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Miguel De Cervantes Inferno

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In a novel, and any story for that matter, there is a main character and a problem. But in some stories, the main character is given a guide, someone who appears to help the main character complete his quest. While the guide may not be as important as the main character, he still has an externally important task. Although crucial to the story, the task of a guide might not always be the same. For instance in Dante's Inferno, Virgil, Dante’s guide, a hardened but similar version of Dante himself, lead the Dante through the hardships of their journey through hell while teaching and advising him. This strategy also helps opening up a relationship between the reader and character. But on the other hand in Miguel de Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote, …show more content…

And then I fell as a dead body falls” (Inf. V, 139-142), Virgil began a more severe approach. He began summoning many demons including Minos, Charon, Phylegas and the Minotaur,in order to scare Dante by saying “Behold the Beastbears a pointed tail, who crosses mountains, shatters weapons, walls, who’s stench fills all the world!” (Canto XVII lines 1-3). In his description of the beasts he uses repetition of its dangerous accolades it almost seems as though he admiring the beasts he summons.This is a clear attempt to frighten Dante in order to show him how awful hell is. While this worked to scare Dante, he still has remorse for the”victims” in hell which is why Virgil, on occasion decides to leave Dante in order to make him feel helpless. Although Dante is not left alone in hell for that long without his teacher, Virgil sends Dante through the final pocket of the seventh circle of Hell to talk with the souls without his guidance when he states “so that you may experience this ring in full, go now and see the state in which they are”(XVII 37-39). So it is clear Virgil wants Dante to learn without his help and protection. In this time Dante receives warning to leave, as he is told to be “afraid that any longer stay might anger him who warned (him) to brief, (he) made (his) way back from those exhausted souls. (He) found his guide” (Canto XVII lines 76-79). This is once again an attempt to scare Dante and show him how awful hell is which is one of the central claims of the entire

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Being the pilgrim, Dante still has not come to grips with reasoning of placing this poor soul in the seventh circle of hell, however questioning whether the punishment is just or not, in itself would be a mortal sin. Dante sympathizes with della Vinge, most likely because they have so much in common, and becomes divided in understanding that della Vigna committed a mortal sin against God and himself. However, Dante in his journey through Hell, recognizes the interview with della Vigna a learning opportunity and asks his virtuous teacher ask the questions, “Do you continue; as of him/ whatever you believe I should request;/I cannot, so much pity takes my heart.” This interview in some ways showcases Dante’s journey from pilgrim to poet. While Dante may not understand the logic behind the characters placed in the different levels of Hell and may still sympathize with the immensely, at this point readers are provided with an opportunity to see that Dante the pilgrim still understands that the characters still committed a sin unto God and must be punished all the

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In Dante’s Inferno, the ideas of justice, good and evil, and suffering in hell are implied. The idea of suffering in hell and the idea of justice are closely related. Dante indicates that those suffering in hell have committed crimes that are being punished in a reasonable way and that we should not have pity for them. He uses the setting and his organization of hell to transmit these ideas and his philosophy regarding these ideas. The organization of hell helps us understand that Dante believed it was a person’s poor decisions and not cruel fate that got a person in hell.

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(84) Dante’s statements clarify that he has mixed feelings based on punishments in Inferno, and grows throughout the book. Dante, forgiving to a point and yet unsympathetic at times, would be in the middle of deciding if the punishment is

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From this point, Dante and Virgil traverse through the circles of hell, constantly berating and tormenting the souls they encounter; Virgil, more so than Dante, torments these souls and continuously encourages Dante to do the same. Virgil knowingly encourages Dante to hurt a soul that has committed suicide by instructing Dante to tear off a twig so that the souls story will be told; this once again continues the recurrence of Dante and Virgil treating various souls as spectacles. Repeatedly, the apparent goal of these spectacles is to instill a fear of sin in Dante and, therefore, instill within him a fear of God; "Look at that mighty one who comes and does not seem to shed a tear of pain." Dante, additionally, causes a soul to believe that his son is dead for his own personal gain.

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In Dante's inferno Dante has now made it to circle 2 where the lustful are condemn. Upon his arrival he encounters Minos, Minos is the the judge of of the souls that arrive in hell he is the one who divides what circle they will be punished in for the sins they committed in their lifetime. Minos spots Dante leaves his office and walks up to him he is intrigued by Dantes human presence in the underworld " O thou, that to his comest/ look how thou enterest,and in whom thou trustest let not the the portal's amplitude deceive thee. "(Inferno: Canto V lines 16-22)

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Dante’s introduction to Hell begins with the gate outside, which inscribes itself as “the way into eternal grief… the way to a forsaken race” (2-3). This arranges Hell as never-ending sorrow for those who have abandoned the morals of the Bible, effectively setting a tone of suffering, at least for those who deserve it. The gate's inscription closes with the menacing statement: “Abandon every hope, all you who enter” (9). The antonym to hope is despair, so abandoning every hope is quite literally the inscriber (presumably God) telling all who enter to fall to despair, for there is no hope to hold on to here. After Dante passes the gate, the reader immediately feels through Dante’s senses the despair and misery that run so rampant in Hell, with mentions of “sighs and cries and shrieks of lamentation [that] echoed throughout the starless air of Hell” (22-23).

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“I am one who has no tale to tell: I made myself a gibbet of my own lintel” (Page 124, lines 151-152). In the poem The Inferno, by Dante Alighieri, in Canto XIII Dante uses imagery and allusion to reveal what the seventh circle of Hell looks like and portray his views on “The Violent Against Themselves”. In the second round of the seventh circle, Dante is and cannot seem to understand the concept of the souls’ reason for their presence in Hell. First, Dante uses allusion to hint the his purpose of this section of the canto - to show how his feelings and thoughts relate to an important time in history. When the poet's first arrive in the beginning of the Second Circle, they are in The Wood of the Suicides and Dante is immediately confused.

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Dante had never seen Satan before and the first time seeing him frightened him, as he saw three heads with huge bat looking wings, chewing on sinners. Dante hides behind Virgil when approaching Satan, as it seems to be the only shelter he finds. From the Lucifer in Dante's Inferno to the Satan that readers might imagine, there is a big difference because most of the time the stereotypical Satan is a red, half man, half goat with a large pitchfork. When according to Dante, he is much more large and insidious to whomever comes across him. The description given by Dante creates fear to the reader.

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The deep pity and horror that Dante feels in Canto XIII of The Divine Comedy show that the journey to

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When listening to the sorrowful souls in the ninth bolgia, Virgil tells Dante “to have a taste for talk like this is vulgar!” (30.148). Virgil is telling Dante that his fascination and pity of the damned will lead him to sin and despair. These hopeless souls do not care about the well-being of the living and deceive Dante, hiding the beauty of God’s

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Satan is trapped in ice at the bottom of hell and is inevitably stuck frozen there for eternity. Dante represents the ultimate evil this way because Satan has committed treachery against the greatest man; God himself, and will be forever the worst of the worst. Dante’s depiction of Satan at the bottom of Hell reveals the theme that in Hell the punishment is always befitting of the sin by showing the appearance of the geography and the explaining the ones condemned to the level of Hell. Canto XXXIV geography is foggy and icy.

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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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In The Comedy, Dante the Pilgrim develops a relationship with his damned idol, Virgil, in order to journey through both Inferno and Purgatory. Even though Virgil was a good man while living, he lacked understanding of certain virtues, like pride, which prevented him from being able to reach higher levels in the afterlife. Dante the Poet’s choice to damn Virgil conveys that obeying a higher order is the way to one’s salvation. The developing relationship between Virgil and Dante the Pilgrim throughout the first two canticles brings light to the opposing separation between the two characters because of the devotion Dante has to Christian virtues in comparison to Virgil’s pagan misunderstanding of virtue. While Dante the Pilgrim experiences many

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Dante’s portrayal of Satan is paradoxically empty and monstrous; it captures Satan in his true form and speaks of who he truly is. One of Dante’s portrayals of Satan is his monstrousness throughout the Inferno with him blowing over the cocytus. Dante’ first impression of Satan is “I saw his head towering above me! for it had three faces” (266). The image of the three heads is a symbolic mocking of the most holy Trinity.

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When starting to read Dante’s Inferno a person is often confronted by a very distinctive kind of writing style. This writing style is distinctive of the time in which the Inferno was written estimated to be around 1314 to 1317, before Dante’s death in 1321. This can lead to questions about the composition of certain lines in a passage of the text. One of these questions, why did he write it like this, popped into my head not long after starting to read Cantos I. In the first Canto, Dante meets the three beast of hell and Virgil (Alighieri 392-394).

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