JOHH Essay, Research Paper
Divine Comedy
Dante’s Divine Comedy is a moral comedy that is designed to make
the readers
think about their own morals. The poem could have been used almost as a
guide for what
and what not to do to get into Heaven for the medieval people. Dante
takes the reader on
a journey through the “afterlife” to imprint in the readers minds what
could happen to them
if they don’t follow a Godlike life and to really make the reader think
about where they will
go when they die and where they would like to go when they die. In the
Divine Comedy,
Dante uses his imagination and his knowledge of the people’s perception of
the “afterlife”
to create a somewhat realistic yet somewhat imaginary model of the
afterlife.
In the first lines of the Divine Comedy, Dante says “In the middle
of the journey of
our life I came to my senses in a dark forest, for I had lost the straight
path.”(Dante 1416
lines 1-3) This is the typical stereotype of today for when a person
becomes “lost” or
consumed in sin. The sinful life is a dark life and a sinless life is a
bright, white, and pure
life. Dante’s coming to his senses in a dark forest symbolizes his
realizing how “lost” in sin
he truly was and realizing that he needed to do something about it,
meaning he needed to
go through the seven sacraments so that he could become pure enough to see
God in
Paradise and not have to spend and eternity in Hell. Dante realized that
he had strayed
from the true faith without realizing it, not knowing exactly how it
happened, and is trying
to return. Losing the straight path symbolizes losing the holy, pure, or
Godlike life.
Darkness is more or less a symbol of evil and light or brightness a symbol
for good.
Throughout the poem, Dante is advocating that man must consciously aim for
righteousness and morality. People can often become so involved with
day-to-day living
that they will fall into a life consumed with sin. Man must always be
aware of his need
to perform righteously. The dark forest symbolizes a human life where
every waking
moment is not consciously devoted to morals and righteousness.
The Inferno is probably the most realistic section of the Divine
Comedy because it
comes closer to fitting the people’s perception of what Hell is really
like then than
Purgatory and Paradise do. People’s mental image of Hell is an evil,
dark, and scary place
that is full of fire and that is exactly the way Dante depicts it. People
are eager to see, hear,
and read about violence, blood, and gore and the Inferno is full of it
which helps the reader
to pay closer attention to it. In a sense Dante is trying to scare the
righteousness into
people. Dante himself became scared when he read the inscription above
the gate of Hell
that read “ABANDON EVERY HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER HERE” (1424) because he
did not realize that the inscription was only intended for those who had
already died. The
inscription implies the horror of total despair. It suggests that anyone
that enters Hell at
anytime must abandon all hope, so Dante thought he was included in this.
Hell is the place
for those who deliberately and consciously chose an evil way of life.
There is a place in
Hell called the Vestibule for people who did not make a conscious choice
between Heaven
and Hell. Dante emphasizes that Hell is for those who chose it and that <
choice is
irrevocable. If you commit an act of sin you will be automatically
condemned to Hell. The
entire basis of Hell is that it is for those who died unrepentant of their
sins. Hell is filled
with people whom at the moment of death were either unrepentant or were
saved but were
still committing the same sins. In Hell you get exactly what you give
forever.
Purgatory is a place that not many protestants know about or think
about so it is not
as familiar to people as Heaven and Hell are. All our lives people are
taught that if you sin
you will go to Hell and if you don’t sin you will go to Heaven; there has
never been any in
between. Purgatory is a place for people whom either repented shortly
before they died
or have not yet completed the process of repentance or all of the seven
sacraments.
Unlike Hell where it is eternal, people in Purgatory will eventually
complete their penance
and make it to Paradise the Kingdom of God. If you are in Purgatory you
are on your way
to Paradise or Heaven but you still need some cleansing but you will
eventually make it into
Paradise. Purgatory is not eternal. Purgatory is not probation or a
punishment; the people
there are glad to be there because they know that someday they will be at
God’s side in
Paradise. Purgatory is a place of discipline. This is one of the more
imaginary elements of
the Divine Comedy because we do not know much about it, although we really
do not
know much about Heaven or Hell either except for what we read about in the
Bible and
there really are not many references to Purgatory in the Bible.
Dante depicts Paradise as a very Holy and beautiful place which is
how people
perceive it, but it is still different in many ways. Paradise is a place
of reward for people
whom consciously chose a righteous way of life. To enter Paradise a
person must be
washed pure and white as snow. To be saved is not enough to get into
Paradise; you must
either live a fully righteous and Godlike life, or you must be repentant
for all sins. In order
to repent you must go through the seven sacraments of baptism,
confirmation, matrimony,
extreme unction, Eucharist, ordination, and penance step- by-step. Dante
depicted
Paradise as a White Rose or Mystic Rose in which God was at the center and
saints
surrounded Him. This is a good picture in that a white rose symbolizes
purity, perfection
and divine love which are all characteristics of God, so it is fitting
that God place is throne
in the center of a white rose. The white rose is a fitting word picture
for God, but is just
different from what people would imagine as the home or throne of God.
The Divine Comedy was a somewhat realistic yet somewhat imaginary
story that
entertained millions and was used as a guide for the medieval people. You
could say that
Dante has
one of the biggest most active imaginations ever to have been able to
create a story like the
Divine Comedy. The entire story was a figment of his imagination because
there has not
been any person that has died and traveled to Hell, Purgatory, or Paradise
and come back
to tell the world about it. Many portions of it would be the same as some
people’s pictures
of it but many portions are different. It would be a great challenge to
go back and try to
write your own picture of the afterlife.
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