Friday, October 28, 2016
Hell Yeah!
Dante the Pilgrim's attitude towards Hell progresses as he visits the various circles of Hell. In Canto V, he feels pity for the two lovers: Francesca and Paolo. Contrarily, in Canto VIII, Dante is ruthless towards Filippo Argenti, the shade that attaches itself to the boat while Dante crosses the Styx. He transcends from pitying the shade of hell, to believing that their punishment is just or even that they should be punished farther. Therefore, he has a more positive attitude towards the necessity of Hell then he did at the beginning of his journey into Hell.
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3 comments:
I agree with Joseph's post in that Dante progresses from feeling pity for the sinners to feeling as though they are justly punished. As Joseph mentioned, Dante first feels pity for Francesca and Paolo and then feels anger for Filippo Argenti. However, in circle 6, Dante has a conversation with Farinata and Calvacanti where he seems to feel pity again. Calvacanti pops up to ask if his son Guido has died, Dante does not answer at first, and Calvacanti assumes Guido is dead. After Dante and Farinata finish talking, Dante tells Farinata to tell Calvacanti that Guido is not dead and he was just confused as to how the shades could see the future but not the present. I saw this as Dante almost feeling bad for Calvacanti for their misunderstanding. Dante's conversation with Farinata, a former enemy Ghibillene, seems pretty civil. Although Dante does not seem to have as much pity for the souls as before, he also does not appear as angry as he was with Filippo.
I also agree that Dante begins to feel that the shades deserve their punishment because they so horribly wronged God. I think it's worth noting that the importance of loyalty was big in society and as a result Dante made fraud and dishonesty the lowest circle of hell. As Dante progresses through hell, he is first kind of wary but wants to keep going, then he feels pity, then he believes that the crime fits the punishment. He almost seems unphased by the increasing severity of hell which is caused by his change in attitude toward the necessity of hell.
I think it has to do with the severity of their crimes. I think he can feel some sort of sympathy for the people who are in the higher circles because their crimes weren't as bad as, for example, the arch-heretics.
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