During the Middle Ages‚ the church was a powerful institution. It had its own government‚ courts‚ system of taxation‚ and laws. To live a good Christian life guaranteed access to heaven in the afterlife‚ and a life of sin was to be sentenced to hell. Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet‚ who had an admirable depth of spiritual vision and was known for his intelligence (Encarta‚ 1). Between the years of 1308 and 1321‚ Dante wrote the epic poem‚ “The Divine Comedy‚” which described a journey
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In The Inferno‚ by Dante‚ the main character operates on several levels. Dante serves as a Christian hero because he undergoes trials and tribulations in his search to find the souls true path in life. Dante also portrays himself as everyman. He does this by showing that he also suffers from sin. In The Inferno‚ hell is in a spiral shape‚ and is divided up by the seriousness of the sin committed. The sinners are stuck in their location in hell where there punishment fit the crime
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The Metamorphoses by Ovid and Euripides’ play entitled‚ The Bacchae present the same two stories in very different directions. The general story revolves around the figure of Pentheus‚ a Theban prince who challenges the might of Bacchus‚ his cousin and a god. While both include the same key plot driven aspects‚ the interpretations given by the two different writers are vastly different in what morals and concepts they try to let out from the text. The Metamorphoses is essentially a testament
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Summary: Vergil’s Aeneid: A Poem of Grief and Love by Steven Farron In this book‚ Steven Farron argues that Vergil’s “Aeneid”’s main purpose is to present a series of emotionally gripping episodes‚ not to praise or criticize Aeneas and his mission. In the first chapter‚ Farron talks about what is considered the “great glory of the Aeneid”: the Dido episode. He believes that the purpose of the episode was not to comment on anything else in the epic but rather to depict a tragic love and supports
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The many depictions of Hell throughout literature include varying constants‚ such as the geography of Hell itself. Although some aspects in various literary works remain unchanged‚ the description of Hell as a place of evil‚ differs greatly from one author to the next. Religious beliefs have a great influence on an author’s work. Especially when the piece of literary work takes part in a biblical period; for Dante and Milton it is evident in each of their works. A common construct of Hell‚ which
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The Metamorphoses by Ovid is an epic poem made up of fifteen books. The term metamorphoses means transform. A key theme expressed in Ovid’s Metamorphoses is the transformation of characters and objects throughout the stories. Ovid wrote in a sophisticated manner that allowed people to learn lessons through being able to relate directly with the characters in the stories. Through the use of methodology‚ Ovid sought to explain the origin of things and how they transformed over time. Ovid’s stories
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In these books of the Aeneid‚ Aeneas is moving forward in his journey. He is making his way through obstacles and trials in an effort to find a place to settle his people. His journey is first obstructed by Dido. Dido is overtaken with love for Aeneas. Although her love is unrequited‚ she believes Aeneas is also committed to her; when this proves to be untrue‚ the dramatic reaction of Dido allows Aeneas to move on with his quest. Dido finds herself heartbroken and feeling abandoned. Dido is so sick
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Macy Verges June 12th‚ 2011 Ribb 1 Inferno Essay The idea of sin has been present in the minds of humans since the beginning of time‚ however Dante Alighieri ’s literary masterpiece‚ Inferno brought the reality of sin to life. Some suspect Dante wrote Inferno because he was experiencing some form of a mental breakdown‚ others insist that he wrote Inferno to educate people about sin. Inferno begins on the evening of Good Friday‚ when Dante the poet is lost traveling about in a Dark Wood. The
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A Character Analysis of Angelo: Outer Angel and Inner Devil There is a wide array of deceptiveness within the play "Measure for Measure." While some of the reasons for deception are good‚ other reasons are filled with evil and only for personal gain. Angelo is a perfect example of one of the characters within this play who uses his deceptive nature for evil and only for the gratification of himself. He is given a very superior and authoritative role by Vincentio‚ the Duke‚ and extends his powers
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Both Dante and Beowulf went through life changing journeys. However their end results where very different. Beowulf was warned about his prideful ways‚ but chose to ignore that warning and continued on the path that led to his death. For Dante‚ he heard the warning and took it with him through this journey in purgatory and was able to grow spiritually from it and came out truly enlightened. Both travelers struggled with some form of earthly sin that was hindering them in some aspect of their life
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