dante the Pilgrim, we perceive in him a Renaissance intellectual, who despite his intelligence and religiosity has lost the “path that does not stray” (I.3). Having thus lost touch with the tenets of orthodox Catholicism, a higher power has chosen for him to undertake an epic journey. (The devout are able to identify this power with the one Judeo-Christian God, while pagans and sinners often attribute the impetus behind the Pilgrim’s voyage to fate.)
Marshall, L. (1994). Manipulating the sacred: Image and plague in Renaissance Italy. Renaissance Quarterly, 47(3), 485-532. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Hell, it isn 't a place where anyone really wants to end up, well permanently that is. Dante Alighieri however really enjoys taking a “trip” to hell to teach us and enlighten us on the ins and outs and where exactly all the sinners end up. Alighieri tackles this daunting task of making all of hell fit into a small pocket-able, yet very enjoyable story by using a variety of literary styles and devices. However, let’s take a look at one specifically, symbolism. This is one of the most prevalent and obvious device, but it is the most important because it not only makes the story easier for the reader to understand, as well as make the book as enjoyable as it was.
Everyone has a different perception of what really is heaven and hell and where people end up in the after life. Some people are not even religious and have their own personal thoughts about what is next after death. The Inferno or to be more precise “Hell” can be described and defined as a place where people end up after death in the natural world, when people have not followed God’s ways and laws of living. It is has been depicted throughout the years of time that suffering in hell is horrific, gruesome, and unimaginable. In Dante’s Inferno, Dante portrays the protagonist as he is guided by his ghostly friend Virgil the poet through the nine chambers of Hell. The transition from one circle to another is very shocking and graphic at what he witnesses through each circle. Dante uncovers where each sin will lead people to once the sinners souls face death. He faces many trials and tribulations through the beginning to end of the Inferno. Dante felt impelled to write the Inferno because he was going through his own personal struggles at the time. In a way he was extremely depressed because he was exiled out of Florence, and the love of his life Beatrice died. While Dante was in exile for so many years, it allowed him to write some of his most significant works of literature that people still read to this day.
In the Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, there is a cathedral church whose octagonal dome, built without the aid of scaffolding, was considered the greatest engineering feat of the early Renaissance. Dedicated to Santa Maria del Fiore, Our Lady of the Flower, it is also known as the Duomo, after the Italian word for cathedral. Created by many great Early Modern artists, this piece of architecture is a perfect example the Renaissance style. We can come to a better understanding of why this is so by exploring what the characteristics of the Renaissance “style”. To understand the properties of the Florence Cathedral that fit the Early Modern style, I will begin with a description and its history. The cathedral's architectural style, although greatly influenced by French Gothic elements remained distinctively Florentine, especially the geometric patterns of red, green, and white marble on the building's exterior. Construction of the cathedral began in 1294 on the site of a Christian church founded in the 6th or 7th century and continued until 1436. Several celebrated Italian architects were involved in the project, including Giotto, Arnolfo di Cambio, Andrea Orcagna, and, most notably, Filippo Brunelleschi, who was responsible for designing and building the dome. The cathedral's exterior is ornamented with sculpture and mosaics by Italian artists Donatello, Nanni di Banco, and Domenico Ghirlandaio, among others. The building's stained-glass windows are the work of the Italian architect and artist Lorenzo Ghiberti, and the interior is decorated with sculpture and fresco paintings by several Renaissance masters. Construction of the campanile (bell tower), situated to the right of the entrance to the Duomo, was begun by Giotto and completed according to his plans in 1359, after his death. Nearly 278 ft high, the campanile is embellished with red, green, and white marble panels of relief sculpture by Italian artists Andrea Pisano and Luca della Robbia, and niches with sculpted figures by Donatello and other masters. Facing the cathedral and campanile is a smaller, octagonal structure, the Baptistery of San Giovanni, noted for its gilt-bronze doors, elaborately worked in high relief by Andrea Pisano and Lorenzo Ghiberti. With that background information about the cathedral, one question comes to mind: what is it that makes the Renaissance style distinct? Renaissa...
The Inferno is a very captivating narrative poem by the poet Dante which describes his imaginary journey towards finding God after falling asleep in the middle of his real life journey. The relationship between God and man is depicted clearly in The Inferno, The Divine Comedy. It is clearly shown that God does not associate with the evil or those in between good and evil. Though we see that God has hope for some who were once lost but can be redeemed and he sends his angels to guide those who get lost trying to find their way like Dante (Auerbach, Erich, 1961).In this significant journey, Dante first encounters a dark place in the woods and is guided by the shade of Virgil who appears to him in the woods. Dante says,
Gilbert wanted the audience to have an idea of her experience in Italy. Describing how she felt when she was in the streets of Naples and as she observed her surroundings, she wanted to get her audience comfortable to the sense of her trip, feeling how different the atmosphere is in Naples, “I instantly love Naples. Wild, raucous, noisy, dirty, balls-out Naples. An anthill inside a rabbit warren, with all the exoticism of a Middle Eastern bazaar and a touch of New Orleans voodoo. A tripped,out, dangerous and cheerful nuthouse (Gilbert 175), she says. Gilbert uses this to set the scene of Naples, Italy. Unless her intended audience was natives to the town, or well traveled civilians, embracing the feel of the city could not be done without the details provided. Though the pizza itself made the most impact on her, it is the entire trip that leaves such a large impression on the narrator. The essence of the pizzeria plays an important role in her life changing journey. “The guys who make this miracle happen are shoveling the pizzas in and out of the wood-burning oven, looking for all the world like the boilerman in the belly of a great ship who shovel coal into the raging furnaces” (Gilbert). It is not just about how delicious the pizza taste, it is the entire environment of the pizzeria that leaves the both the women in awe. Seeing these men working and sweating over the
Brown, Patricia Fortini. Art and Life In Renaissance Venice. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997.
Light, especially fire, and darkness are significantly reoccurring themes in Fahrenheit 451. Guy Montag, the main character, is a fireman, but in this futuristic world the job description of a fireman is to start fires wherever books are found; instead of putting them out. Montag takes a journey from a literary darkness to a knowledgeable light. This journey can be compared to the short story Allegory of the Cave by Plato, in which a prisoner experiences a similar journey. An example of light, in reference to knowledge, occurs just after Montag meets Clarisse for the first time. "When they reached her house all its lights were blazing" (9). Since Montag had rarely seen that many house lights on, I interpreted those lines as saying "that house is full of knowledge and enlightenment; not like the rest of the houses around here which are always dark." Clarisse went on to explain to Montag that her mother, father, and uncle were just sitting around and talking. This was also something that wasn't very commonplace in the city. Fire is an important element of symbolism in Fahrenheit 451. Fire consumes minds, spirits, men, ideas, and books. Fire plays two very different roles in this book. The role of a destructive, devouring, and life ending force, and the role of a nourishing flame.
“You live and you suffer” — a translated quote from Antonio (from the film The Bicycle Thief), is a brief statement that summarizes the feelings of those who lived in the post world war II “civilization”. This paper will preview Italian Neorealism, and the way it’s elements are incorporated into the movie “The Bicycle Thief” to reveal the ideal Italian setting, as it was after the second world war.