Comparing Beowulf And The Inferno

The journey that Dante experienced is similar to that that we would experience, it explores from innocence to personal moral venality. Dante believes that before being totally redeemed a person must know the evil in the world and the evil within themselves. An individual must confront their inner demons, recognize them, and become self-aware. Dante believes you must explore even the deepest of our own moral consciousness. For redemption after you are aware of your sins you need to accept the consequences and then you will learn from your mistakes and not commit the sin again.

Mark Twain once remarked, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell”, an idea that both Beowulf and Dante the pilgrim embraced. Written by an unknown Anglo-Saxon, Beowulf tells the story of Beowulf, a man who, seeking to defend a neighboring village, defeats both the monster Grendel, and his vengeful mother, by descending into a wicked underwater cave that resembles hell. Although his qualities of courage and superhuman strength lead to his wealthy and renown status, they also lead to his demise when facing his final enemy, a dragon. The Inferno, written by Dante, describes the journey of Dante the pilgrim while descending through hell. Throughout this journey, Dante the pilgrim meets many sinners, utilizes human reason and divine guidance, and recognizes the importance of action and consequence. Both characters descend to hell to prove, or gain, something crucial to them. They also descend by

Dante begins the Inferno with an account of looking upon himself internally. He let’s the audience know that he is aware of his current state of being and that it is not in accordance with the will of God, “Midway along the journey of our life I woke to find myself in a dark wood, for I had wandered off from the straight path” (Musa 1600). The dark woods symbolize sinful life on Earth, and the “straight path” refers to the virtuous life that leads to God. Dante wants to get back on the “straight path” but states that he doesn’t know how he got into this state of sin in the first place, “How I entered there I cannot truly say, I had become so sleepy at the moment when I first strayed, leaving the path of

“When Cerberus discovered us in that swill his dragon-jaws yawned wide, his lips drew back in a grin of fangs. No limb of him was still” (Canto VI, 21-24) The role of monsters for Dante is clearly present. The monsters as well as the sinners in each circle, represent Dante’s own sins; they are a reflection upon

He knew that he had gotten off onto the wrong path (possibly a sin). As Dante gets through each circle of hell, we find out that justice is about paying for the sin which was done. Each person that committed a sin, received a different punishment based on the extremity of the sin. Similar to going to jail, (you do the crime, you do the time), hell is described to be at least 100 times worse.

Dante’s The Inferno takes the ideas of the ancient world and puts them into a “Christian format” to express the deeper and more divine meanings behind them. Dante is conveying the message that all actions of human beings are actions of God’s universe. In The Inferno, it clear that the punishment a soul has in Hell is a reflection of the “sin” the soul committed on Earth. In the First Circle of Hell, Dante meets the “Virtuous Pagans”.

Dante claims that all humans are gifted free will from God. The importance of free will lies in the notion that, if everything were pre-determined, our choices and our lives would effectively lose meaning. God grants us control over our destinies—that is, whether we go to Hell, Purgatory, or Heaven. By giving humans free will, God allows us to either follow good or evil paths in our lives. This is particularly important because if our choices were guided, it would lack the significance of our choosing to love God through the exercise of our own will. Through Dante’s travels in Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise, he discovers that free will is God’s greatest gift to us, and that it can lead us to ultimate happiness or ultimate misery.

Us as humans sin a lot so Dante would have to think twice and make the right choices. To start off to describe why was Dante in the Darkwoods , I have a clue that he was probably looking for something. Not sure why but I had a feeling that Dante wanted to be taken into hell but at the same time he didn’t know what was going on. At first Dante was scared not knowing what was in the dark scary

From reading the Inferno, it’s never explicitly known what type of sin Dante committed. Not being the purpose of the poem — Dante has basically drifted from the direct path. As he travels through this dreadful region, he retains those qualities that he has always possessed. And, he also displays a variety of emotions ranging from pleasure, to pity, to sympathy, to horror and revulsion.

In the story Inferno written by Dante Alighieri, a man, Dante, follows Virgil as he guides Dante through the circles of Hell where Dante “shall hear despairing cries and see those ancient souls in pain as they bewail their second death,” (Canto. I.115-117) ultimately reaching Heaven. This poem was written around the early 1300s. The journey that the character Dante goes through shows a variety of examples of corrupted people that Dante, the author, had encountered over his years in Italy. The author had created his own version of Hell by including details of his own experience during his life.

In Dante’s Inferno sinners are in Hell because they committed a grave crime and

In the beginning of his epic, Inferno, Dante seems to have “abandoned the true path” (1.12). He is lost in a dark forest, which symbolizes not only Dante’s loss of morality, but all of humanity’s sins on Earth. The Dark Wood of Error is a foreshadowing of what the afterlife would be like for Dante without God and without any meaning. Dante appears to be suffering through a mid-life crisis as he flirts with the idea of death, saying, “so bitter–death is hardly more severe” (1.7). Dante has lost his dignity and moral direction following his exile from Florence. Dante must travel through Hell and witness the worst crimes ever committed by humans. By traveling through the depths of Satan’s world, Dante is given an opportunity to reconnect with Christianity. Many people claim that Dante journeys through Hell for revenge, but in fact he is hoping to reset his own moral compass and find God.

And this arose from sorrow without torment.” At this stage one can imagine that Dante waits with some apprehension for things to clear up, unsure whether he wants to go on. As Dante gets to realize the true nature of this first level, one can only speculate what must be on his mind. He has met a few people, but they seem to represent the best of humanity (Lawall & Maynard 12). Surely they would not be in hell.

Dante’s Inferno details Dante the traveler’s journey through the nine circles of Hell. After meeting his guide, the eminent Roman poet Virgil, in a mythical dark wood, the two poets begin their descent through a baleful world of doleful shades, horrifying tortures, and unending lamentation. Through his journey, Dante discovers what it means to be a good and virtuous Christian by learning from the mistakes of those being punished in the nine circles of hell. In this way it can be seen that Dante, the poet, defined his notion of Christian purity in terms of the impure, especially through Dante’s interpretation of the nine circles of hell.

Dante sees the brutality that is depicted in the Circles as needed. He views sin and transgression as the result of rejecting the world of the divine. If any of the transgressors had come to God and asked for forgiveness, Dante would see them as being forgiven. Asking God for forgiveness is when the sinners would get redemption. They are condemned to eternal suffering in the underworld because they failed to take God in their hearts and souls.