Men, Friendship and Companionship in Divine Comedy - Article Example

Men, friendship and companionship in Divine Comedy Dante's The Divine Comedy, written in the first person, tells of the poet's journey through the realm of afterlife: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. In this journey, Dante uses the Roman poet Virgil (Vergilius) as a character in his work who acts as Dante's guide through the Inferno and Purgatorio. Dante welcomes Virgil as "my master and my author" who was sent by a woman in heaven named Beatrice to rescue him (Websophia 2003). She is the epitome of pure love and finally leads Dante to Paradiso where he is then able to gaze upon the supreme radiance of God. He ends his pilgrimage into vision of "the Love which moves the sun and the other stars. (Michael Novak 2003)" The dual allegory of Commedia is the progress of soul toward Heaven, and the anguish of humankind on Earth. Throughout his journey, Dante's relationship with Virgil becomes more distinct as does that of the other characters who occupy the realm. In much of Dante's work, he turns the people who he was directly or indirectly associated with in real life into characters in his work. His feelings towards them can only be understood when observing the interactions between himself and the characters. To understand how these real life characters came to be involved in his epic poem, a little of Dante's history must be explained. Living in Florence, Dante was active in both political and military life. As a youth he entered the army and held several key posts in the Florence government during the 1290's. At this time Florence was politically divided between Guelphs and Ghibellines. The Guelphs supported the church and were conservative, preferring to keep things as they were. The Ghibellines on the other hand supported the German emperor but were relieved of their governance. During this time, the Guelphs whom Dante's family was associated with took the reigns of power. Though born into a Guelph family, Dante believed the church should only involve itself in spiritual affairs and later in life he became more neutral after realizing that the church was corrupt. When the new century dawned, Dante gained position from city councilman to ambassador of Florence. In 1301 when the Black Guelph and their French allies seized control of the city his career ended. The authorities seized Dante's possessions and permanently banished him from Florence, threatening the death penalty upon him if he returned. From this sprang some of his misgivings about those in high positions and used their characteristics and 'sins' in his work. It is during his exile that Dante wrote new pieces of literature. Between 1307 and 1314 he began writing The Divine Comedy where Dante introduces his invention of the three-line stanza as well as himself as a character. Dante's epic poem consists of three parts, The Inferno being the first. It depicts the journey of Dante, who himself is the hero, through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. He writes in the first person enabling the reader to identify and understand deeply the truths he wished to share about the meaning of life and man's relationship with the Creator. Dante's vision stems from personal experience and expresses them through images to convey his analysis of the nature of human existence. In the poem, Dante is around about the halfway point through his life and he finds himself wandering alone in a dark forest, having lost his way on the "true path" (Spark Notes 2006). In the first lines of the Divine Comedy, Dante says "In the middle of the journey of our life I came to my senses in a dark forest, for I had lost the straight path. (123Helpme 2005) " This is the typical stereotype of today for when a person becomes "lost" or consumed in sin. The sinful life is a dark life and a sinless life is a bright, white, and pure life. Dante's coming to his senses in a dark forest symbolizes his realizing how "lost" in sin he truly is and realizes he needs to do something. He remembers nothing about how he lost his way, but here he is in a fearful dark place. Above, he notices a great hill that appears to offer protection from the valley full of shadows. Sun shines down from this hilltop and Dante attempts to climb towards the light. During his struggle uphill he encounters three fearsome beasts, a leopard, a lion and a she-wolf which force him to retreat. Returning in despair to the dark valley, Dante sees a human form in the woods, which soon reveals itself to be the spirit, or ghost, of the great Roman poet Virgil. Thrilled to meet the poet that he admires most, Dante tells Virgil about the beasts that blocked his path. Virgil replies that the she-wolf kills all who approach her but that, someday, a magnificent hound will come to chase the she-wolf back to Hell, where she originated. He adds that the she-wolf's presence necessitates the use of a different path to ascend the hill; he offers to serve as Dante's guide. He warns Dante, however, that before they can climb the hill they must first pass through the place of eternal punishment (Hell) and then a place of lesser punishment (Purgatory); only then can they reach God's city (Heaven). Encouraged by Virgil's assurances, Dante sets forth with his guide. Upon embarking on his journey he ventures to nine regions arranged around the wall of a huge funnel in nine concentric circles representing Hell. The ghost of Virgil leads him through the realms of the afterlife. The first circle they enter is Limbo, which consists of heathen and the un-baptized, who led decent lives (Wikipedia 2006). The second through the fifth circles are for the lustful, gluttonous, prodigal, and wrathful. Cristina Nehring says that the circle of hell for sins of the flesh is populated in great part by women. The sixth circle is where heretics are punished. The seventh circle is devoted to the punishment of violence. The eighth is devoted to those guilty of fraud and the ninth for those who betrayed others. In the last section, Satan remains imprisoned in a frozen lake. Why these concentric circles one for each type of sin In real life Dante was a man who saw political and artistic success, and who was in love. But he was also a man defeated, who felt danger and the humiliation of exile, and saw the cruelty and treachery people were capable of. Dante saw himself a victim of a grave injustice and suffered serious self-doubts, natural for a man in exile. It is this idea of exile of which he himself was a victim to, (having been banished from Florence, his possessions seized) that is used in his structure of Hell. The Divine Comedy presents one of the most striking examples of authorial two-mindedness with regards to Dante's relationship with Virgil. From the very opening canto of the Inferno, Virgil is announced as not only the most respected of all the poets but also the pilgrim's personal master and author. In Inferno 1.86-87 Dante says; "You alone are he from whom I took the fair style that has done me honor (Highbeam 2006)". Dante clearly shows his indebtedness to Virgil in canto after canto, as both pilgrim and poet quite literally follow in Virgil's beloved footsteps. In Inferno Dante liberally borrows ideas and themes from the Virgil's Aeneid and it becomes clear that Commedia is built out of the formers narratives, personae, metaphors, and dream. However as the poem reveals itself, Virgil's power, both as guide and as text, is noticed to be severely limited. Dante uses The Aeneid as a blueprint for his poem, but it becomes apparent that the ancient plan is altered, edited, revised, or refuted absolutely. Dante's The Inferno and Book VI of Virgil's The Aeneid are similar in many cases. Both stories are written as Epic journeys. The Aeneid follows the journey of Aeneas from a sacked Troy to Italy, where he begins a new life and starts to build a new city for the homeless Trojans. The Inferno follows Dante as he journeys through Hell. Virgil and Dante use a classic epic device by calling to mind the Muses to help them tell the stories. Both Dante's journey, taken as the complete passage through both Heaven and Hell in the Divine Comedy, and Aeneas's follow Joseph Campbell's model-separation, trial, victory, return, and reintegration-of the classic hero's journey. Although Dante's hero status, unlike Aeneas's, is not clearly apparent, his successful passage through Hell is a feat any of his contemporaries would hail as hero worthy. Certain similarities exist in the journeys themselves. Both Dante and Aeneas are led through the Underworld, Aeneas by the Sybil, a mortal given godlike powers by Zeus, and Dante by Virgil, the ghost of the Latin poet. By making Virgil a character in his book, Dante acknowledges the derivative nature of his own work. In both cases, the guides are more powerful, within their domain, than the men they are leading. In The Inferno, we often see Virgil confront the demons of Hell while Dante hides in fear. Similarly, the Sybil shows no fear when dealing with the keepers of the Underworld. When threatened by Charon for trying to break the "eternal law" that no living being should enter the Underworld, she retorts: "Here are no such plots, So fret no more. These weapons threaten nothing. Let the great watchdog at the door howl on Forever terrifying the bloodless shades. Let chaste Proserpina remain at home In her uncle's house. The man of Troy, Aeneas, Remarkable for loyalty, great in arms, Goes through the deepest shades of Erebus To see his father. If the very image of so much goodness moves you not at all, Here is a bough" (Virgil. The Aeneid. Book VI) During their journeys, both Aeneas and Dante meet historical figures and contemporaries who they engage in conversation with. When Aeneas meets Dephobus he asks the officer about his mutilated appearance. Dante explores Virgil's idea of questioning the dead to discover the events or incident that culminated to their current state. Encountering the Jovial Friars in the Eighth Circle of Hell, Dante asks "who are you, who bear / Upon your cheeks these distillate of woe / What is your punishments that glitters so bright" One of the Jovial Friars responds, "The orange cloaks are lead/ So thick, that we their scales creak at the weight." (Canto XXIII) The time Aeneas and Dante spend in the Underworld is limited. Aeneas has only an "allotted time" to spend, and the Sybil is determined to maintain their course: "Night comes on, Aeneas, / We use up hours grieving." (Canto XXIII) Acting as a guide, Virgil keeps Dante on track as well, forgoing the simple act of speaking to different individuals which would waste their time and prevent them from seeing different parts of Hell. The differences between Dante and Virgil can be seen by taking account of the structure of the Underworld. They both agree that the Underworld has a certain logical structure, where souls are separated based on their defining actions while alive. Virgil, while separating good, evil, and ethically neutral people, defines no set boundaries for the souls within each of these categories. Dante keeps a similar structure, placing sinners in Hell and keeping good people separate. Dante's Hell, however, is more well-defined, with land barriers separating the different circles. This separation of sinners in Hell is a result of the religious views of Dante's time. In the Middle Ages, the Christian Church was a powerful social religious force and had a much stricter outlook on the afterlife than did Virgil's ancient society. A person's inability to escape his fate in Hell made acting in sin more undesirable. The Church used this view to scare the faithful into acting ethically. The two Underworlds pictured in The Aeneid and The Inferno are similar. Virgil presents Hell as based on his society's beliefs about the afterlife. In Virgil's underworld, everyone suffers his due since no individual can act perfectly throughout life. Once a soul's has passed the suffering phase he is cleansed and may live the rest of the thousand years with other similarly cleansed individuals. Dante uses the beliefs, ideas and ethics prevailing in his society during his time and introduces them into his version of Hell. Dante considered sin as any defined act that could be repented while a person was still alive. Once he dies, a person is doomed to suffer eternally for his sins. This is the Christian belief about the afterlife, and the Church's influence on Dante is quite apparent. Comparing the two works, it's clear that the transition from Virgil's to Dante's view of the Underworld reflects the social evolution from Augustus' reign in Italy to Italy's Middle Ages. Both Dante and Virgil find the journey difficult and full of revelations, disappointment and questions. Nevertheless they persevere and at journey's end they find themselves at the bottom of Hell. Lucifer is seen in all his ugliness and they are drawn towards Heaven. They emerge to the surface, rising above the ugliness of sin and journey towards their goal as they catch sight of the stars shining in the heavens. Their journey begins on Good Friday and they emerge from Hell on the day of Resurrection, Easter Sunday on the underside of the world, in the hemisphere of water at the foot of Mount Purgatory. Dante combines feelings, distinct images, and a continuous and complex narrative of a world of an adventure and destiny in the Inferno. He feels that the entire poem shows, that through love, Dante knew his characters, understood their suffering, and knew his characters desires. Dante uses simile in Inferno to enhance the meaning of his experience in Hell. While it is natural for man to think of Hell as a place, it can also be considered as a condition of man's mental state in life, continued after death. Inferno is a satire on man's aimless turmoil and restlessness that continues to the root of Hell where it ends at the gate of Purgatory. Dante is represented as truth, intelligence, and love. In his journey Dante meets characters largely drawn from ancient Roman history and from recent Italian history, including Dante's personal friends and enemies (UW 2001). Many of the people who exist in the concentric rings of Hell are portraits of people he knew in real life, both good and bad. His constant reference to human affairs, make the work, although a narration of the afterlife, a realistic picture and an analysis of every aspect of earthly human life. Dante's literal journey is also an allegory of the progress of the individual soul toward God and the progress of political and social mankind toward peace on earth. It is a compassionate, although moral, evaluation of human nature and a mystic vision of God toward which it strives. Dante is remembered as a great thinker and one of the most learned writers of all time. Many scholars consider his epic poem The Divine Comedy consisting of Inferno, Paradiso, and Purgatorio, among the finest works of all literature. Critics have praised it not only as magnificent poetry, but also for its wisdom and scholarly learning. Bibliography 123Helpme. Dante's Divine Comedy - Symbolism in the Punishment of Sin in The Inferno. 2005. 16 May 2006 Cliffs Notes. The Divine Comedy: Inferno by ante Alighieri 2005. 15 May 2006 Cristina Nehring, "Fidelity With a Wandering Eye" The Atlantic Monthly. 2005 14 May 2006 Dante. The Inferno. Canto XXIII. ll. 93-96. H.W. Longfellow. Canto 5. World Wide School. 14 May 2006 Highbeam. Virgil in Commedia 2006. 15 May 2006 Michael Novak. The Embodied Self 2003. First Things. 15 May 2006 Novel Analysis - Divine Comedy 2006. 15 May 2006 Robert Hollander. Dante's Antaeus (Inferno XXXI.97-132) 31 May 2000. 15 May 2006 Spark Notes 2006. 15 May 2006 University of Texas. Terrestrial Paradise Cantos 28-33. 15 May 2006 UW - University of Wisconsin. Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy. 2001. 16 May 2006 Virgil. The Aeneid. Book VI. ll. 537-548. Websophia. Dante Alighieri 1265 - 1321. (2003) 16 May 2006 Wikipedia. The Divine Comedy. 2006. 14 May 2006 Read More