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Love in literature essay
Love in Dantes Inferno
Love in literature essay
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As any romantic will assert, love is by far the most powerful force known to human hearts and minds. This sentiment is espoused throughout history, almost to the point of cliché. Everyone has heard the optimistic statement, “love conquers all,” and The Beatles are certain, however idyllic it may be, that “all you need is love.” Humanity is convinced that love is unique within human emotion, unequalled in its power to both lift the spirit up in throws of ecstasy, and cast it down in utter despair.
Loves power has suggested to many that it serves as a link to the divine, and that the feeling instilled in man by love comes from the supernatural, be it God or otherwise. In La Vita Nuova Dante Alighieri makes it clear that he believes in the transcendent power and effects of love.
La Vita Nuova is a collection of poetry and prose describing Dante’s love for Beatrice Portinari. Though both Dante and Beatrice married others during the time chronicled in La Vita Nuova, the love he professes for her is pure and all consuming. Indeed, for Dante, Beatrice represents absolute beauty and nobility of spirit. He refers to her as his “most gracious lady,” and she comes to represent the most perfect object of love.
From the very first page Dante shows the reader the immense effect love has on him,
“The moment I saw her I say in all truth that the vital spirit, which dwells in the inmost depths of the heart, began to tremble so violently that I felt the vibration alarmingly in all my pulses, even the weakest of them. As it trembled, it uttered these words: (behold a god more powerful than I who comes to rule over me).” (4)
At the mere sight of Beatrice, Dante is overwhelmed and his own spirit informs him that he is in the presence of a ...
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...eral chronicle of Dante’s life. This is not the case, as historical information proves, Dante led a full life separate from his love of Beatrice. This story instead serves as a description of the power that Love wields over the sensitive and romantic. Indeed, Love could wield this power over anyone He chooses, though he chooses only those with the poet’s soul, through which God can speak and tell humanity of the power of Love. God inspires those who are open to him, in a way that they can understand. In the case of Dante, God spoke to him through Love and produced a tale that will convey the same message to all those who are able to hear. Dante was not writing for those without a poet’s mind, a fact he makes clear throughout the text, and the reason for this is evident: they would simply not understand.
Works Cited
La Vita Nuova, Dante Alighieri, Penguin publishing
Beatrice’s representation of God’s grace is reflected by her radiance in that she plays an image of nobility, virtue, the Redeemed Life and, to a certain extent, of God Himself. “[Dante] saw [his] lady filled with so much gladness that, at her joy, the planet grew more bright. And if the planet changed and smiled, what then did [he] – who by [his] very nature [is] given to every sort of change – become,” (Par 5 95-99). The book reveals that the destination of Dante’s journey with Virgil is Beatrice. However, it is not Beatrice herself that they want to reach but her grace with which can only be received after going through the experiences in Hell and Purgatory in order to see the process of sanctity. The amount of brightness Dante sees through her radiance demonstrates how deeply his merits have developed for they show his clarification of everything he doubted about the grace of God and has now finally achieved it.
In Purgatorio, Dante’s journey continues under Virgil’s guidance from preparing to ascend the mountain of Purgatory until reaching the garden of earthly paradise, at which point Beatrice arrives to take on the role of guide through the rest of purgatory. However, along the way, Dante interacts with several other secondary guides on brief portions of his journey. Individually, Cato, Sordello, Statius, and Matelda serve as corrected counterparts to other characters in the Divine Comedy, classical mythology, and the Bible. Collectively, Cato, Sordello, Statius, and Matelda serve to bridge classical and Christian teachings, both of which are critical in defining the values of Dante-author’s Purgatory, and in shaping Dante-character’s will as the purpose of the journey through purgatory.
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.
Dante was born in 1256 in Florence. He was a creative writer and a philosopher. He was a powerful thinker; familiar with the Aristotelian reasoning, philosophy, theology, and literature thus it all inspired his writing. It was revealed through Dante's writing, his love for Beatrice whom he met at age 9; her love had inspired most of his writing especially his love poems. However, his family choose another woman for him, although he still was in love with Beatrice. After Beatrice's unexpected death, he wrote (The New Life) that depicts his love for her. Then, Dante became involved in Florence's politics and held many important public positions at the time of Italy's chaotic politics. During that time, Dante was an ally with the Guelfs who competed with Ghibellines over the control of Florence. As a result, In the year of 1302, Dante was exiled from Florence. Although Dante was very passionate about his love to Italy and its politics, after his exile, he never returned to Florence. He, nevertheless, served as a diviner of the world's most important empire as a poet whose poems are inflamed by Beatrice's love, and as an intellectual whose goal was to raise the public discourse transmitting his knowledge through writing. In the mean while, Dante held a grudge against Pope Boniface because of his inability to bring stability to Italy during its rough times. Dante traveled through several cities in Italy, and resided in the city of Ravenna at last where her completed "Paradiso" the last of three sections, "Inferno, Purgatorio, and Pardiso of The Devine Comedy." He died there in 1321. (the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). The Divine Comedy is considered one of the most important works of Italian literature and the gre...
While Dante’s Inferno and the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena differ in the method of receiving a vision from God, both are important and had an impact in women of Christian history we see today. In Dante’s Inferno, Dante lived in a time that woman were viewed as seductresses who were often accused of adulterous acts and accepted the blame. The act of a chivalrous gentlemen was not popularized until many decades after Dante’s piece was written. Therefore, Dante portrayed his female characters to be of pure and innocent intent. Dante treats the women in his poem with unusual respect, given his social’s demeanor towards women. In the Dialogue of St. Catherine, she shares that at first, upon receiving this vision, she closed herself in solitude
Dante write one of the masterpiece of the literature, a book that even third fourths of a century later people still reading but behind dark lines like as “Through me you enter into the city of woes, Through me you enter into the eternal pain, Through me you enter the population of loss” (Dante 19.1-3) must exist a reason or a purpose to write these lines. Dante born in 1265 in the cradle of Florence. In his childhood only two things happen that has transcendental for his work in literature, her mother died in 1272 (when Dante had 7 years old). Also, in may 1 of 1974 he meets Beatrice when he was nine years and her eight years and Dante instantly falls in love with her. “She began in a soft angelic voice”(Dante 13.47), this type of word Dante
...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.
In conclusion, we can see that Dante presents the reader with a potentially life-altering chance to participate in his journey through Hell. Not only are we allowed to follow Dante's own soul-searching journey, we ourselves are pressed to examine the state of our own souls in relation to the souls in Inferno. It is not just a story to entertain us; it is a display of human decision and the perpetual impact of those decisions.
To begin with, we all think of love as this beautiful, wondrous emotion that comes with a flood of hugs, and kisses. The Kiss, also identified as Francesca da Rimini, is a stunning picture of people in love. Auguste Rodin put everything he had into making this impressionist replica of the young, adulterous couple, Paolo and Francesca, from Dante's Inferno. Created in 1889, the figure is created in a way to symbolize that the lovers are focused on each other that you can hardly see their faces. The kiss that they are about to give each other is made to not have completely gone through, because Gianciotto Malatesta, Francesca's husband, killed both of them before they could finally achieve their kiss. It is a truly sensual piece due to the couple being nude, as well as, the smooth texture of the people compared to the roughness of the marble rock below them. This piece of eye candy has so much raw emotion behind it with such a depressing backstory to back it up. Love is apparently an extremely complicated subject for most people to comprehend. People someti...
Ruud, Jay. Critical Companion to Dante: a Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On
A very poignant moment in any person’s life is when they meet someone who they regard so highly that they place on a pedestal in their mind. If ever there was a doubt of love at first sight, Dante Alighieri disproves the disbelief with his first sighting of Beatrice in his Vita Nuova. When Dante recounts his second encounter with Beatrice he says that she greeted him but does not state how exactly she acknowledged him. The “ineffable courtesy” that she greeted him with implies that the encounter was not spoken. Through complete silent encounters, the love Dante harbors for Beatrice still continues to flourish. In one of Dante’s sonnets he says the following:
Accordingly, Dante the character is established in the Everyman symbolic convention: Dante's circumstance is intended to speak to that of the entire human race. Consequently, Dante, the character does not rise as an especially very much characterized singular. He exhibits over the top pride yet stays unsatisfied in many regards: he feels that he positions among the immense writers that he meets in Limbo however profoundly wants to discover Beatrice, the lady he cherishes, and the affection for God (Sparknotes.com).
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.
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.
Making change in a time of dark beliefs and harsh criticism is a difficult task to achieve. The poet, Dante Alighieri’s world was one filled with spirituality and stigmas. Unlike many other artists of his time, he completed his most famous and influential work in Europe’s 1300’s. Dante’s piece, The Divine Comedy, demonstrates the journey one takes throughout life, to find one’s self and connect with the world and religion, all through three volumes of poetry. Of his talent, came a business of the arts. In addition, he changed the way the Italian language was perceived. He used his writing to help women be viewed as equals to men, and took a more tolerant position with regard to religion. Due to its effects on language, religion, and societal protocol, The Divine Comedy unquestionably affected Italian culture in the time of its author, and beyond.