DANTE PATH TO PARADISE FREE
He explains that the damned do not suffer the torments of God’s cruelty but have inflicted these punishments on themselves and freely chosen Hell.ĭante learns from Virgil’s teaching that the reasonableness of God’s justice is that it does not violate man’s free will, God’s greatest gift to humanity. He addresses Francesca, “your torments move/ my heart to weep in pity for your gain.”įainting at the sight of the woeful lovers after hearing their tale, Dante’s emotional reaction to the suffering of the lovers and later to the misery of others in Hell needs the correction of Virgil’s voice of reason: “How is it your mind/ goes madly wandering so far from itself.” When Dante pities the adulterous lovers Paolo and Francesca punished in the Inferno by stormy winds hurling them constantly from place to place-an image that corresponds to their wild passions of lust-Dante’s impulse is to grieve with them and melt with tears at their plight. Virgil leads the pilgrim through the dark, violent regions of Hell for Dante to understand God’s justice with intelligence and not react to it with sentimentality. God does not leave man without teaching or direction. An invaluable resource for parents and family, it is filled with countless teachable moments and inspirational insight into literature's classic characters.Īs Dante the pilgrim travels through Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise in his spiritual journey from the dark wood in the forest to the Beatific Vision in Heaven, God appoints him two guides: the epic poet Virgil, the image of classical reason and Beatrice, the symbol of divine grace. We climbed, he first and I behind, until though a small round opening ahead of us, I saw the lovely things the heavens hold, and we came out to see once more the stars.4 minutes This article is part of a series of homeschool-friendly guides to Favorite Characters in English Literature.
Pride envy avarice - these are the sparks have set on fire the souls of man. Strange and ironic, it will end the same way. There, pride, avarice, and envy are the tongues men know and heed, a Babel of depsair. Does Heaven soothe or Hell envenom them?Īs flowerlets drooped and puckered in the night turn up to the returning sun and spread their petals wide on his new warmth and light-just so my wilted spirits rose again and such a heat of zeal surged through my veins that I was born anew. Pride, envy, avarice - these are the sparks have set on fire the hearts of all men.įarinata and Tegghiaio, men of good blood, Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo, Mosca, and the others who set their hearts on doing good- where are they now whose high deeds might be-gem the crown of kings? I long to know their fate. Ah me! How hard a thing is to say, what was this forest savage, rough, and stern, which in the very thought renews the fear. I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightfoward pathway had been lost. These are the radiancies of the perfected vision that sees the good and step by step moves nearer what it sees. When we encountered a band of souls coming along the barrier, and each was gazing at us in the evening people gaze at one another under the new moon. My will and my desire were both revolved, as is a wheel in even motion driven, by Love, which moves the sun and other stars. On march the banners of the King of Hell.Īs in the autumn-time the leaves fall off, First one and then another, till the branch Surrenders all its spoils to the earth In similar fashion did these evil seeds of Adam throw Themselves from the group, one by one, into the boat At Charon's signal, as a bird is called to its lure.
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