Dante recognizes one soul, Pope Clandestine V, who gave up his papal throne just five months after being elected. The blood drips down to feed worms and maggots which infest the ground. While they run, they are pursued by wasps and hornets whose stings make the souls bleed. The souls in this level run fruitlessly, chasing a waving banner that they can never catch. The angels who refused to take sides in the Great Rebellion in Heaven can be found in this level, too. They chose neither evil nor good in their lives-only themselves. Virgil and Dante come to the gates of Hell, inscribed with the now-infamous words, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Through the gates, in the “vestibule” of Hell, are souls known as The Opportunists. Dante is grateful to Beatrice, and is buoyed by the fact that Beatrice is still looking out for him from the spiritual realm. Virgil explained that Dante’s long-lost love Beatrice chose him personally to guide Dante on this journey, because he has a way with persuasive words. Virgil explains to Dante that he will see a series of spirits in various levels of torment, according to the severity of their sins. Virgil explains to Dante that he will then have to ascend through Purgatory, representing the Christian life, where he will be met by Beatrice, who will take over for the final ascent to Paradise, which represents the soul’s ascent to Heaven and to God. They have to descend through Hell first, which represents the Recognition of Sin. All of a sudden, the great Roman poet Virgil, who represents Human Reason, appears to Dante and offers to bring him away from the beasts to the Mount of Joy. Desperate, frightened, and alone, Dante feels like there is no hope to get past the beasts. He sees the Mount of Joy, where he knows his happiness lies, but his path is blocked by three terrifying creatures: The Leopard of Malice and Fraud, The Lion of Violence and Ambition, and The She-Wolf of Incontinence. He realizes that he has strayed from the True Way into the Dark Wood of Error. It is Good Friday, and Dante is 35 years old. Inferno comprises the first 34 of these cantos. Note: The Divine Comedy is a long poem divided into 100 sections, called “cantos”. How does allegory function to deliver a powerful message in a literary work?.What is a more important value: faith or reason?.Is justice delivered by punishment only?.Should there be a relationship between sin and punishment?.What is sin? Are there different levels of sin?.
0 kommentar(er)
