The Role Of Virgil In Dante Alighieris The Divine Comedy

As Dante is lost and floundering in his beginning moments of the story, a guide named Virgil appears to help.Virgil, a wise older man who’s lived for many years more than Dante, performs a vital function in The Divine Comedy; he leads Dante through hell and purgatory. In Dante Alighieris The Divine Comedy, there are many characters who are important, but Virgil has a key role. He serves as a protector, a knowledgeable guide and a model of human reason and wisdom. Virgil is very protective of Dante and how he feels Dante will react traveling through the different circles of hell. He carefully explains everything that they see or hear. Not only is he protective but he shows great kindness and compassion for Dante in his state of fear. â€Å" So†¦show more content†¦Dante- â€Å" May you weep and wail to all eternity, for I know you hell-dog as filthy as you.†(Canto 33). He even betrays one of the sinners in the ninth circle by promising the sinner that he will dry his face from his tears if the sinner tells him his name and story. Virgil also serves as a model of human reason and wisdom throughout the story. Human reason is a human beings capacity to use logic and make judgments related to knowledge. Virgil does exactly this, he shows Dante the right way. Virgil guides Dante to think the right way about sin and about god. In the beginning of the story, Dante had lost his ways and it is Virgils job as human reason to help him get back on track. Virgil describes how human beings are deserving of praise or for blame. Virgil expresses that he will explain as much as reason will allow him to and Beatrice will have to explain the rest to Dante. He explains to Dante the relationship between free will and love. â€Å" Then just as fire yearns upwards through the air,being formed that it aspires by nature to be in its own element up there; love, which is a spiritual motion fills the trapped soul and it can never rest short of the thing that fills it with devotion.† (Purgatorio Canto 38). Virgil is telling dante that the only way to understand true love is to be free and to be free you must follow the path of God and not sin. Virgil is the best person for the job of guiding Dante through hell and purgatorio. He leadsShow MoreRelatedDantes Voyage Through Hell1490 Words   |  6 PagesThe Inferno was written by Dante Alighieri around 1314 and depicts the poet’s imaginary journey through Hell. Dante spent his life traveling from court to court both lecturing and writing down his experiences. His Divine Comedy – the three-part epic poem consisting of Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso (Hell, Purgatory and Heaven)– is generally regarded as one of the greatest poetic feats ever accomplished. All three parts are incredible literary feats with symbolism so complex and beautiful thatRead MoreThe Inferno : Depiction And Representation Of Women2519 Words   |  11 Pagesthe context of the poem than what they say alone. Dante lived in an era when women did not occupy influential roles in the public realm, and were actually discouraged from engaging in intellectual or philosophical debate. Wome n were not allowed to take part in political discourse nor communicate through the medium of poetry. For the exclusion of women from the historical and literary western canon, Dante’s perception of women in The Divine Comedy can be seen as an underlying framework for furtherRead MoreEssay on Dantes Inferno and Classical Mythology1823 Words   |  8 PagesDante’s descent into Hell in Inferno, the first part of his Divine Comedy, tells of the author’s experiences in Hades as he is guided through the abyss by the Roman author, Virgil. The text is broken into cantos that coincide with the different circles and sub-circles of Hell that Dante and Virgil witness and experience. Inferno is heavily influenced by classic Greek and Roman texts and Dante makes references to a myriad of characters, myths, and legends that take place in Virgil’s Aeneid, Homer’s