ctaylor
Entry 7
“Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted…one moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?” (Lose Yourself, Eminem)
In Canto 31, Virgil and Dante take advantage of the suave words Virgil speaks to Antaeus to pursuade him to lower them into the last pit of hell. If they want to complete their journey they have to take advantage of every possible "shot" to achieve their goal. In Canto 33, Friar Algberigo sees his chance, in Dante's arrival and passage through, to regain a little fame through Dante by telling him his story. Dante wishes to hear about his predicament, and the Friar tells him. He is then eternally commemorated by being included in The Inferno. In Canto 34, Virgil gets one shot to escape from hell with Dante and captures the moment do it. Virgil was "watching for a moment when the wings were opened wide, reached over dexterously and siezed the shaggy coat of the king demon" (The Inferno, p.185). Then Virgil climbs down the devils lower half to the center of the earth, then flips over and climbs up the last part of the devil. Then they climb back onto the earths surface. All three of these situations were a single opportunity situation where the person could take advantage of the opportunity or forever hold their peace because they would never get anoth chance, this was their only shot, and they call captured it.
Entry 4
“O human race born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou fall” (The Divine Comedy). In The Inferno, there are three Florentines that Dante meets, well known Florentines that Dante approaches and speaks with, and Pope Nicholas III who were all highly respected people in their lives on the earth, but crashed into the condemnation of torture in the Seventh and Eighth Circle of Hell. The three Florentines in Round Three of Circle Seven are Guido Guerra, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and Jacopo Rusticucci. These three men were “higher then you think there in the world, in honor and degree” (The Inferno, p. 143) “whose good counsels the world would have done well to understand” (The Inferno, p. 144). The third says “I owe my sorrows to a savage wife” (The Inferno, p. 144). These three men were of high stature during their lives. They all, though, committed violence against nature and art. These three men flew upward in life, succeeding in every aspect they wanted to, but they had one flaw, a little wind, that brought their achievements tumbling to eternal torture. At the end of Round Three, just before Dante and Virgil board Geryon for their flight into the next circle of hell, Dante speaks to a Paduan for Florentine who is waiting the arrival of Vitaliano “the sovereign cavalier” (The Inferno, p. 151), who the translator, John Ciardi, traces to Giovanni di Buiamonte. Buiamonte was an esteemed Florentine and held many high offices, but was violent against the arts, which was the little wind that would cause his fall from the high offices into the Third Round of The Seventh Circle. In the Third Bolgia of Circle Eight Dante meets Pope Nicholas III, who obviously held a high office in the Church during life, was tormented in this section of hell because he bought his way into the position. The little wind that collapsed his high flight of Papacy was how he obtained his situation. All of these wraiths were of high standards and lived well respected lives, but had one short-coming that made a little wind, that converted their high flying into a fall, landing them in hell.
Entry #3
"In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost" (The Divine Comedy). There are three places in The Inferno that touch on the same subject as the one from The Divine Comedy quoted above. The first is when Virgil is explaining to Dante why some of the souls are tormented outside of the
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