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Essay / Analysis of The Hell Creation Date in Inferno
Dante's Inferno is one of the most famous poems ever written in the vernacular. Dante is renowned for being a master of words and a great artist. But what few people know is Dante's personal story and the climatic events that led him to write Inferno. Dante's anger toward those who exiled him from Florence was so all-consuming that it manifested itself in writing as a personal journey to help him overcome that anger. This is the central idea behind Inferno. Without understanding this, the poem simply seems like the story of one man's journey through hell. But to truly understand Inferno and all of its hidden meanings or innuendoes, you need to understand the story of Dante and his rage over his current situation in life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay The life of Dante, as told by Giovanni Boccaccio, gives us an idea of the political conflict that Dante faced, provoking the rage that he wrote Hell. It appears that the citizens of Florence were divided into two political parties, the black and white Guelphs. The wars and the blood they cost Florence, his beloved city, weighed heavily on Dante and, wanting to remedy the situation, he devoted “his genius, his art and his knowledge” (Boccacio, 23) to the party with which he agreed with the most: the White Guelphs. After a while, it seemed that the Dark Guelphs had triumphed, and their opponent's leaders had no choice but to admit defeat. “With them, Dante, overthrown in an instant from the highest place in the city government, saw himself not only fallen to the ground, but driven out of the city” (25). Dante, along with his fellow leaders, were sentenced to perpetual exile by the Black Guelphs and their property was confiscated. As one can imagine, this did not please our poet. He was forced to abandon his wife and children, his property and possessions, and everything he loved in the city built by his ancestors. As he had been a well-off man in Florence and unaccustomed to physical labor, he was unhappy about having to work to support himself while traveling. " Oh ! what honest indignation he had to repress, more bitter for him than death, while hope promised him that his exile would be brief and his return prompt! (27). It was in these most dire circumstances of impotent fury and loss that Dante began writing Inferno. It is unlikely that Dante would have written Inferno in the same words if he had not been so angry with his life. He considered himself a brilliant poet who, despite all he had for his beloved city, had remained alone and penniless and, in his eyes, mistreated. He is his own main character. In Inferno, he is a desperate and confused man who is approached by Virgil to take a spiritual journey through the afterlife. He clearly considers himself worthy enough to be chosen by God to undertake this journey, with a world-famous poet as his guide. He compares himself to Aeneas and Saint Paul and says: “I alone was the only one to prepare myself, as for war, to march forward and endure the agony that thought will no longer fail to recount” ( Inf. 2.3-6). When Dante the Pilgrim begins to wonder if he is strong enough to undertake this journey, Beatrice descends from heaven in the form of an angel to convince him. As Dante makes his journey through Hell, he is rewarded for passing greater judgment on sinners, and yet he himself is inexplicably free from sin. When you consider that Dante wrote all of this about himself, it seems slightly narcissistic. This evidence shows how.