Inferno Cantos 1-7: In the Beginning... -- Sophia Colbert
Let's not brush past the pre-Hell experience Dante had in the beginning of the book so fast. First of all, he should not have been in the dark woods to begin with. It says that he wandered off the straight path, the way of truth, so we can already assume he's headed for trouble. First he is chased by a leopard, which represents lust, then a lion, which is pride, then a wolf, which is greed. We could ask if these are the worst sins someone could commit, but a more proper question would be if these are the first sins someone commits once they leave the path. Obviously, someone struggles with these issues if they purposefully leave the path, but what if they just wander off? Dante makes it seems like an accident. Even still, he has to run from the beasts. Does this mean he has already committed the sins? Or is he trying to avoid them? Perhaps I should point out that when he tries to avoid them on his own, he ends up in Hell. Of course, the purpose of his visit is not to be punished, but to learn a valuable lesson: don't go to Hell. If he were to go to Hell, in which ring would he belong? I want to say the limbo of moral heathens, but he already knows who God is. He did make friends with all the poets, and they counted him as a member of their circle, but they are in limbo because while they did not sin, they did not know who God was. Does Dante fit these requirements? This also leads into the question of whether or not someone can lose their salvation. Dante had been walking in the way of truth. He just happened to stray from the path. Is there a second chance for him if he suddenly died? Would he be sentenced to chase a blank banner in the afterlife? Or would he go straight to Heaven? In his version of Heaven and Hell, it's hard to say.
If you choose to leave a comment, please say which ring you think Dante would go to if he went to Hell. I'm curious.
P.S. I commented on Moriah and Will's posts.
If you choose to leave a comment, please say which ring you think Dante would go to if he went to Hell. I'm curious.
P.S. I commented on Moriah and Will's posts.
I agree with Dante getting himself into a pickle from the start as he wandered from the straight path. However, your question of Dante's placement in Hell is rather intriguing. To even begin to answer this, we need to define at what point he would be judged. By that I am asking when he supposedly died. Concerning he died after his trip through the circles of Hell without returning to the straight path, I think he would be in a tough spot. Having taken a peek at the later levels of Hell out of curiosity, it became obvious that Dante has been given great knowledge and to deny returning to the straight path would be a Heresy, placing him at least in the sixth level. I answered the easy possibility of this question, as if Dante ventured through everything and continued to stray from the straight path. I think reading the other works in the Divine Comedy would help answer this question. Great post, it really got me thinking!
ReplyDeleteI personally do not know very much about Dante's life and I think that you and Josh are right about it somewhat depending on the time of death (either sooner or later) and whether he returned to his path of good doing. But, what is interesting to me, is that even though we see the sins in the forms of animals chasing him, he does not say what act or thing made him stray from the path in the first place. But to answer your question, if I had to guess I would say the first. I do not have any evidence exactly for him or against him. He does portray himself badly, but then again I haven't seen any good actions performed by him either. So if I had to guess, I would say the first.
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