Literary Analysis: "The Divine Comedy"

1. On Good Friday in the year 1300, protagonist Dante enters the Forest of Error, a dark and ominous wood symbolizing his own material sins, and the material sins of the world. At the top of a hill in the distance, he sees a light representing the hope of the resurrected Christ. When he attempts to climb toward the light, a leopard, lion, and she-wolf block his way. The spirit of the Roman poet Vergil comes to rescue him. Vergil offers to escort him out of the Forest of Error by another route, for there is no way to get by the she-wolf. This alternate route leads first through Hell, where Dante will recognize sin for what it is, then through Purgatory, where Dante will renounce sin and purge himself of it. Finally, it leads to Heaven, where Beatrice, a woman Dante had loved before her death,will become his guide while Vergil returns from whence he came, for he cannot proceed up the heights of paradise. Dante happily agrees to make the journey, and they depart. After passing into hell, Dante and Vergil hear the groans and wails of the damned in the outer reaches of the abyss and see persons who were halfhearted in their moral lives. They then cross the Acheron River and arrive at a cone-shaped cavern with nine circles. In the First Circle at the top, called Limbo, are the least offensive souls, such as unbaptized but well-meaning persons. They suffer no torment, however, they cannot move on to Purgatory or Heaven because they died before Christ brought redemption. Vergil himself dwells in the First Circle. They then pass down through the other eight circles, seeing terrible sights of suffering experienced by those who died in mortal sin. Circles 2 through 6 contain those who could not control their desires for sex, food, money, or heresy. Among the persons they encounter are Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, the Greek warrior Achilles, Helen of Troy, and the man who carried her off, Paris.The Seventh Circle contains those who committed violence against themselves or others, or even against God himself. The Eighth Circle contains hypocrites, thieves, forgers, alchemists, swindlers, flatterers and deceivers. The Ninth Circle, reserved for the worst persons, are traitors of every kind–those who were false to friends or relatives, or to their country or a noble cause. Dante sees two political leaders frozen together in a lake, head to head. He also encounters the most horrible of all traitors: Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ, and Brutus and Cassius, the assassins of Julius Caesar. Satan himself is here frozen in the lake. Dante and Vergil next arrive at the Mount of Purgatory, which is surrounded by an ocean. On ten terraces running up the side of the mountain are souls purging themselves of the seven deadly sins including: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, wrath, and pride. At the entrance to Purgatory, Dante and Vergil meet Cato, an ancient Roman who attempted to root out immorality and corruption in Roman life. In Dante's poem, Cato symbolizes the four cardinal virtues of Roman Catholicism: prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. On Cato's instructions, Vergil cleanses Dante's face of the grime of hell and girdles his waist with a reed, symbolizing humility. An angel writes seven P's across Dante's forehead, each representing one of the seven deadly sins. (The Italian word for sin begins with a P.) The angel then tells Dante he must wash away the P's–that is, purge himself of sin–while in Purgatory..Among the terrace dwellers are excommunicants who repented before they died, a lazy Florentine who postponed doing good works most of his life, and monarchs who neglected their duties. As Dante and Vergil continue upward, they also meet the proud, the envious, the wasteful and the lustful. Farther up the mountain, they gaze across the River Lethe and see the Earthly Paradise, signaling it is time for Vergil to leave and return to his home, the First Circle of the heathens. Still observing from the opposite bank of the river Dante sees a display in which the participants and sacred objects symbolize books of the Bible, virtues, the human and divine natures of Christ and Saints Peter, and Paul and other disciples of the Christian religion. Beatrice is there too, and, out of love for him, she rebukes him for the sins he has committed. After he confesses his guilt, she invites the purified Dante to come across the river and ascend to heaven. Heaven, a place of perfect happiness, is a celestial region with planets, stars and other bodies. The placement of an individual depends on the level of goodness he or she achieved in life, although everyone experiences the fulness of God's love. Dante and Beatrice then rise into heaven, where the poet discovers that even some pagan abide in the heavenly realm because they accepted revelations from God. At the lowest level of Heaven is the Moon. Next come Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Stars. The highest level is the Empyrean, the home of the Triune God, the Virgin Mary, other angels, and saints. When Dante and Beatrice reach the Empyrean, St. Bernard comes forth to prepare Dante to look upon the splendid beings within. Dante realizes here that knowledge of heaven comes only through the grace of God and deep meditation, not through theology textbooks. After St. Bernard prays to Mary on Dante's behalf, she begs the light of God to welcome the prayer. When Dante glimpses that light, it overpowers him with love that he cannot comprehend or even remember what he saw.

2. One theme that seemed most prevalent is that life is a journey in which all human beings must overcome obstacles to achieve the ultimate goal, eternal bliss in the sight of God. The novel focuses mainly on life as a spiritual journey, even if a person sins, he is not lost.

3. Dante's tone seemed to be caring and serious. When i say caring i mean in the sense that Dante cared a lot about the moral thinking of a person, and how a person thought or acted was a serious thing.

"'And are you Virgil, you the fountain that freely pours so rich a stream of speech?' I answered him with shame upon my brow. 'O light and honor of all other poets, may my long study and the intense love that made me search your volume serve me now..."

"O lady, you in whom my hope gains strength, you who, for my salvation, have allowed your footsteps to be left in Hell, in all the things that I have seen, I recognize the grace and benefit that I, depending upon your power and goodness, have received."

"Here force failed my high fantasy; but my desire and will were moved already-like a wheel revolving uniformly-by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars."

4. Dante had very interesting literary elements, as well as techniques, that he used in his writing. He had structred diction, intense and beautiful imagery, descriptive characterization, and many allegories.

Diction: Dante wrote the novel into three Canticas (or Books), with thirty-three Cantos (or Chapters) in each Cantica. Each Canto follows a verse and rhyme scheme that is used from the beginning to the end of the novel.

Imagery: "I've brought you here through intellect and art; from now on, let your pleasure be your guide; you're past the steep and past the narrow paths. Look at the sun that shines upon your brow; look at the grasses, flowers, and the shrubs born here, spontaneously, of the earth."

Characterization: "Out of your grace, do us this grace; unveil your lips to him, so that he may discern the second beauty you have kept concealed."

Allegories: Allegory was a technique that was found throughout the entire novel. Anything Dante found or saw along the way in his journey can be interpreted as an allegory. From the animals representing his mortal sins, to the political figure he encounters in their respective places in Hell, to even the settings themselves, allegories were prominent in Dante's writing.

.

Notes on Hamlet

Hamlet is one of the more difficult reads of the year since the times of Caesar and Romeo and Juliet. Written in Old English makes this hard for me to understand, but with effort I am able to get by. At the beginning of the play I thought that Hamlet was indecisive because of all his emotions.  But, by the end of Act III, Hamlet seemed to know what he wants.  He was able to function and do what he needed to do.  He killed Polonius without any hesitation.  He did think that Polonius was King Claudius, but he still did not stop or think twice about killing him behind the curtain.  I think that Hamlet will continue trying to kill Claudius without hesitation.

Who Was Shakespeare?

Will lived for 52 years as his biography confirms. In just 23 years, between approximately 1590 and 1613, he is attributed with writing 38 plays, Famous Shakespearean sonnets and 5 other poems. He is the most widely read of all Authors and the popularity of the Life and Works of Shakespeare, in English speaking countries, is second only to the Bible.


That was about all of the information that i could get out of my research. A lot of websites contradicted one another so it was difficult for me to find sound information. 


http://www.google.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

http://shakespeare.about.com/od/shakespeareslife/a/Biography.htm

To Facebook or Not to Facebook

With so many teens, and adults, always anticipating what is coming next or what is the "new" model, it's a wonder how we manage to keep up with it all! I myself was a little gluttonous at one point in my life, but when i made the switch from Myspace to Facebook i was never wanting to change. I found myself having the same want of security and privacy.

You can find both benefits and not so many fortunate things involved with Facebook. Little did I know, slowly and deceitfully my privacy was being taken from me. My information, I though was being kept private was slowly being leaked to the public. Reading an article on Facebook, made me realize the real issues going on with Facebook and those who are head of it. CEO of Facebook knew the problems with privacy and he was told to quiet up and ultimately left the company. These people are looking to make money and invading children's privacy is something they are willing to take advantage of.

Facebook is very beneficial and convenient to reunite old friends, stay in contact with long distant friends. You are able to see your friends and event going on at your finger tips. You stay in contact whether you talk to your friend constantly or not.

Facebook has good and bad things going for it. I don't think people should boycott it because there are certain things on Facebook that are enjoyable, but I feel you should be careful. Be careful what you put, click on, and say on Facebook, or any website.

"In Search Of"

A.) I learned that Google and Facebook, tailor the ads and searches you see when you perform an action. Therefore making one persons search results different from another.

B.) It made me think of the internet in a different way. I always thought that what i searched for was what everyone else had and now i wonder what im missing out on.

C.) With the new knowledge i required, i now wonder what it will be like 10 years from now. Will people become distant from one another, due to the fact that they get personalized information?

D.) I can better my search quality by searching for non biased search results. for example, i can search "good recipes" instead of "good Italian recipes".


In my more recant search on information about Shakespeare, i used more vague words than specific ones, i came across a new website by doing so: 


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/shakespeare.html 

"(Don't) Be Hamlet"

We have all had those moments, when we are faced with decisions that could alter the rest of our day, or even the rest of our lives. Hamlet faces such a decision, however, in a more extreme way. His struggle is whether or not to kill himself, but the fact of the matter is; he has another option. He can forget about the past and move on with his life. He can take revenge on his fathers murder and go after the man that slew his father. He can even go mourning, but resolve his grief by taking it on day by day. Whatever option Hamlet may choose, there is a way out.

We are all told to live and let live, that what's done is done, but sometimes it's not as easy as it may seem. Sure it would be great to throw away your inhibitions or dilemmas and call it good, but to do such a thing is difficult, if not impossible. Hamlet wants to (or at least I believe) find solace, and to not mourn any further, but he is not sure how. Maybe he can explain himself to Ophelia, or even another. He is struggling to find somebody or something that will allow him to put things in the past, and by doing so, change his mindset on killing himself.

Another option that he might find useful to accomplish both mentioned tasks, is to exact revenge. Now this would seem quick and easy, and all things put aside, but it's not that simple. He would take revenge and possibly make him feel better, but the repercussions would far out way his actions. He would find peace for his mourning, but find himself right back where he started with new moral conflicts.

A third option that Hamlet can take, would be to find himself day by day. Instead of making a split second choice, or even one that he is not sure of, he can gradually find a way out if he just takes the time. Now this may seem to prolonged and meaningless, but when Hamlet explains to Ophelia that all things come in time, even his answer may come in time.

Whatever option Hamlet chooses, may it be one stated or another, he has another way out. He does not have to go the extreme and kill himself to solve all of his problems. He can cope with his feelings and find answers to his conflicts, if he just stops moping and logically think about his situation.