Nature Of Sin In The Divine Comedy By Dante Alighieri

Ali Waseem
Mr. Huck
AP Literature Period 1
30 September 2014

Throughout the course of history, people around the world attempt to comprehend the will of the deific being. Great poet and Italian politician, Dante Alighieri is one who also underwent this life-long journey for understanding. In the epic, The Divine Comedy, Dante allegorically records his quest to overcome his sins and find god’s love. Specifically in The Inferno, an imaginative and gripping epic, Dante explores the nature of sin by traveling through numerous layers of hell. Unlike many other works, the detailed descriptions of punishments, settings and characters ultimately serves an allegorical purpose by portraying one man’s desperate journey from confusion and dejection to
The literal journey refers to the travel through the physical space of hell. Dante fully engages his literary genius as he creates interactions with gatekeepers, lost souls, and a plethora of other characters. Within this literal landscape of hell, he learns about the nature of sin. In the autobiographical level of the work, Dante expertly establishes his personal experiences. His exile from city of Florence and peripatetic mental state afterwards is defined in his work as he [finds himself] / In dark woods, the right road lost” (Canto I 1-2). Just as piece of great literature should, the literal and autobiographical layers integrate with the last but most vital: allegorical. As the woods are discussed, Dante illuminates to the difficulties a man may experience in his life, making him lose sight of “the right road.” Not only does this allegory hold significance within his own life, it also relates to the difficulties experienced by the whole human race, difficulties that may seem irreversible but are rather temporary. This Canon worthy epic fuses three layers of literary ingenuity and keeps them relevant to this
Within his concern of poetry, Arnold believes that “mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us.” (2131). His main concern is to create a high standard for poetry in order to eliminate the chances of lesser poems being overvalued and to create strict guidelines for what is considered great poetry. The breakdown for the important essentials of poetry include a “superior character of truth and seriousness” and substance and manner (2128). When Dante begins his journey, “a leopard, quick of foot and lithe”, “a lion [with] his head high”, and “a grim she-wolf” blocked his path to the morning light. Each animals represents a flaw found within every person to a certain degree, the leopard representing lust, the lion symbolizing pride, and the she-wolf signifying greed. Each of these humanistic characteristics blocks Dante from the morning light, an allegory for the path to god. Under the scope of Arnold’s definition, the truth and seriousness within this one line of Dante’s epic speaks to the nature of all of humanity. The essence of Arnold’s argument to highlight the poets who he believes to be the standard of literature, poetry such as The Inferno that inspires and has some sort of moral