Posts – Page 3 – Dante to Machiavelli at CCNY

Canzoniere 189: Lost

‘A Mediterranean Brigantine Drifting Onto a Rocky Coast in a Storm’ painted by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707). This was painted following Sir Thomas Wyatt’s (1503-1542) translation of Petrarca’s 189 poem.

In this poem, Petrarca speaks about his struggle to get his soul on the right path, comparing this journey to a rough storm at sea. Throughout Petrarca’s work, we repeatedly see the message of trying to get his soul on the right path and not to be swayed by Earthly possessions, and instead wanting to focus on finding out the truth about life. For example, we see this in the allegorical meaning of the Ascent of Mount Ventoux, as he also describes the difficult journey he must take in order to become enlightened as to what life really has to offer.

We begin the first stanza with the line “My ship is full of forgetful cargo sails”, in which he uses the metaphor of a ship (which appears in several poems of his) to describe his soul. He then goes on to state how his ship is sailing through “rough seas at the midnight of winter between Charybdis and the Scylla reef”. Through this imagery, we get the message that the journey he must go through is arduous and dangerous. Petrarca even mentions the Scylla reef and Charybdis, which are two mythical sea monsters that are typically used to describe the hazardous conditions between Sicily and Italy.

In the second stanza, we start to see Petrarca despair at his situation. He speaks about how he dreads the storm ahead and what challenges it might bring, as well as using the imagery of his sail breaking due to “wet eternal winds of sighs, of hopes and of desires”; this line essentially describes how his own hopes and wants in life are preventing him from reaching the spiritual awakening he needs. This hopeless tone continues on in the third stanza, as he provides imagery about the stormy atmosphere, saying it’s made of “a rain of tears, a mist of my disdain”. This storm continues to destroy Petrarca’s ship as it ravages the “weary ropes made up of wrong, entwined with ignorance”.

The last stanza encompasses Petrarca’s melancholic point of view of his journey. As evident from the past three stanzas, his journey is difficult and full of obstacles, and we begin to see his hopelessness take over him. The stanza stuck out to me in particular because of the imagery he uses to describe how lost he feels while on this journey, especially when he says his skill and reason are now “dead in the waves”. This line perfectly exemplifies how feeling hopeless while on a journey, whether it’s to reach a spiritual awakening or for another cause, can make you feel as though you have no sense of reason or skill anymore, which can drive one deeper into feeling depressed and dejected. In his final line, Petrarch repeats this sentiment by saying “and I despair of ever reaching port”, where he admits that because of how difficult this journey is and his inability to think clearly, he fears that he may never reach what his ultimate goal is.

Canzoniere 61: Bound

Italian (Venetian) School; Petrarch and Laura de Noves; The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/petrarch-and-laura-de-noves-141634

Poem 61 has an evident theme of love, especially within its first moments where Petrarca describes the emotions of when he fell in love with Laura. He expresses this theme of love throughout this poem and many others, through his uses of detailed imagery and hyperboles.

In the first stanza of this poem, Petrarca regards the very instant and place where he first met Laura as a blessing. He explains how he felt ‘bound’ to love after he laid eyes on her ‘two lovely eyes’. This same theme of being ‘bound’ to Laura’s love is evident throughout many of his poems, not just this one. He then continues to describe this love as his ‘first sweet agony’, and explains how he is now tied to this love.

In the second stanza, he uses metaphors to compare this feeling of love to being pierced through the heart with a bow, which left wounds so deep he feared they would “reach the bottom of his heart. By using this hyperbole, he gets the reader to understand his feelings of love, and how he fell so deep in love that it caused agony and pain, and ended up hurting his heart, and portrays the struggles he had to go through when it came to loving Laura. Petrarca also mentions many Roman gods throughout his poetry to get his points across. In this particular poem, he alludes to Cupid through the mention of bows and arrows to describe his love.

In the next stanza, Petrarca discusses all of his poetry, and the main catalyst for writing them. He states that all of his poetry was made to be a call out for Laura, and a way to express his love for her, and the feelings that came with it. He also talks about how this poetry was filled with ‘all the sighs, and tears, and the desire’ that came with loving her. By stating this, Petrarca gives the reader a good sense of what most of his poetry is about, and the feelings and emotions they can find within it. It also shows how he deeply cares for Laura to the point where he has to cry out her name and shed tears.

In the last and final stanza of this poem, Petrarca talks about how all of this paper he uses to write his poetry is blessed with Laura’s grace, as she is the topic for the poetry he writes about her. Petrarca also states how every thought he has only relates to Laura, and is not shared with anyone else.

Il Sorgue: Il Fiume dell’Amore; Canzone 126:

¨Chiare, fresche et dolci acque ove le belle membra pose colei che sola a me par donna¨

Laura incorona Petrarca (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Ashb 1263, Firenze)

Nel tipico tono d’uomo moribondo a causa dell’amore che Petrarca sente per Laura avvia l´inizio della canzone 126 del Canzoniere la quale è compresa da cinque strofe ed un congedo.

La prima strofa, è piena di metafore dove il Poeta invoca l’attenzione dell’acqua del fiume, Le Sorgue, del ramo, dell’erba, dei fiori e dell’aria che lo circonda ad ascoltarlo giacché in questo luogo beato fu dove il poeta ha visto la sua cara Laura nuda per la prima volta. Sembra come se la natura stessa diventa una cosa viva a causa dell’amore che Laura ha per questo luogo. Allo stesso tempo, questo posto così vivo per Petrarca diventa il posto scelto da lui come un rifugio oppure letto di morte. Diverso dagli altri poemi nel Canzoniere, questo poema non ci dà nessun indizio che la causa della sua morte imminente sia la vecchiaia, se non l’Amore stesso che qui viene personificato, il quale sembra li aprisse e chiudesse gli occhi.
Nella seconda strofa, questo stesso Amore viene invocato dal Poeta, e gli supplica la morte proprio in quel posto così amato da lui e Laura. È curioso che la natura che circonda il Sorgues si ravvivi semplicemente entrando in contatto con Laura. L’amore che Laura ha per questo posto lo rende vivo. In un’altra dose ironica del poeta, l’amore che lui sente per Laura sembra causare la sua morte invece che il rinascimento. È per questa ragione che il Poeta ritorna a questo posto, non così tanto perché sia un rifugio dalla vita sociale ma perché è il posto dove ha avuto un incontro con Laura. E se lui non può godere un amore reciproco dalla sua amata, il poeta le basta essere sepolto nel luogo amato da lei.
Nel congedo, Petrarca parla direttamente alla sua canzone. Le dice che è libera di andare altrove se i suoi desideri sono stati soddisfatti. È facile supporre che i desideri di Petrarca per Laura non siano stati soddisfatti ancora perché continua il suo pellegrinaggio al suo rifugio ed è qui che desidera essere sepolto.

The role women played in Dante’s exploration and how they were portrayed in Inferno

The Divine Comedy is the name a poem written in the early fourteenth century by Dante Alighieri. It follows Dante through his journey and discoveries as he makes his way to Paradiso also known as Heaven. As we dissected and analyzed Inferno it was evident the importance of the women characters, the way women were portrayed/illustrated as well as the role they played in helping Dante make his way through Inferno and Purgatorio and in his discoveries.

The first woman to be mentioned in Inferno was Beatrice, Dante’s departed lover. She appears in Canto 2 as the person who sent Virgil to help guide Dante through Hell. She is mentioned through Virgil’s point of view once met with Dante. Alighieri wrote Beatrice to be a beautiful woman ‘true praise of god’(Canto 2: 103) whose eyes are ‘shinning brighter than the morning star’ (Canto 2: 55-56) and whose faith will save her from the evil and the dangers that hide in hell. Her love for Dante caused her worry to grow as he was in search of the mountain that leads to Heaven causing her to leave heaven and go to hell to get Virgil to guide Dante. ”A friend, not of my fortune but myself, On the wide desert in his road has met Hindrance so great, that he through fear has turn’d. How much I dread lest he past help have stray’d, And I be ris’n too late for his relief, From what in heaven of him I heard. And may, I fear, already be so lost, That I too late have risen to his succour, From that which I have heard of him in Heaven.”(Canto 2: 61-66) Her overwhelming worry for Dante was far beyond her care for her own well-being. Her love for Dante allowed him to pass the beasts he encountered and acts as a shield of armor as he makes his way through hell.

Once he makes it into the second circle of hell he encounters Francesca. Francesca was a woman whose lust over her brother-in-law caused her to be sent to hell and one of the rulers of Ravenna. She was married to Gianciotto, the man who killed her for committing adultery with his brother Paolo. In the Canto, she expressed her belief that she was compelled by her love for Paolo for she couldn’t control her urges. She was described to be ‘as a beautiful, gentle seductress’ so much so that ‘even the poet temporarily succumbs to her enchanting words.’(Stuber,2018) Alighieri focus’ the sin of lust to be more about the misconception that love controls and deprives a person of free will causing them to commit such sins rather than the actual act itself. Dante, more explicitly than other moralists and theologians, illustrates that the line between love and lust is quite thin though Francesca’s story. Alighieri allows Francesca to have more lines than all the other characters in the Canto and in those lines she describes her story on how she was sent to hell and her views on love and its power to submit someone to their sexual urges.

Alighieri made it a priority to include women in his writing and illustrate their roles whatever the size may be with the utmost respect and importance. When it came to Francesca he allowed her to go on and have the most lines that helped with the way lust and love were described and how they differed in the Cantos. As well as making them have roles that helped Dante’s journey to Heaven like Beatrice’s stance in sending Virgil to assist and aid Dante on his expedition.

Barolini, Teodolinda, et al., What’s Love Got to Do with It? Love and Free Will. Digital Dante, from

https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/inferno/inferno-5/

Unknown, Circle 2, canto 5, The University of Texas at Austin, from http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/circle2.html

Unknown, Side by Side Translations of Dante’s Inferno -Canto 2, from

http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/textpopup/inf0501.html

Smith, Catherine, Dante’s Inferno Beatrice Quotes, from https://study.com/academy/lesson/dantes-inferno-beatrice-quotes.html

Unknown, Side by Side Translations of Dante’s Inferno -Canto 5, from https://www.danteinferno.info/translations/canto5.html

Stuber, S. (2018, June 4). Reading Dante as a feminist. The Stanford Daily. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from https://www.stanforddaily.com/2018/06/04/reading-dante-as-a-feminist/.

How Women Were Portrayed In Dante’s Inferno

Inferno, a poem written by Dante Alighieri, was one of the most revolutionary works of literature of it’s time for various reasons, such as it’s inclusion of women in its story. Dante mentions characters such as Beatrice, St. Lucia, and Francesca. In Inferno, Beatrice was a woman in which Dante wrote most of his poetry and texts about. She was described as a beautiful lady who was a ‘true praise of god’ (Canto 2, line 103), a lady whose eyes were ‘shining brighter than the morning star’ (Canto 2, line 55-56) and was a ‘lady of power’ (Canto 2, line 76). St. Lucia, was a ‘guardian angel’ for Dante, as she was sent from Beatrice to warn Virgil to aid Dante in his travels. Lines 97-100 of Canto 2 state, “ She called Lucia in her request and said:– Now your faithful one has need of you, and I put him in your hands–”. Virgil is sent to help Dante as he later faces the gates of hell, and helps Dante overcome his fear of being a mortal entering hell. Francesca, one of the rulers of Ravenna, was sent to hell after her husband killed her for having an affair with her brother, Paolo. Despite this incident, Dante still describes Francesca “as a beautiful, gentle seductress” (Stuber, 2018). Dante describes many of the women in this text to be beautiful and full of power, as well as being to seduce others.

While analyzing the many cantos of Inferno, it’s clear that no matter the story, Dante always made sure that the stories of these women were heard and conveyed them with utmost importance. This was revolutionary for Dante’s time, because women often were excluded and put on the sidelines in literature, therefore the inclusion of women was a vital step in the enhancement of literature at the time. His inclusion of women was also revolutionary because this created a path for many poets in the future to also include women in their poetry. Along with that, throughout the text Inferno, women tend to have very important roles to the story. For example, Beatrice, being the love of Dante’s life, is the inspiration behind much of his poetry. She is shown as a powerful character in both La Vita Nuova and The Divine Comedy, as he carries her legacy after her death. She is also consistently brought up in these texts, giving the reader a clear remembrance of her and her importance to his writing. Saint Lucia, being Dante’s guardian angel, has another important role in The Divine Comedy. She helps guide Dante through the levels of hell by summoning Virgil to help Dante get over his cowardness.

Stuber, S. (2018, June 4). Reading Dante as a feminist. The Stanford Daily. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from https://www.stanforddaily.com/2018/06/04/reading-dante-as-a-feminist/.

Alighieri, Dante, Durling, Robert, Martinez, Robert, Turner, Robert. (1996, February 29). The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Inferno. Oxford University Press USA. Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ccny-ebooks/reader.action?docID=693941

Alighieri, D., Moser, B., & Alighieri, D. (1980). The divine comedy of Dante Alighieri ; Inferno. New York: Bantam Books.

The Evils of Excess

As Dante and Virgil scavenge their way through Inferno, they come across several entities who seem to have no relation to one another. While that is a logical assumption, given that they are being punished for acting upon different sins, their commonality lies in the fact that they show excessive devotion to something that isn’t their love of God.

When Dante enters the circle of lust, he speaks to two lovers (Francesca and Paolo) who committed adultery. As Francesca recounts the story, she reiterates the idea that love is a force that compels us to do things that we wouldn’t do otherwise. She says, “Many times that reading drove our eyes together and turned our faces pale; but one point alone was the one that overpowered us” (canto 5, lines 130-132). It’s important to note the distinction between Dante the Pilgrim and Dante the Poet in this section, as they do reciprocate different feelings towards Francesca’s story. Dante the Pilgrim feels a lot of pity for Francesca, even saying, “‘Francesca, your sufferings make me sad and piteous to tears’” (canto 5, lines 116-117). Dante the Poet, on the other hand, is seemingly less sympathetic and places her in this circle because he feels as though love does not deprive us of our free will, and that she did act upon feelings of excessive affection. Thus, condemning her to an infernal storm, where “the wind controls the lustful in the same way that their passions controlled them while in this life” (Digital Dante, What’s Love Got to Do with It? Love and Free Will).

William Blake, The Circle of the Lustful: Francesca da Rimini (The Whirlwind of Lovers)
Source: Tate Britain

When Dante descends into the eighth pit of the eighth circle, he finds Ulysses alongside other fraudulent counselors. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Ulysses’ inclusion in Inferno is that Dante never read The Iliad or The Odyssey, which famously tells the story of Ulysses winning the Trojan War by means of deceit, as well as the long voyage that took place after the war (Digital Dante, The Epic Hero). Instead, Dante creates his own conception of Ulysses’ final moments, where he and his crew mates set out to cross boundaries that were imposed by God (Danteworlds, Ulysses: Circle 8, Canto 26). In a lengthy speech where Ulysses tries to convince his men that this quest for knowledge is justified, he says, “You were not made to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge” (canto 26, lines 118-119). When they pass the Pillars of Hercules (said to have been the end of the western world), Ulysses and his crew mates come in contact with a whirlwind that sinks their ship. Ulysses’ excessive desire to be all-knowing cost the lives of many (including his own), and directly goes against God’s commands. It goes without saying that Dante categorizes this as Ulysses’ biggest offense, and the reason for his damnation.

“Digital Dante.” Inferno 26 – Digital Dante, https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/inferno/inferno-26/.

“Digital Dante.” Inferno 5 – Digital Dante, https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/inferno/inferno-5/.

Ulysses, https://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/textpopup/inf2601.html

Dante & His Impact on Literature

Dante Alighieri is widely considered one of the greatest poets of all time, and for good reason. His most famous work, The Divine Comedy, is still greatly influential today despite being released around 650 years ago. It’s notoriety and long-lasting impact can be attributed to the way Dante’s work revolutionized literature in his time, popularizing certain styles of poetry and inspiring many great authors to write in their native tongue.

One of Dante’s many accomplishments includes helping to popularize the sonnet. The Sicilian School was a renowned group of poets from Sicily, Tuscany, and southern Italy that gathered in the court of Emperor Frederick II, and they came together to invent the poetic style known as the sonnet (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Sicilian school). Dante was greatly inspired by this group of poets, and eventually began writing sonnets of his own. At the age of 18, Dante published La Vita Nuova, which was 42 chapters long and included 25 sonnets centered around his love for Beatrice (Quinones, Legacy and influence of Dante). La Vita Nuova also included themes of “courtly love” (Amazon Affiliate Program, How did Dante influence the Renaissance 2021), which later spread all throughout Europe during the Renaissance. Dante also invented his own style of poetry, known as terza rima, which follows the pattern of the second line of a stanza rhyming with the first and third line of the next stanza (a pattern of ABA, BCB, CDC, etc) (Academy of American Poets, Terza Rima). An example of the terza rima style is shown in Dante’s very first canto of Inferno, which features the lines “Tant’ è amara che poco è più morte; ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai, dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ho scorte. Io non so ben ridir com’ i’ v’intrai, tant’ era pien di sonno a quel punto che la verace via abbandonai. Ma poi ch’i’ fui al piè d’un colle giunto, là dove terminava quella valle che m’avea di paura il cor compunto,” (Alighieri, Canto 1, lines 7-15). This style inspired many poets; ranging from famous Italian poets such as Boccaccio and Petrarch, and spreading outside of Italy to the rest of Europe after being brought to England by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th-century with the poem “Complaints to his Lady” (Academy of American Poets, Terza Rima).

The cover of Dante’s ‘La Vita Nuova’, which helped popularize the sonnet in poetry across Europe.

Unsurprisingly, Dante also inspired many authors to start writing in their native language. During the Middle Ages (500-1500 CE), literature and philosophical works were typically only written in Latin, which made these works inaccessible to the general public. However, Dante believed that one’s own vernacular was suitable enough to use in these genres, which was a radical idea at the time. Dante later wrote The Divine Comedy in his Tuscan dialect, but also borrowed from other Italian dialects and even from Latin itself (Amazon Affiliate Program, How did Dante influence the Renaissance 2021) . Due to the success of The Divine Comedy, Tuscan became the standard language for works of literature and many Renaissance writers began to write in their own unique dialect.

Amazon Affiliate Program. (2021, September 21). How did Dante influence the Renaissance. How did Dante influence the Renaissance – DailyHistory.org. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://dailyhistory.org/How_did_Dante_influence_the_Renaissance.
Baldwin, E., (2020, October 15). Terza Rima. Poem Analysis. Retrieved from https://poemanalysis.com/poetic-form/terza-rima/
Academy of American Poets. (n.d.). Terza Rima. Poets.org. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://poets.org/glossary/terza-rima.
Quinones, R. J. (n.d.). Legacy and influence of Dante. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dante-Alighieri/Legacy-and-influence.
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Sicilian school. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/art/Sicilian-school.
Blauvelt, C. (2018, June 5). Dante and the divine comedy: He took us on a tour of hell. BBC Culture. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180604-dante-and-the-divine-comedy-he-took-us-on-a-tour-of-hell.

La Macabra Punizione di Ugolino

Ugolino della Gherardesca viene punito insieme all’arcivescovo Ruggieri degli Ubaldini nell’Antenora, la seconda parte del cerchio nono. Qui vengono puniti i traditori della patria. Ugolino, che sta mordendo la testa di Ruggieri, si ferma dal suo macabro pasto e si pulisce la bocca con i capelli della sua vittima prima di divulgare la sua tragica storia. È morto affamato insieme ai suoi giovani figli a causa del tradimento da parte dall’arcivescovo Ruggieri. Il fatto che Dante ci presenta i figli di Ugolino come ragazzi assai giovane può essere deliberato per sottolineare due vittime innocenti nel conflitto e che tanto Ugolino come Ruggieri sono disposti a sacrificarli per ottenere vantaggi politici. Nel caso di Ugolino, specificamente, il suo successo nella politica diventa più grande e importante che il suo proprio amore per la sua famiglia e che lo parta a tradire gli stessi.(XXXIII, 1-71) A questo punto nella vicenda di Ugolino viene il silenzioso indizio della sua punizione. Ugolino fu dichiarato il gran traditore di Pisa. Partito dalla sua patria come ghibellino poi tornato come guelfo, Ugolino sembra di aver tradito i suoi compaesani dopo l’acquisizione di Pisa. Quando, secondo le note dell’Inferno nell’edizione di Robert M. Durling, Ronald L. Martinez, Robert Turner, al suo ritorno a Pisa, Ugolino trama la detronizzazione del suo proprio nipote, Nino Visconti, e cercò un’alleanza con Ruggieri. In questa prima parte si può capire che Dante mette a Ugolino al nono cerchio per il suo tradimento al suo partito (i ghibellini) e allo stesso tempo si capisce perché Ruggieri viene inserito qui insieme a lui. Però resta ancora la questione del cannibalismo. Allora, Ugolino è tradito da Ruggieri e viene imprigionato nella Torre della Muda insieme ai suoi figli. Dopo nove mesi di prigionia, i figli muoiono uno dopo l’altro alla fine solo il conte rimane vivo. Ugolino, cieco a causa dalla fame, rantola sopra i cadaveri dei figli per due giorni (XXXIII, 72 – 74). ¨Poscia, più che ´l dolor, poté ´l digiuno. (XXXIII, 75) Ed ecco qui la linea che magari ci rivela ciò che accade quando solo Ugolino rimane in vita. Sembra che Ugolino ci stia proprio ammettendo che in quei ultimi giorni la sua fame abbia avuto più forza che il proprio dolore d’aver perso i suoi figli. Detto questo ed insieme alla maniera in cui Ugolino sta mangiando la testa di Ruggieri sembra che il conte, nei suoi ultimi attimi, abbia risolto al cannibalismo di modo che possa allungare la sua vita. Questo è proprio indicativo del contrappasso che Dante gli attribuisce, come in vita il conte s´ha mangiato i propri figli ora nel inferno lui passa la sua eternità divorando al responsabile della sua sfortuna.

Beatrice: She Who Gives Blessings

In the first canto of Dante´s Inferno, Dante, the protagonist, is presented to the reader trying to find his way through dark woods searching for the mountain of Purgatory. The mountains should lead him to Heaven, but three ferocious beasts block his path; a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf causing Dante to cower and retreat into the woods, and so appears Virgil offering Dante an alternate route to Purgatory through the Underworld.

In the second canto, Dante asks Virgil if he deems him strong enough to undertake such a venture full of pity and misery (Canto 2: 31-36). To this, Virgil replies that Dante´s soul is wounded by cowardice. Virgil also reveals that he was presented with the task of delivering Dante from his fears by a divine lady. (Canto 2: 44-51)

¨I was among those who are suspended,

and a lady called me, so blessed and beautiful that

I begged her to command me.¨ (Canto 2: 52-54)

The lady Virgil speaks of is Beatrice. A woman who Dante had loved since his childhood and who died prematurely.“My friend, not the friend of fortune, on the deserted shore is so blocked…”( Canto 2: 61-62) In these lines, Dante also hints at the fact that Beatrice also cared more for him, she admits her interference in remedying Dante´s misfortunes rather than letting him suffer through his fate.

Dante describes her eyes as ¨shinning brighter than the morning star¨ (Canto 2: 55-56).

The morning star is usually indicative of the planet Venus which is mostly at its brightest just before dawn and can be associated with the Roman goddess of love (Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/Venus-goddess); but the fact that Dante refers to her eyes as ¨shining brighter than the morning sun¨ presents Beatrice (she who bestows blessings) as being more blessed than Satan himself as he is also associated with the morning star ¨Lucifer, (Latin: Lightbearer) … the morning star (i.e., the planet Venus at dawn); personified as a male figure bearing a torch, Lucifer had almost no legend, but in poetry, he was often herald of the dawn.¨ (Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lucifer-classical-mythology). Beatrice continues to speak to Virgil, stating that love has caused her to seek him to help the now lost Dante.

Thus Beatrice personifies love as a whole. She descended from the heavens to seek Virgil in hell without fear because she is blessed/ protected by her faith (love for God), and thus, the love Dante bears for her creates a chain of protection that will see Dante through his journey through the underworld. The love he has for Beatrice is his salvation.

Gianni, Hotchi, Karla

Character Analysis of Dante The Pilgrim in Cantos 1 & 2

In canto 1, Dante can be easily characterized as a fearful individual. He first describes the feel of the woods as “savage” and “harsh,” and mentioned how even the slightest thought of that place was enough to renew his fright (canto 1, line 4). In addition, as he tried to make his way towards the top of a hill where light shone very brightly, he froze with terror at the sight of three beasts. The she-wolf, specifically, made him lose hope of reaching the top of that hill and prompted him to turn back. In canto 1, lines 58-60, he says “That restless beast, who, coming against me, little by little was driving me back to where the sun is silent.” This is very telling of how shaken up he was by the she-wolf; so much so, that he found more comfort in those “savage” woods than in her presence. In the second canto, Dante feels much more hopeful after meeting his guide, Virgil. Virgil tells Dante about Beatrice, a past lover who pitied Dante’s state of terror and wished for protection upon him. While Dante did feel doubtful at the thought of not making it through the journey to paradise, he said to Virgil, “your words have so filled my heart with desire to come with you, that I have returned to my first purpose” (canto 2, lines 136-138). This was the first time where we witnessed Dante being quite courageous and proceeding with the tough path that lay ahead.

By: Gianna Arias, Layka Coby, Gary Familia

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