Putting it Together

After I wrote my last blog post, I kind of paged through the whole book and thought about how I thought about the three sections fit together. In particular, I focused on the beginning, the first couple of cantos in particular. The story begins, and ends really, so abruptly. Since we’ve been talking about allegories in class, I thought about whether this could be an allegory. Given the number of abstract things he covers, I thought that this was likely. Already, in previous blog posts, I’ve discussed what facets of the epic act as symbolic, particularly Virgil, representing Dante’s idealistic writer, a hero and model, and Beatrice, representing religion and theology. While I’m sure these are arguable, let’s accept them for the sake of time, and assume that the entirety of Divine Comedy can be an allegory. The poem begins with “I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost” (11). Symbolically, this forest and path, which he goes on to expound upon 2-3 more times over the next page, symbolizes Dante’s road to sin. He is frightened by 3 animals, a panther, lion, and a she-wolf,  perhaps representing what drove him to sin, that cause him to fall down into the beginnings of Hell, physically towards sinners. But then, along comes Virgil, symbolizing all that Dante hold’s most dear, a fatherly figure who is knowledgeable enough to lead Dante through his journey into Hell to the root of sin and, more importantly, to understand sin and its consequences. Oh, and he was sent by Beatrice, who, as we’ve established is representative of religion. Dante journeys through the Inferno and Purgatory, being explained each and every type of sin on his way through, as well as all their consequences. By the end, there is no question as to whether he understands sin or not. By journeying to Hell and back, he, in a way, conquers sin. Then, once he’s completed that, he doesn’t need Virgil any more. The remnant of his past, an ancestor of sorts, disappears, and gives way to Beatrice, religion, who leads him directly to God. So, if this is the allegory, then the message is about searching oneself for understanding sin and God. The theme is that, when people start to tend towards sin, they must have religion, to guide them to understand sin and reach God. For, as Dante definitely emphasizes in the last 7 or 8 cantos of this book, love, hope, faith, and God are about as good as it can possibly get.

Of course, being an allegory means that every part of the story should have some kind of meaning on a symbolic level. I, however, could only account for the most major pieces. This is mostly for the sake of time and concision, but also due to my reading habits, which were inconsistent at best. For the early portion of this book, I read with a dictionary, and closely as Nabokov wanted. Thinking of Foster, I traced a number of motifs, both of light/dark imagery, weather, and flame throughout Inferno. However, once I got into Purgatorio and Paradiso I just didn’t have the time to read as close as I needed to or trace as much as I wanted. For time’s sake, I had to race through the back 300 pages. To justify this to myself, because I find Dante’s writing to be so beautiful, I had to promise to myself that I will go back within the next two or three years and reread Divine Comedy, just as Nabokov would want me too, and this time even closer. 

I would definitely recommend this book to someone else, though perhaps not for Quarter Independent Reading. The content and style make it worth reading, regardless of how much time people have to commit to it. How many modern thoughts on the afterlife have their roots in this book? Have you ever heard the phrase “Hell hath frozen over” before? How freaking awesome is it that Dante lets himself get guided around the afterlife by his predecessor of some 1000 years?! And the words are beautiful. Some passages, I just had to read aloud to get the flow. Even in the translation, for this was originally in Italian, the text is never boring and always alluring in both word choice and structure. If I did suggest it for QIR, I would suggest that they only read one of the three pieces, to really give themselves the time to focus in on those 200 pages rather than trying to get all 600. Also, I think I would’ve been helped with a CRJ or discussion or some kind of guidance. Discussing a book with a friend is such a great way for me to start to understand text more, yet I had no one to go to with questions or things to talk about. Other than the blog posts, where I felt like I should grapple with the “big stuff,” I had no arena to try and figure out the small details, which is a shame in a book rife with characters that flit in and out of the spotlight. I would advise anyone else to read a copy with footnotes, because otherwise understanding the allusions is nearly impossible.

I’m satisfied with my choice of Divine Comedy for this quarter. It was certainly difficult, but it was an enjoyable book to read and definitely gave me lots of food for thought for dealing with symbols and allegories. My biggest regret is the sheer number of noticings and questions that I had while reading this that I didn’t have time to share or expound upon during these four blogs posts.

Dante Goes to Heaven: Paradiso

It’s a little hard to believe that I’m done with Paradiso, the third and final book of Dante’s Divine Comedy. It was most definitely a rush to the finish, but it was worth it, as I enjoyed the third portion of the book fare more than I expected to. In Paradiso, Dante travels all the way through heaven, which, at this time, were synonymous with the heavens, from the first layers of those who were not the most courageous on the moon with “the mingled virtue,” to the holy trinity beyond the stars, “appeared to me three circles” (360, 514). In particular, throughout this section, I was intrigued by the geography of Dante’s journey and the replacement of Virgil, his guide through the first two books, with Beatrice, so those two issues will be the focuses of this blog post.

The leveling of Inferno and Purgatorio continued into Paradiso, however, it differs in the direction of movement. Within each book, Dante moves more towards the extreme as he goes through each level. In Inferno, Dante was constantly traveling downward, towards Satan and the root of sin. In Purgatorio, Dante was traveling upwards away from sin. However, in Paradiso, the focus is traveling outwards, away from Earth and all things related to Earth, namely, sin. He stopped by all the planets in the solar system on his way to God, though, naturally, the order was different from today’s standards given that this was written in pre-Copernican times. I thought it was interesting the way Dante imbued the different planets/stars with groups that draw from their characteristics. The sun is filled with the intellectuals and really good Kings, there Dante talks to Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the most famous intellectual of Dante’s era, and meets King Solomon, the greatest King described in the Bible. The symbolism of these souls illuminating Earth is almost too obvious. Venus is filled with those who erred by loving too much, and letting that consume them, as its named after the goddess of love. And, oh yeah, the moon, the one heavenly body that changes shape, is filled by those with inconsistent virtue, who occasionally showed cowardice just as the moon disappears. The symbolism Dante ties into these locations helps tie into the idea that Divine Comedy is allegorical, as allegories require nearly everything encountered to be symbolic.

At the end of Purgatorio, I found the departure of Virgil really odd. Here’s this guy, Virgil, who Dante obviously respects and worships, but yet he just has to up and leave when Dante reached the Garden of Eden. His replacement was Beatrice, the woman who had instructed Virgil to guide Dante along his journey. One thing I noticed, and this was the most interesting feature of Beatrice, is that Dante seems more and more taken with her beauty as he progresses through the spheres of heaven. Just before Dante meets Peter Damaino, in Canto XXI, he writes that “on my Lady’s face mine eyes again were fastened,” and she responds that “my beauty, that along the stair of the eternal palace more enkindles” (451). This is explicitly saying that her beauty increases as she goes through heaven, towards God. He goes even further in his description before he meets god, saying that “the beauty I beheld Transcend ourselves” (496). Somehow, as Dante gets closer and closer to God, Beatrice is more and more beautiful. One of her other main differences from Virgil is that Beatrice has far more opinions on God and theology. She discusses “between God and man the compact” and she spends tons of time talking to Dante about the death of Christ, answering/putting off his religious questions, and explaining the structure of heaven (371). Taking all this into account, I think that Beatrice is symbolic of religion. She leads Dante directly from Earth to God, answering his religious questions along the way. She gets stronger and stronger nearer to God. She, religion, is necessary to get Dante from the end of Purgatory, in which he has understood all of his sins. 

That Mountain Couldn't Possibly Have Been Symbolic: Purgatorio

Purgatorio, the middle book of Dante’s Divine Comedy, was not quite as enticing to me as Inferno was. Perhaps it was that many of the ideas in Purgatorio felt like continuations of the more novel ideas of the first book. Most of Purgatory was spent with Dante traveling through the different layers of Purgatory (which, by the way, happen to be described as rings) and encountering different groups of people that committed different sins. Been there, done that. Perhaps, and I believe this is more likely, I had to rush through this section a lot more. Given that this poem is rife with low-key figurative language, having to rush through the Cantos means that I’m missing tons of symbolism. There have most definitely been moments when I’ve thought to myself: “What the hell is going on here?” and then pressing onward because it’s 1:00 AM and I’m pressed for time. As much as I try to read slowly and re-read, as Foster and Nabokov would want me too, it’s impractical at the moment. I try to notice as much as I can, but I know that I’m definitely lacking. 

There are a couple pieces of Purgatorio that interested me a ton. First, given that there were a ton of parallels in structure of the journey between Purgatorio and Inferno, I thought that the biggest difference, the geographical differences between the journeys, had a symbolism that goes far beyond the plot. During Inferno, the pair travel downwards the entire time. Each ring holds successively worse punishments for its residents, leading to the prison of ice described in the 9^th Circle of Hell. Everything is dark. Once Purgatorio begins, the case is opposite. From the get go, Dante seems obsessed with discussion of the sky, both between the night sky in Canto I and then, in Canto II, the sun: “a light along the sea so swiftly coming, its motion by no flight of wing is equaled” (189). There is a notion of night and day spoken of with great detail. The “coldness of the moon” contrasts with the “diurnal heat;” the pair is driven forward by the “new sun at our back” (274, 275). This night/day contrast is new, given that all of Hell was underground. Physically as well, the pair are constantly traveling upwards towards the Paradise/Garden of Eden they reach at the top, getting closer and closer to the sky and heaven. They “turned to the mountain whither reason spurs,” and “mounting will hencefore seem sport to [them]” because of their more difficult journey through Inferno (192, 191). The transitions between layers, which usually involved freefalling and arduous hikes, followed by encounters with monsters in Inferno, are simpler in Purgatorio, consisting of merely “resumed again on our holy path…so I went onward” (283).

The effect of the physical differences lies in the end goals of the respective journeys. Though both journeys involve encountering and understanding sin, Dante is traveling towards the depths of Hell, to Satan himself, throughout Inferno, and therefore his journey is about understanding and realizing the worst sins humanity can make. Purgatorio, on the other hand, involves a journey to Heaven, literally upwards to the heavens. While he also understand sin better, the journey is also symbolic of understanding how humanity can best atone for those sins, as those in Purgatory do, and reach a better afterlife. This difference in focus and symbolic meaning of the journeys is reflected in the physical differences.

I Guess He's a Bit Obsessed with Virgil: Inferno

I am now through the first third, Inferno, of Dante's epic poem Divine Comedy. This portion chronicles Dante's journey into and through each different layer of Hell, notably guided by Virgil. It's dense with both information and figurative language, and I'm sure I could write ten blog posts just analyzing the intricacies, with regard to the plot and symbolism, of Dante's work. However, throughout the first book, I was intrigued most of all by the relationship between Dante and his guide, Virgil. As I read, I was constantly questioning the significance and purpose of this relationship.

When Dante falls into Hell in the Canto I, Virgil is there to meet with him. Once Dante realizes who he's speaking with, his antecedent of upwards of 1000 years, he cries that "thou art my master...thou art alone the one from whom I took" (14). As becomes clear from that reverence, Dante believes himself to be following directly in Virgil’s footsteps while writing his works, and that Virgil is somewhat of a personal hero for him. This tie is drawn closer when, in the beginning of Canto II, Dante reminds his audience through an allusion that Aeneas, “that of Silvius the parent,” had gone to the Underworld and survived in The Aeneid, which happens to be Virgil’s most famous work (16). Dante rarely describes Virgil with his name, especially during the earlier portion of the book.  Eventually, he shifts towards Virgilius, Virgil’s full name. However, during most of Inferno, Dante calls on him as “Master,” “the Poet,” “my sapient Guide,” and “my Conductor” (22, 27, 32, 54). 

After meeting Dante before the entrance of Hell and encouraging him with the story of Beatrice and the angelic woman who instructed Virgil to guide Dante into and through Hell, to St. Peter, Virgil plays an important role throughout Inferno. As the “guide,” he acts as a kind of protector for Dante, who is somewhat naïve. When the pair entered the fourth circle of Hell, in Canto VII, Virgil commands Plutus, who is instilling fear in the heart of Dante, to “Be silent…consume within thyself with thine own rage,” instructing Plutus that their journey is “not causeless” (44). This is one of many instances in which Virgil acts as a protector to Dante, preventing him from getting harmed while in Hell. When a “devil,” runs towards Dante, Virgil is the one who warns him, “crying out: ‘Beware, beware!’” (112). There are countless instances (ok, not really, but you get the point) of Virgil acting as an almost fatherly figure to Dante, protecting him and explaining the layers of Hell as they go through.

I think it would be far too simplistic to write off Virgil as a plot tool, especially given that he is the second most important character in the book (so far). If we think of the whole story as an allegory, which I think we should (I’m planning a future blog post on that), what does Virgil represent? Well, if Dante’s journey through Hell is symbolic of him discovering and accepting sin, then Virgil is symbolizing the necessity of having a model to ground one’s search for meaning and religiosity. Dante depends on Virgil, his hero of sorts, whom he is trying to embody more than anybody else, for guidance on his search for understanding sin and God. Without Virgil, Dante wouldn’t have even embarked on his quest and he most definitely wouldn’t have been successful.