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#7

�We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell�

 Oscar Wilde quotes (Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic, 1854-1900)

 

 

            This quote could probably be related to every Cantos in the Inferno. I chose to analyze it only now because I see, in the ninth circle of hell, that these sinners are the ones that trapped themselves in their own hell. In Cantos thirty two Dante enters Caina named after Cain which holds the worst sinners of them all, including Satan. The sinners who in life were treacherous to their kin are buried under ice with just their heads poking out. They denied the love of God when they were alive and now they are denied warmth from the sun and made so that they can never move. �They strained their necks, and when they had raised their heads as if to reply, the tears their eyes had managed to contain up to that time gushed out, and the cold froze them between the lids, sealing them shut again.� (268) Their tears resemble their grief. They now cry because of the sins they once performed and their crying makes them suffer even more. Even the slight comfort that one can obtain from crying is taken from them. 

            In the last Cantos of the story, Cantos thirty four, we see Dis, or Satan. Satan is as deep down in hell as possible. He is entrapped in a block of ice of which he keeps frozen solid. �Under each head two wings rose terribly, their span proportioned to so gross a bird: I never saw such sails upon the sea�it is these that freeze all Cocytus.� (284) Essentially Satan keeps himself where he is in hell. He weeps out of the six eyes he has and constantly flaps his wings to escape. Not only does he keep himself in his hell but he cools the ice that surrounds the whole ninth circle, entrapping all its inhabitants.

            Dante and Virgil reach the end of their journey through the inferno and they begin their travel to Purgatory. �There is no way but by such stairs to rise above such evil�now let all those whose dull minds are still vexed by failure to understand what point it was I had passed through, judge if I was perplexed� (285) This was an excellent way to leave hell at last after their long journey. Virgil is giving Dante his last lesson from Hell. As they leave all behind, Dante is proud to have made it out safely and has learned that he would never have to reach hell if he doesn�t put hell upon himself as all the sinners he met did.

#6

To appreciate heaven well, it's good for a person to have some fifteen minutes of hell.
Author: Will Carleton   http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/will_carleton.html

 

In Cantos 28, Dante and Virgil are within the 9^th bolgia of the 8^th circle of hell. Here they find those men who attempted to perform schisms in the church when they were alive. We find them now being torn apart by devils. This is symbolic to when they attempted to tear Christians apart. �Along this ditch were sowers of scandal and schism: as they tore others apart, so are they torn�the devil who butchers us and sends us marching waits to renew our wounds with his long sword.� (pg. 236) This is directly connected to this quote because it later causes Dante think deeply about the horrors he saw there. He takes these images and will remember them when he returns to his home. They are so frightening, he wouldn�t dare perform such acts or anything closely related to them. This, being one of the worst levels of Hell, will make Dante appreciate heaven even more.

 

Also in Cantos 28, Dante and Virgil continue to converse with one of the souls that walk around in the pit and are torn apart by the devil�s swords. Here we see that the soul questions Dante about why he is there and Virgil explains to him. ��Death has not come for him, guilt does not drive his soul to torment,� my sweet Guide replied, �that he may experience all while yet alive.� (pg 236) This shows that when Dante returns to his home, he will have the choice to live life the way he wishes, but now he has the knowledge of Hell. With this knowledge, and the help of Virgil, Dante will certainly strive to reach heaven and avoid sin, fore he knows that Hell is not where he wants to end up.

 

In Cantos 29 Dante and Virgil leave bolgia 9 and are heading torward the tenth bolgia. We find that Dante is completely frightened by the sights he has seen with the souls who were tortured for their acts of schism. He realizes that this could possibly be him or his kin, if they themselves performed these sinful acts. �The sight of the parade of broken dead had left my eyes so sotted with their tears, I longed to stay and weep, but Viril said, �What are you waiting for? Why do you stare as if you could not tear your eyes away from the mutilated shadows passing there?� (pg. 243) Dante believes that he may have seen one of his kinsmen and it frightened him to believe that someone he knew was in such a horrible place. The form of torture these souls endured was something that Dante had never seen or even imagined. I believe this frightened Dante so much that he was afraid for those people he knew, as well as for himself. He will go back home and learn to live his life honorably, striving for heaven and avoiding acts that would lead him to the wretched Hell. Dante spends much longer than 15 minutes in hell. Therefore, his appreciation for heaven will be tremendous.

#5

�Consider your origin; you were not born to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.�

             The Divine Comedy

 

 

This quote from The Divine Comedy can easily be connected to Cantos twenty one through twenty six, as well as the rest of the Inferno. Virgil takes Dante through Hell to, as Virgil explains to Malacoda, �show another this dread state� (185). He must see the �brutes� that the demons and the fiends are in order to better understand the sorrow and pain present in Hell. When Virgil and Dante find that the bridge they seek to cross no longer exists, they are sent in search of another way over the next ditch to reach the Sixth Bolgia. They are sent with a group of demons to protect them in their search. Dante cowers away from the brutes of fiends that surround him. �I pressed the whole of my body against my Guide and not for an instant did I take my eyes from those black fiends who scowled on every side.� (186)  It is natural and pure that Dante is afraid of these fiends that lurk around him in their hellish manner. Dante has never been exposed to such �brutes� because he was not supposed to. He was supposed to �follow virtue and knowledge� throughout his life and not know of brutes.

 

When Dante and Virgil finally reach the Sixth Bolgia in circle eight, the demons leave them to continue their travel deeper into hell. They are left vulnerable to fiends who begin to hunt them. �These Fiends, through us, have been made ridiculous, and have suffered insult and injury of a kind to make them smart. Unless we take good care-now rage is added to their natural spleen-they will hunt us down as greyhounds hunt the hare.� (198) The Fiends once were smart and knowledgeable but now with hell as their fuel they are turned into vicious brutes that will hunt any creature down until they catch them, much like a greyhound would a hare. Through the good people, they were once knowledgeable but now they are the antitheses to what God intended for them.

 

Also in Cantos twenty three, still being persued by the Fiends, a different kind of connection to this quote from The Divine Comedy can be made. Running from the Fiends, Virgil takes Dante in his arms and jumps down an embankment and slides to safety. �my Guide and Master bore me on his breast, as if I were not a companion, but a son. And the soles of his feet had hardly come to rest on the bed of the depth below�� (199) I found a different interpretation for this passage which also compares directly to the quote that I chose. Dante was not born to live like a brute, he was supposed to become knowledgeable and virtuous. Maybe he was not meant to do this on his own. If captured by the Fiends, Virgil would most likely be able to escape, being who he is, but who knows what would have happened to the flesh and blood Dante. Maybe it�s not only that you shouldn�t live your lives like brutes, but you must also be shielded from brutes, or be strong enough to protect yourself from them. And maybe you cannot live a knowledgeable and virtuous life without the aid and protection from those who care for you. When Virgil holds Dante as if he�s his son, close to his chest protecting him from the horrors of hell, I saw a totally different relationship between Dante and Virgil. Virgil must guide Dante safely through hell, but maybe he is guiding him to a virtuous and knowledgeable life as well.

#4

There is no greater sorrow than to be mindful of the happy time in misery.

The Divine Comedy

 

 

This quote closely relates to Cantos sixteen through twenty. In Cantos sixteen, Dante and Virgil come to the Great Cliff where a waterfall descends. There they look down upon the eighth circle of hell. They are approached by a wraith named Jacopo Rusticucci who seems to be suffering and being beaten by the looks of his wounds. �If the misery of this place, and our unkempt and scorched appearance� bring us and what we pray into contempt, still may our earthly fame move you to tell who and what you are, who so securely set your live feet to the dead dusts of Hell.� (143) Jacopo speaks to Dante with great dignity and respect, for he knows that Dante is from his old home due to the cloths he wears. He hopes that he will enlighten him with news from Florence. He will learn of the news and feel joy for a moment or two but then when he returns to the group of other wraiths he will remember he is still in Hell and he will never return home. This makes hell that much worse for him and it makes him mindful of happiness but even more miserable.

 

Dante talks of Florence as Jacopo and his two other companions listen on in great content. One of the three speaks again of the life they once had and of how they miss it so dearly. �O Florence! Your sudden wealth and your upstart rabble, dissolute and overweening, already set you weeping in your heart.� (145) The wraith speaks so passionately about the land he once lived in and it is patent that he wishes to be back there and not here in Hell burning in punishment. He is �mindful of the happy time� and it just makes it so much harder on him while he suffers in the depths of hell. He ferrets for memories that in turn will only compound his suffering.  

 

In Cantos seven Dante explores the land before Virgil and Dante fly on the back of the great beast to continue on with their journey deeper into Hell. Dante came upon a group of people, of which none of them he recognizes. �Their eyes burst with their grief; their smoking hands jerked about their bodies, warding off now the flames and now the burning sands� I examined several faces there among that sooty throng, and I say none I knew; but I observed that from each neck there hung an enormous purse, each marked with its own beast and its own colors like a coat of arms. On these their streaming eyes appeared to feast.� (151)These souls wore the coat of arms from Florence. It is completely apparent to me and to Dante, though he is callow, that these people were once of Florence decent, but they are now left to suffer by always having memories of their once great home. In essence the quote from The Divine Comedy is about these souls. Their torture is to know about the happy time they once lived in. It says that �their streaming eyes appeared to feast�. They were feasting on good memories but sadly, constantly reminded of where they are today. It was macroscopic that these souls were being tortured this way and there was no direct way to rationalize it.

 

#3

�He listens well who takes notes.�

The Divine Comedy

 

Through Cantos eleven to fifteen Virgil continues to lead Dante lower and lower into the deeper, nastier circles of hell. Dante knows nothing about hell and Virgil shows great knowledge and teaches him everything he should need or want to know. Dante doesn�t necessarily �take notes� but he pays close attention to his master and it is apparent that he is growing to understand and learn from what Virgil tells him. Virgil plays the role of Dante�s conscious alter-ego, as he has much knowledge of his surroundings and Dante does not.  
 

In Canto eleven, Dante and Virgil come upon the sixth circle and a cliff that has fallen from the earthquake that occurred when Jesus was crucified. Virgil doesn�t hesitate in explaining to Dante the levels in which they pass. Without exclaiming it, Virgil infers �He listens well who takes notes.� He doesn�t tell Dante this but he wants Dante to learn and understand the cruelty and dangers of hell as best as possible. �My son�there are below this wall three smaller circles, each in its degree like those you are about to leave�I will explain how each is prisoned, and why.� (104) Virgil starts by calling Dante his son, showing that he cares for him. Then he explains the next three levels of hell, while Dante �takes notes.� Dante must listen well and �take notes� if he is to learn the complexity of this dangerous place.

In Canto thirteen Dante and Virgil enter the Wood of the Suicides. This wood is full with those who inflicted pain upon themselves and these people were not granted the form of a human but instead as trees. Only when a limb of the tree is broken, or the tree is injured in any other way, can the soul speak. They can only speak through their pain. �I think perhaps he thought that I was thinking those cries rose from among the twisted roots through which the spirits of the damned were slinking to hide from us. Therefore my Master said: �if you break off a twig, what you will learn will drive what you are thinking from your heard.��(120) (Taken from Nika Myers response) Dante listens to Virgil and performs the action he was asked to do. He listened and took mental note of what Virgil told him, and Virgil�s lesson shown through. Dante breaks a branch and the soul talks to him only while its blood flows. Dante learns that the souls are punished by the pain being inflicted upon them, as in their lives they inflicted pain upon themselves.

 
Within Canto fourteen Virgil and Dante have come upon the Plain of Burning Sand. This is where those who have been violent towards God are located. Virgil warns Dante about the dangers of this realm. �Now follow me; and mind for your own good you do not step upon the burning sand, but keep well back along the edge of the wood.� (130) Virgil warns Dante not to step on the burning sand and away from the woods. Dante must take heed in his suggestions or he will be gravely affected. He must take mental notes of all that Virgil says in order to stay safe in this dangerous and cruel place.

#2

�O human race born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou fall.�

The Divine Comedy

 

This quote directly connects to Cantos six through ten in The Inferno. It means that humans are supposed to go to heaven, but without wind, which possibly could be religion or faith, they would certainly go down to hell. In Cantos six Virgil and Dante travel into the six �circle� as Dante refers to it. They come upon Gluttons which are men who took the things God gave them and littered the great world they received with garbage. They received these gifts but did not use �wind� or perhaps religion to use these things and travel to paradise. �We made our way across the sodden mess of souls the rain beat down, and when our steps fell on a body, they sank through emptiness.� (66) As they passed through the Gluttons they would step on their souls and there would be nothing to step on. The gluttons were empty, and they had nothing to believe in without the �wind� that God once showed them and they disregarded. One may speculate that the gluttons were sprawled over the ground, as garbage that God didn�t want because they discarded the things God gave them on the ground.

 

Cantos seven explains the fourth �Circle� of Upper Hell. These people are the hoarders and the wasters. They had a lifestyle that revolved directly around money. There was no God in their day to day life. They disregarded God completely with their obsessions for objects that now don�t mean a thing. Virgil explains these sinners, �In the first life beneath the sun they were so skewed and squinteyed in their minds their misering or extravagance mocked all reason.�(73) This connects to the quote from The Divine Comedy because they had no wind under their wings. They focused on money, and materialistic things that they were not able to understand the reasoning of God and what God has given them. They were not able to rise to heaven with just the wind that God gave them. They slowly lost sight of what they were bound to do, go to heaven, until eventually they didn�t have a chance.

 

In Cantos eight, Virgil and Dante try to enter the metropolis of Hell but they are turned away by the lost souls that guard it. �Take heart. Nothing can take our passage from us when such a power has given warrant for it.� (83) This is the antithesis to the other two examples that I have given. This is Virgil telling Dante that God has told him his path is to reach heaven, even if it means going through hell first, and with the strength of the wind that God has given him, nothing can stop him. Dante, being a paradise bound man, does not live the life of a sinner and his faithfulness to his religion is enough wind to push him towards heaven. At this point and time it doesnt seem like there is any doubt that  Dante will reach paradise. He has not been thworted by any one creature or anything else that Virgil could not handle.

#1

 ï¿½In 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

 

The first five Cantos of The Inferno are directly connected to this quote because it is the turning point in the �I� character�s journey and the beginning of our story. The first stanza in the story is almost identical to the quote itself. It says �Midway in our life�s journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself along in a dark wood.� (28) �I� or maybe directly Dante finds himself in a turning point in his life. It is a banal point where every person will one day, if they have not already, will reach. This could be his death, where his birth was the beginning, death is the middle, and the after life is denouement. He has woken in the wood, after perhaps death, of his life, and now he is on his journey to paradise, but as we find in the first five Cantos, he must travel through hell in order to reach heaven.

Throughout the rest of the first Cantos and into the next five, we find that �I� or Dante wanders to find site of his way. As he continues his travels three beasts stop him from continuing on his way to paradise. He is blocked on his path, and �the straight way� is still lost. He meets Virgil who shows him the path that he must follow to once again find the �straight way�. �you follow me and I will be your guide and lead you forth through an eternal place.� (31) Virgil will show him through hell in order to help him get around this imminent quandry of which "I" has run into. He must go around in order to reach the place he wishes to reach.

Soon after Virgil and �I� pass through the gates of hell and through into the first circle. They rest and awake to a loud crash of thunder. �I leaped up with a start. And having risen; rested and renewed, I studied out the landmarks of the gloom to find my best bearing there as best I could.� (50) This is directly connected to the quote because �I� is in a strange place and this place in nebulous to him. He searches around trying to understand his surroundings, just as in the quote from The Devine Comedy where �I� is searching for the �straight way� once again. He looks for landmarks in order to remember where he has awaken incase he finds himself there again one day.

The Life of Dante Alighieri

I. Younge:
   A. Born-1265
   B. Lesser noblility family
   C. His childhood was filled with stories about struggles of the families people
   D. Impacted his writtings (Struggle stories) "Comedy" "Inferno" "Pergatory"
   E. MOther died when he was young
   F. Father remarried
   G. Dante was orphaned, longed parents, shown in "Comedy"
II. Middle
   A. ABeatrice Prtiniari
      1. Dantes greates influence, Sonnets of love, "Comedy" iludes to her.
   B.1289 was the first record of Dantes political activities
      1. Enrolled in the Guild
      2. Spoke in the  "Counsil of Hundreds"
      3. filled minor ambassadorship
   C. Political carreer raised.
   D.Studied in Paris at Oxford
III.
   A. Last years he was more excepted in politics
   B. Became ill and died after a diplomatic mission to Venice

Question(s): Will the American government come to a place where a balance can be forged between religion and the state (or are we already there)? How do you see the role of religion in the civil affairs of government in the United States?

    This question is based upon the fact that our country today is a melting pot of religions and cultures, but we have a very monotheistic past and whether we like to except it or not we based the American lifestryles around our religion as mainly Catholic and Jewish people. We see now changes and the exceptance of other religions in the government but religion still becomes a factor today. It should not be a matter of religion in government, government should be seperate and for everyone from every religion.
    It is so obviouse that we have strayed from this idea and government has been easily affected by the main religions of the people. Its forged into the words of even the Pledge of Allegiance that we all said all throughout elementary school, whatever religion we were. "One nation under god...." These things are now being questioned and some who follow different religions have challenged governmental issues like this.
    As I read some of the responses from my other classmates, they seemed to spark some very important issues. One was of the question of abortion. In our past election between John Carey and President George W. Bush I watched a debate between the two. The question of abortion came up based upon their religious stand points they had their own opinions. Mr. Bush was against abortion becasue he is Christian, and there isn't anything wrong with that because thats what he believes in, but it should not be a law that someone can't have an abortion, just because the religion says its wrong to. Many Americans are  Christian and thats fine, but many of them aren't. I myself have thought about abortion and where I stand on the topic. I feel that it may seem wrong to take a life away and it would be incredibly tough, this coming from a confermed 16 year old, but I may never know how it would feel to have to go through something like that unless I myself were a part of one and I can't say what I would do. But one can't say that just because their religion is against something, that it  should be a law. Their rules may not aply to everyone.
    It will be tough to completely rid our government religious beliefs because of who influenced it in the first place, but seperating church from state should be manditory in order to apply the American lifestyle to everyone.

Being a True Leader!

THIS WEEK'S FOCUS:  In the current "debate on politics" in Washington D.C., the nomination of Harriet Miers to fill the vacated seat on the Supreme Court(who has never been a judge), as well as the resignation of the FEMA Director (Browne) after Hurricane Katrina (who did not have any experience with post-disaster reconstruction) have many wondering how we know if someone is truly competent to lead or not.

Question(s): How do you truly know when someone is competent to lead? How do you define a great leader in terms of the qualities that he or she exhibits? Use examples from "The Iliad" to support your arguments.

The only way to be sure that a person is competent enough to be a powerful and successful leader is to be tested in some way or form in order to prove themselves to their superiors. The world of leaders is at a different playing feild as one might say. The pressure may be segnificantly higher to succeed, and it is no longer for your personal asperations but for the good of the whole; the company, the team, or the ARMY! You must be or maybe just make yourself seem, smarter, stronger, and better than the others in order to gain their respect. Though being the best is not the only premise for being a leader, it seems to be the norm for most operations.

The Iliad, for example, shows the triumph and the growth of many leaders; from young to old. An outstanding  example of a test or a proof of worthiness is when Agamemnon tests his men, advising them to return to their ships and sail home after a lost war. But this in turn became a test for his fellow leaders of which includes Odysseus. Odysseus, under Athena's wishes, realizes that he must stop the men from leaving, even if its by force. He takes the great king staff and beats down men who deny his commands and forces them to stay. His actions became proof of his comanding leadership which came forth later in battle.

Woman as Hero\'s?

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:  Why does it still seem the norm in Western culture, when it comes to the use of heroes in literature and film, that the traditional role of men as the hero and the role of women as the victim still is used and supported by the audiences?  Is there any way to break this mold in a way that will lead to more diversity in the types of heroes?

                  We find today in our Western culture that in literature and film woman are not succesfully portrayed as heros in the readers or veiwers eyes.  There are many writters that have tried to write movies and literature with a woman hero but the Western culture does not  except that idea for some reason.  An example that i remember we had a discussion about in class is the movie "Cat Woman". This movie seemed like a great movie and a really good idea because at the time it came out the movie industry was producing multiple famouse comic book based movies. But the movie didn't make it in America. This was most likely because of the fact that the main character and hero was a women. Strangly enough the movie did well in Europe.  Other examples are easily seen in disney movies such as "Cinderella", "Robbin Hood", "Snow White", and "The Lion King." Being it aparant that we all watched disney movies when we were young it becomes something natural that men are the hero's in the stories.

        What we do find is writers avoiding writing about women heros because in reality their book's aren't making money. When they do write about women we see that the women are the victims of some event, whether or not their is a hero. An answer to the reason why men can only succussfully be heros in literature  and movies may be that in our past there our culture has stereotyped men as stongly, more powerful people, and women are the helpless lovers of the men. This idea could still be stuck in our society whether we realize it or not.                                                                                                                                                                                                

                   In my opinion it would be tough to successfully have an author write of a woman hero and have the full support or as much support as for a male hero,  from the reader or audience.  But I feel that the only way to really break the mold of this stereotype that we have is to continue and keep trying until someday it turns into something that's not so foreign. We find that in all history, whether it's Westurn culture or world culture, that this is the only way that anyone breaks any stereotypes mold.