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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.

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