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Dante's Inferno Faith Vs Reason

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As Dante finishes up his journey, Beatrice, Dante’s lover, takes over Virgil’s previous role--the guide. Beatrice seems to represent divine grace and faith, whereas Virgil embodies reason. At this stage in Paradise, Dante no longer needs a reason-filled guide like Virgil because he has made it to the apex of the journey.
If Heaven is a place where all desires are fulfilled, what purpose would reason still have? What complex problems would people have to reason through to find the best solution? Since Heaven is the place of all goodness, reason may no longer be necessary, hence Virgil is no longer necessary. For those in Paradise, divine grace and faith serve a much more significant purpose than reason. In order to be a virtuous person
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"'Nothing can take our passage from us / when such a power has given warrant for it / (VIII 101-102). The Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's poem, Divine Comedy. Virgil guides Dante through the nine Circles of Hell. Throughout the poem, the readers see numerous examples of Dante always asking questions towards Virgil, and showing his emotions. Virgil guided Dante through Hell with his wisdom and reason.

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Dante’s Inferno is an epic poem by Durante “Dante” degli Alighieri, written in the 1300s. He wrote a trilogy, known as the Divine Comedy, consisting of Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. Dante was inspired by many events and issues happening at that time, such as the war between Guelphs and Ghibellines, the Battle of Montaperti, and Christian religious beliefs. In this paper, I will explore the first book, Inferno, on the topic of Hell and how the sinners had a significant impact on Dante’s journey through Hell. In Circle 5: Styx, Canto VIII, Filippo Argenti, a sinner of Wrathful, helped Dante to symbolize to readers his anger towards Black Guelphs, political enemies of the White Guelphs.

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Virgil answers Dante’s questions, some simple and others quite profound. Every time, Virgil has an eloquent response to the question. Virgil is the perfection of the human intellect, capable of understanding so much of the world without God. He seems to know all that could be known about Hell, and the sinners within. A good government will allow science and philosophical thought flourish.

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Dante was asserting that God had given to the man the intellect to allow him to achieve the knowledge and implementing it through both, the passive apprehending intellect and the active intelligence. In fact he wrote: “All men on whom the Higher Nature has stamped the love of truth should especially concern themselves in labouring for posterity, in order that future generations may be enriched by their efforts, as they themselves were made rich by the efforts of generations past. For that man who is imbued with public teachings, but cares not to contribute something to the public good, is far in arrears of his duty, let him be assured; he is, indeed, not “a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in season,” but

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If when talking about an earthly paradise, it would make complete sense that Dante -whom held the great reasoners in high regard as well- would use the works of these reasoners as a model for this paradise. In Plato’s Republic, one of the integral parts of a perfect city would be the four virtues: justice, fortitude/courage, prudence/wisdom, and temperance/moderation. Throughout the Divine Comedy, there are multiple instances where Dante points to the four virtues described by the great reasoners. Upon arriving at purgatory, Dante bears witness to “those four stars” (Dante 1-28) obviously representing the four virtues. Later in purgatory as well, Virgil himself witnesses “the four bright stars you saw… where those four were, these three now are” (Dante 8-91-93), but this time with the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.

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Virgil is all of the noble virtues of the perfect Roman and represents wisdom and reason to aid Dante. He may act differently during the different areas through hell, but most importantly, he is protective of Dante, reminding him multiple times not to be sympathetic of the damned souls. He is both a tour guide to all of the details of hell and a tour guide to help Dante understand himself. Virgil’s symbolic job is to represent God’s decisions and views on justice through the multiple scoldings to Dante about not pitying those deserving to be punished. Virgil really is one of the most important characters of the book and has a lot to add to Dante’s points on God and

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