Bre Hyper-fixates On One Line of Character Establishment For Five Minutes by Breanna Poole
Bre Hyper-fixates On One Line of Character Establishment for Five Minutes by Breanna Poole
Before I start on this week's blog post, I first I want to say I hope all of you have had a good spring break and that this time change hasn't messed y'all's sleeping schedule too much. (did I just unnecessarily date this blog post? yes, yes, I did.)
While there is so much that can be discussed from these seven Cantos in regards to what the character's experience, their dialogue, and themes that the reader can tell is starting to become repetitive, their was one line in this book so far that really stuck with me. It's a line that really has almost no bearing plot wise and the story Dante is telling here most certainly not suffer without, but I think really does a lot to establish who Dante (or rather, the fictionalized version within the book) is and what we can expect from him.
The line I'm referring to comes from page 15 of my translation, Lines 32-33 of Cantos Two to be exact. Dante proclaims in these lines that "I'm not Aeneas! I'm not Saint Paul! No one/not I myself could think me worthy....". These lines are just amazing to me, because in them we can automatically grasp not necessarily who Dante the author is but who Dante the character is. This Dante is afraid of the quest ahead, he's not like the common kind of great hero we've come to expect out of classical literature -- as Dante himself states he's not Aeneas. He's not some great warrior or scholar destined to save the world.
Dante the character is rather simple in design. He's nervous, afraid, curious, and most certainly not the most heroic main character around. This follows him throughout the Cantos that follows, a prime example being in Cantos 4 when he lets the Teacher go first in the midst (though to be fair Dante did give a bit of protest that Dante should go first) and then the Teacher remarks how Dante hasn't asked yet about the faces that watch them. Dante is a very interesting character and I can't wait to read more about him and discover and watch him grow over the course of the remaining Cantos.
P.S. I commented on Will and Owen's blogs.
Before I start on this week's blog post, I first I want to say I hope all of you have had a good spring break and that this time change hasn't messed y'all's sleeping schedule too much. (did I just unnecessarily date this blog post? yes, yes, I did.)
While there is so much that can be discussed from these seven Cantos in regards to what the character's experience, their dialogue, and themes that the reader can tell is starting to become repetitive, their was one line in this book so far that really stuck with me. It's a line that really has almost no bearing plot wise and the story Dante is telling here most certainly not suffer without, but I think really does a lot to establish who Dante (or rather, the fictionalized version within the book) is and what we can expect from him.
The line I'm referring to comes from page 15 of my translation, Lines 32-33 of Cantos Two to be exact. Dante proclaims in these lines that "I'm not Aeneas! I'm not Saint Paul! No one/not I myself could think me worthy....". These lines are just amazing to me, because in them we can automatically grasp not necessarily who Dante the author is but who Dante the character is. This Dante is afraid of the quest ahead, he's not like the common kind of great hero we've come to expect out of classical literature -- as Dante himself states he's not Aeneas. He's not some great warrior or scholar destined to save the world.
Dante the character is rather simple in design. He's nervous, afraid, curious, and most certainly not the most heroic main character around. This follows him throughout the Cantos that follows, a prime example being in Cantos 4 when he lets the Teacher go first in the midst (though to be fair Dante did give a bit of protest that Dante should go first) and then the Teacher remarks how Dante hasn't asked yet about the faces that watch them. Dante is a very interesting character and I can't wait to read more about him and discover and watch him grow over the course of the remaining Cantos.
P.S. I commented on Will and Owen's blogs.
How could Dante be a hero? He's a corrupt man lost in a horrid maze thanks to his own sinfulness. There is nothing he can do to save himself. I would wager to say that all of The Inferno will pass us by without the appearance of a heroic character--how can there be a hero in the land of those hopelessly damned for eternity with no escape? The hero of the Divine Comedy can't be a damned soul, and it can't be a sinful man. You get where I'm going with this... I get the feeling that Dante the character is probably a very honest reflection of Dante the author. Fortunately, Dante the author knows better than to portray himself as a mighty force for justice in, as Dr. Olsen keeps calling it, "the most Christological work ever written outside the Bible."
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