One Hell of a Midlife Crisis

Dante opens Canto I of his Inferno with the lines,

"Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself in a dark wilderness,
for I had wandered from the straight and true."

I think there's a lot going on in these three lines.  For one, he opens in medias res, making it clear that his poem is an epic.  He also signifies the Biblical and allegorical components of his poem, as well as a good bit of Middle Ages culture (common conception of life as a journey towards the ultimate goal of Heaven).

But there's something else that struck me about these lines, especially when we were doing our presentations on illustrators of the Inferno and William Blake came up.

Sorry, guys, but yes—the composition of this post is indeed another rather outlandish comparison (not just an excuse for a post with a bad pun for the title).

Little Red Riding Hood.









I just couldn't help myself, I'm sorry.
Clearly this comparison is not a strict one, and it's not necessarily supposed to be serious, either.  Just couldn't help noticing that both Red and Dante "wander off the path" combined with the fact that in Blake's illustrations, Dante is seen wearing the color red.

Plus I had fun imagining a Little Red Riding Hood version of Dante and the Inferno.  Certainly the Big Bad Wolf is somewhat of a monster blocking Red's path...