Dante
While many people perceive Dante's Inferno to be a religious novel that questions the ideas of heaven and hell, I believe that Dante's novel is a political one. He grew up in Renaissance Florence. At the time, it was a thriving, but not peaceful place. There were conflicts between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor. Both wanted to have the most power, and be supported by the people. Two groups formed in Florence, the whites and the blacks. Dante was a white, and he was exiled by the blacks. They took his possessions, and told him that if he ever returned to Florence, he would be burned. Dante never returned to Florence. He wandered from city to city, depending on noble patrons there. Between 1302 and 1304 some attempts were made by the exiled Whites to retrieve their position in Florence, but none of these succeeded and Dante contented himself with hoping for the appearance of a new powerful Holy Roman Emperor who would unite the country and banish strife. Because of this, Dante's novel can be looked upon as political propaganda against the pope and the blacks. Examples of this can be found in canto one, canto twenty-one, and in canto thirty-four. In canto one, "Dante recounts that in the middle of his life, he foun
d himself lost in a dark forest, having lost the right path while half asleep. Worried and frightened, he was comforted by the sight of a hill, the top of which was sunlit. However, when he tried to climb the hill to reach the brighter regions, he found his way blocked by three savage animals: first a leopard, then a lion, then a she-wolf. Dante was too frightened to continue, and retreated back to the forest, where fortunately he met the shade of Virgil, his literary hero. Virgil informed him that the three beasts were impassable: the she-wolf would reign until the greyhound came and slew her, and restored peace to Italy. In the meantime, Virgil would lead Dante to salvation, but first they must pass through Hell. Virgil would not be able to take Dante all the way to Paradise, since as a Pagan he had no right to enter there - instead a more worthy soul would take him the final part of the way. Dante gladly accepted his offer," (Classic Notes, n.p.). The dark forest is a metaphor for how Dante felt about Florence during his lifetime. He thought that the people behaved badly and he didn't like the pope. He thought that there was political corruption and that there was no true leadership. "I never saw so drear, so rank, so arduous a wilderness. Its very memory gives a shape to fear." (Inferno, p.28) Here, Dante says how he felt alone and scared when he was exiled from Florence. He had no home, and thus felt very alone. He was scared and resented the power possessed by the blacks. His political angst only worsens and he moves deeper into Hell. All in all, what Dante was trying to do makes sense. He felt that society was falling apart, and that the political corruption was too great, and he therefore wanted to do something about it. He took his poetic license, and made himself look as good as possible, while pointing out all of the problems with society. He got to decide who got punished and how badly, and thus was able to indicate how he felt on most issues. While I don't agree with most of the message that he was trying to convey, I respect very much the fact th
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Approximate Word count = 1408
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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