Could it be that Virgil isn’t entirely correct? After all, his wisdom alone isn’t going to get Dante to Paradise. And while God allows Hell to exist, it’s the focus of each sinner on themselves that keeps them there. It’s striking when you get to Purgatory that suddenly the shades are outwardly, not inwardly, focused, and they can look on the Pilgrim with anything other than loathing. And while Dante has to wring the pity out of himself to live through Hell, the experience is meant to change him. He isn’t supposed to float through Hell unmoved.
Just some thoughts on a Monday! I appreciate your writing so much.
It's entirely possible that Dante didn't fully align with the view Virgil expresses here, especially as Dante clearly paints the Roman poet as fallible and, as you point out, incapable of entering paradise himself. What made me take that line about choosing between pity and piety as something fairly central to Dante's thinking is the way he portrays himself coming to agree with this idea over the course of traversing the inferno — for instance, how his pity towards the various shades turns to brusque, even violent, disdain, shown in the way he yanks one soul up by the hair to force him to speak.
All of that, though, is just the relatively myopic way I was looking at it on my first pass; as I wrote above, the more time I spend with Inferno, the broader and less certain my reading of it becomes. You've added a lot of great stuff for me to consider, and I can't wait to pick up Purgatory and Paradise to see how they influence my view of Inferno. Thanks so much for reading and for offering your thoughts!
Could it be that Virgil isn’t entirely correct? After all, his wisdom alone isn’t going to get Dante to Paradise. And while God allows Hell to exist, it’s the focus of each sinner on themselves that keeps them there. It’s striking when you get to Purgatory that suddenly the shades are outwardly, not inwardly, focused, and they can look on the Pilgrim with anything other than loathing. And while Dante has to wring the pity out of himself to live through Hell, the experience is meant to change him. He isn’t supposed to float through Hell unmoved.
Just some thoughts on a Monday! I appreciate your writing so much.
It's entirely possible that Dante didn't fully align with the view Virgil expresses here, especially as Dante clearly paints the Roman poet as fallible and, as you point out, incapable of entering paradise himself. What made me take that line about choosing between pity and piety as something fairly central to Dante's thinking is the way he portrays himself coming to agree with this idea over the course of traversing the inferno — for instance, how his pity towards the various shades turns to brusque, even violent, disdain, shown in the way he yanks one soul up by the hair to force him to speak.
All of that, though, is just the relatively myopic way I was looking at it on my first pass; as I wrote above, the more time I spend with Inferno, the broader and less certain my reading of it becomes. You've added a lot of great stuff for me to consider, and I can't wait to pick up Purgatory and Paradise to see how they influence my view of Inferno. Thanks so much for reading and for offering your thoughts!