Hubris And Prudence Essay, Research Paper
Dante wants two things: immortality in art and in heaven. But he realizes that he might not have the necessary ability to write his Commedia and still go to heaven. Despite his criticism of those figures who attempt the impossible, Dante may be one of them. He may be blasphemous, fraudulent, harmful, or simply wrong. He is contemptuous of those who dare exceed their limits because these characters prove ultimately destructive. Arachne hurts herself, Daedalus hurts his son, and Phaethon destroys much of the world. But Dante carefully distances himself from these figures. He hopes, and most likely believes, that his writing of the Commedia is divinely sanctioned. He stays within his limits. Therefore the steps and liberties that he takes are not a result of ignorance and hubris, which were the causes of Ovid’s characters’ failures, but of prudence, which may be the cause of Dante’s success.
Dante relates to Arachne’s character because she was a talented artist. While she angered the goddess, Minerva, he risks the anger of God. For Arachne “neither for place of birth nor birth itself had the girl fame, but only for her skill.”[1] The same is true for Dante. His fame derives from his skill as a writer, not from a privileged birth. Arachne demonstrates her artistic ability when, in a competition with Minerva, she weaves a piece, which depicts the gods unfavorably. But in her piece, “not Pallas, nor Envy himself, could find a flaw.”[2]As a punishment, Minerva turns Arachne into a spider. Arachne does three things to try to upstage the gods: she claims to be Minerva’s equal by competing with her; she creates a piece which showed unscrupulous stories of the gods; and her finished product is like Minerva’s: perfect. Like Arachne, Dante is trying to create a perfect piece of art: his Commedia. Is its very perfection an insult to God? Is its attempt at perfection an insult? In the Purgatorio Dante sees perfect art. The terrace of the prideful is made “of white marble and adorned with carvings / so accurate – not only Polycletus / but even Nature, there, would feel defeated.”[3]By saying that nature would feel defeated, it is as though God’s nature were in competition with man’s art. Dante risks insulting God by representing nature too perfectly and thereby “defeating” it. Like Arachne, Dante may be foolishly competing with and therefore insulting God. If this is so, in his afterlife, Dante would suffer because of his talent and pride.
Dante writes with a skill, style, and power that go beyond almost every previous writer. In canto XXV he even calls for Ovid and Lucan to fall silent before his superior poem, the Commedia. Dante realizes that as a poet of extraordinary ability, he must use his power responsibly. To illustrate this point, in canto XVII he refers to many figures who fly: Phaethon, who rides in Helios’ chariot; Daedalus, who builds wings to fly with his son; a falcon; and Geryon. Dante’s poem “flies” beyond and above the writing which has come before. Phaethon and Daedalus try to fly, and as a result harm themselves and others. Dante may be like Phaethon, ignorant and incompetent and therefore destructive, harming himself and others. Or he may be like Daedalus, an artificer of great ability, but with followers who are unable to handle the power that he gives them. In this way Dante’s readers are like Icarus, Dante like Daedalus, and flight like the Commedia. Icarus killed himself because the great artificer, Daedalus, gave him wings. The readers may harm themselves because the great poet, Dante, gave them his poem. Dante is aware of the harm that people can cause when they manipulate words. Jason seduced women with his “polished words and love signs.”[4]Fraudulent counselors led their people to death. And while the words of Guido da Montefeltro led to the deaths of hundreds of Christians, because of the cunning words of Boniface [5] Guido suffers in hell. What would prevent a counterfeiter and artist, like Capocchio, from perverting Dante’s work? Dante must be especially careful not to abuse his powers or people might hurt themselves and others by corrupting the meaning of the Commedia.
Phaethon and Daedalus ignorantly try to transcend the role of humanity. Their flights are symbolic of futile human attempts to go beyond their limits. Ovid does not condemn Daedalus or Phaethon. To the contrary, he seems to glory in the destructive flight of Phaethon by saying Phaethon’s epitaph says, “HERE PHAETHON LIES: IN PHOEBUS’ CAR HE FARED, / AND THOUGH HE GREATLY FAILED, MORE GREATLY DARED.”[6]Dante is not as sympathetic. He undercuts Phaethon and Daedalus by writing of the falcon, Geryon, and Lucifer. Phaethon and Daedalus fly, but so does a falcon, who can not remain in flight and eventually falls from exhaustion. Geryon, “that filthy effigy / of fraud” (Inf XVII, 7-8), is also able to fly. [7]And even the Lucifer has “two wings spread out, / t as broad as suited so immense a bird” (XXXIV, 46-7). But he is unable to fly. He is stuck eternally in ice. While Phaethon, Daedalus, the falcon, and Geryon eventually descend, and Lucifer can not even rise, the flights for which Dante hopes are perpetual: the flight of immortal, artistic excellence and the flight to heaven of a pious Christian. But to succeed, Dante must have the caution that Phaethon and Daedalus lacked.
By recognizing and describing the faults of Ovid’s characters, Dante distances himself from them. Dante believes that these characters lack the power that he has: the power to achieve greatness in life and in the afterlife. While the characters of Ovid try to go beyond their limits, Dante writes:
O Christians, arrogant, exhausted, wretched,
whose intellects are sick and cannot see,
who place your confidence in backward steps,
do you not know that we are worms and born
to form the angelic butterfly that soars,
without defenses, to confront His judgement?
Why does your mind presume to flight when you
are still like the imperfect grub, the worm
before it has attained its final form? (Purg 10, 121-9)
Dante here describes the “wretched” people, who, in striving to be more than humanly possible, do not realize that it is not man’s place to “presume to flight.” Aside from not being Christian, the others’ intellects are “sick” or “cannot see” because they try to fly without the consent of God. Dante, on the other hand, claims that he descends into hell only because Beatrice, Lucia, and Mary said that he should. Vergil asks Dante near the beginning of the Commedia, “Where are your daring and your openness / as long as there are three such blessed women / concerned for you within the court of Heaven. . .?” (Inf II, 123-5). Dante’s mind “presumes to flight” because, Dante claims, those in heaven wish it to do so. Because he has found the favor of those heavenly women, Dante feels “as one who has been freed” (Inf II, 132). Dante has been freed to write in his Italian dialect instead of Latin, freed to write such powerful art, and even freed to write of the inferno. Like a priest preaching to his congregation, Dante uses his freedom in the Inferno to advise and to criticize his readers.
He further demonstrates his similarity with religious figures when he compares himself at one moment to “he who was avenged by bears,” the Christian prophet, Elisha (Inf XXVI, 34). Dante believes himself to be like Elisha, and Dante surely knows that “the spirit of Eli’jah doth rest on Eli’sha.”[8] Therefore, by relating himself to Elisha, Dante is relating himself to Elijah, who “went up in a whirlwind into heaven” in a chariot. [9]This is in contrast with Phaethon, who could not control his chariot and therefore destroyed himself and much of the world. Dante claims that he is writing because of a mandate from heaven. Thus, he can claim that his soul is filled “with sound humility, abating / my overswollen pride” (Pur XI, 19-20), while simultaneously daring to take such liberties, while daring to “fly,” like no previous author.
Arachne, Daedalus, and Phaeton tried to go beyond their limits, and therefore suffered. Dante must do what they did not. He must be brave and use the gifts given him and yet rein in his powers. In order for Dante to succeed, by demonstrating his artistic power before men and his humility before God, he must stay within his limits as a human, artist, and Christian. If he does this, then he might be able to be forever remembered as a great poet and to fly like Elijah: to heaven. The reader must follow Dante’s example of prudence. The reader must not exceed his own limits. Because, if the reader goes beyond the limits of the poem, corrupting and’ perverting its meaning and message, then he, too, will suffer the consequences of ignorance and hubris: failure.
Другие работы по теме:
Symbolic Structure And Content Essay Research Paper
Symbolic Structure and Content The journey of Dante through hell, in both its structure and content, symbolizes the nature of sin and punishment. The structure of the book takes the reader step by step through greater and greater sins. The content of the book shows the different punishments for sins, which they are symbolic of the sins themselves; it also, through its language, shows how hell compares to life.
Ethics 3 Essay Research Paper EthicsThere are
Ethics 3 Essay, Research Paper Ethics There are many people in the world today that want their lives to end in a certain way. Some want to fulfill a dream or do something they weren t able to do before; yet there are some people who want to feel like they have done something for others which have helped another person in there live today.
Gayism Essay Research Paper literary scholars have
Gayism Essay, Research Paper literary scholars have argued the fact that Dante had homoerotic tendencies. This poin Many t has been justified with the help of Dante s own work of art, the Inferno, a divine comedy where Dante goes down to visit the nine circles of hell. The sin of sodomy is seen in the seventh circle of hell, where sodomites, blasphemers and usurers are punished in three independent rings.
Count Of Montecristo Essay Research Paper Well
Count Of Montecristo Essay, Research Paper Well noticed in the novel The Count of Monte Cristo, as in The Merchant of Venice , The themes vengeance, conspiracy and love are clearly shown throughout the book. The
Frankensteine3333 Essay Research Paper In Shelly
Frankensteine3333 Essay, Research Paper In Shelly’s novel, Victor Frankenstein learns how to “infuse a spark of being into lifeless things”. He uses this knowledge and creates a living thing. The creature is so hideous that “not even Dante could not have conceived”. From the moment he is animated, the wretched creature is an outcast.
Movers And Shakers Dante Essay Research Paper
Movers and Shakers: Dante Have you ever thought about what comes next? What comes after life? The great Italian poet Dante Alighieri pondered this same question, and over the course of his 56 year life, he would come to change the world, touch lives, and question faith all with the power of his words. For this reason, Dante can be considered one of the greatest poets that the human civilization may have ever seen.
The Nature Of Humanity
– Dantes Inferno Essay, Research Paper The Nature of Humanity There are many differences between modern society and Dante s perception Florence, Italy. These differences are caused by the passage of time. The society depicted in Dante s Inferno is almost completely different than modern society, when taken at face value.
Paolo And Francesca
– Dante’s Inferno Canto V Essay, Research Paper Icee@itookmyprozac A Daughter of Eve As Eve was to Adam, Delilah to Samson and Cleopatra to Anthony, so was Francesca da Rimini to Paolo Malatesta.
Dante On Islam Essay Research Paper Divine
Dante On Islam Essay, Research Paper Divine Retribution ( in Italian contrapasso) is clearly shown in canto 28 by showing the punishment of the sowers of schism and scandal in the 9th bolgia of
Alexandre Dumas Fils Essay Research Paper Defend
Alexandre Dumas Fils Essay, Research Paper Defend or Dispute Marguerite Gaultier was said to live her life as a sinner because of the fact she was a kept woman. She had her share of men and was considered a prostitute in her time. Marguerite used men to satisfy her love of money. She had many lovers at one time and received money from all of them.
Richard Wright Essay Research Paper In his
Richard Wright Essay, Research Paper In his development of this theme, Richard Wright alludes to several stories from classical Greek mythology, most notably the stories of Oedipus of Thebes. Like Sophocles’ stories of Oedipus, Native Son intertwines the idea of hubris (”excessive pride”) with the idea of blindness.
Dante Essay Research Paper Edmund Dantes a
Dante Essay, Research Paper Edmund Dantes, a strapping young sailor, was the prime years of his life during the nineteenth century. He was a good person, was well mannered and frankly had a lot of things going for him. He was affianced to the lovely Mercedes, he captained a good ship, the Pharon, and had whom he thought been good friends.
DanteS Inferno Second Circle Of Hell Essay
, Research Paper Canto V In Dante’s Inferno, part of The Divine Comedy, Canto V introduces the torments of Hell in the Second Circle. Here Minos tells the damned where they will spend eternity by wrapping his tail around himself. The Second Circle of Hell holds the lustful; those who sinned with the flesh. They are punished in the darkness by an unending tempest, which batters them with winds and rain.
Inferno Versus Paradise Lost Essay Research Paper
Inferno vs. Paradise Lost The two stories Inferno by Dante and Paradise Lost by Milton were written about the biblical hell and its keeper; Satan. Both of these authors had different views about hell and Satan.
The Use Of Hubris In The Cruci
Essay, Research Paper The Crucible Hubris, a tragic flaw, can be defined as excessive pride. In 1692 mass hysteria broke forth in the Massachusetts town of Salem. The society lives under a theocracy in 1692, and because of the heavy religious atmosphere an overdue opportunity for everyone to express his guilt and sins emerges.
The Odyssey The Use Of Hubris Essay
, Research Paper “There is no safety in unlimited hubris” (McGeorge Bundy). The dictionary defines hubris as overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance. In The Odyssey, Homer embodies hubris into the characters Odysseus, the Suitors, and the Cyclopes. Odysseus shows hubris when he is battling the Cyclopes, the Cyclopes show hubris when dealing with Odysseus, and the Suitors show it when Odysseus confronts them at his home.
Dante S Inferno Essay Research Paper In
Dante S Inferno Essay, Research Paper In Dante s Inferno, hell is described as a place full of torture and hopelessness. Within the circular body of hell, each level contained unique punishments for various types of sin. The further Dante descended into hell, the worse the punishments became. Due to the time period in which Dante wrote the Inferno, only the individuals of that time, along with their respective sins, are addressed.
Political Context Of Dante
’s Inferno Essay, Research Paper The political context of Dante’s Inferno Dante’s “Inferno” was a great epic poem of the early Renaissance. It was known for its astute commentary on political and religious levels, both deeply woven into the work through allegory. Dante wrote his Divine Comedy in a specific historical and political context.
Dantes Inferno Essay Research Paper Dante the
Dantes Inferno Essay, Research Paper Dante the Pilgrim was once a spiritual and holy man, but as of recently he had felt less than holy. Yet, he still wants to remain spiritual. To do this, Dante must recognize the true nature of his sin(s), renounce them, and pay penance for them by travelling though the nine levels of hell.
Dantes Inferno Essay Research Paper Canto XThe
Dantes Inferno Essay, Research Paper Canto X: The Perils of Pride In The Inferno, Dante describes his journey through hell. Throughout his pilgrimage, Dante learns from the sinners that he meets along the way. One influential group of sinners is those in Canto X. In this Canto, Dante is warned that those filled with pride suffer eternally.
Dante AlighieriS Inferno Essay Research Paper Dante
Dante Alighieri`S Inferno Essay, Research Paper Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in May, 1265, of an old family, of noble origin but no longer wealthy. He studied the triviun and quadrivium, he spent a year of so at the University of Bologna, and while there he came under the influence of some of the learned men of his day.
Dante And Homer Essay Research Paper Dante
Dante And Homer Essay, Research Paper Dante makes many references to Homer and the Iliad throughout the Inferno. The fates of favorite characters are described during the course of Dante?s
Alighieri Dante The Divine Comedy Essay Research
Paper “The Divine Comedy” is an epic poem brimming with information and eloquent literary devices. (The word “comedy” is used here in its classical sense – to denote a story which begins in suspense
Allegory In The Divine Comedy Essay Research
Paper Dante wrote The Divine Comedy between 1308 and 1321. The Divine Comedy was written as an allegory, Which is a narrative that takes place on both a literal and a figurative or symbolic level. Dante uses himself as the main character and uses allegory to describe himself in the epic.
Inferno By Dante Essay Research Paper Although
Inferno By Dante Essay, Research Paper Although it is hard to read Dante’s triple rhyme, I am thrilled by the Inferno’s ambiguity and allegoric power. It is really “a three-dimensional art.” Just like Picasso in his paintings, Dante makes me think about the meaning of the situations and their implications.
Spiritual Journeys Essay Research Paper The Tale
Spiritual Journeys Essay, Research Paper The Tale of Saigyo and The Inferno both trace the unique journeys of two interesting figures, Saigyo and Dante. The two journeys are differing in that one is a journey through the life of a Buddhist monk, and the other is a journey through the different circles of hell.
Paradiso Essay Research Paper In spite of
Paradiso Essay, Research Paper In spite of all the sheer effort put behind it, Dante?s Paradiso is not easy to enjoy. It is an alliance between difficulty and controversy. It is a narration of
Get In Essay Research Paper Click Here
Get In Essay, Research Paper Click Here If YOU Have Friends! Can’t find the paper you need? Try Collegiate Care Comparing Casablanca to 1984 Charlie Parker at Storyville
Dante 2 Essay Research Paper Dante s
Dante 2 Essay, Research Paper Dante s Influence on Italian Culture Dante Alighieri was a very well known and influential poet in early literature. He was not only a poet, he was also a philosophical thinker, an active politician, and a religious visionary (Holmes 1). Dante was born in Florence in 1265, into the Guelph political party, one of the two main parties in Florence.
Dante Reaction Paper Essay Research Paper Dante
Dante Reaction Paper Essay, Research Paper Dante Reaction Paper In his lecture, Professor Mark Dantmore says that Purgatorio is “almost science fiction” to people of the time it was written. I find it very interesting that a book in the Divine Comedy, something the Catholics take as truth, might be described this way.
The Inferno Essay Essay Research Paper The
The Inferno Essay Essay, Research Paper The Inferno Essay The Inferno, translated by John Ciardi, is a poem of Dante s immortal drama of a journey through Hell. Sensory imagery is established throughout the poem in the course of Virgil s attempt to aid Dante through the different symbolic retributions that make up the structure of Hell.
Dante Essay Research Paper Dante s InfernoDeath
Dante Essay, Research Paper Dante s Inferno Death and what comes after has always been a topic of great interest and uncertainty. Many have tried to depict their own vision of the afterlife, be it heaven or hell, paradiso or inferno. The inferno is more than just a fictional story about someone traveling through the universe; it s more like an autobiographical journey of life through its author, Dante.
Dante Essay Research Paper In Dantes Inferno
Dante Essay, Research Paper In Dante?s Inferno, Dante narrates his descent and observation of hell through the various circles and pouches. One part of this depiction is his descriptions of the various punishments that each of the different sinners has received.
Dante Algheiria Essay Research Paper Dante Alighieri
Dante Algheiria Essay, Research Paper Dante Alighieri wrote when he was poor. Dante Alighieri wrote when he lost his loved ones. Dante Alighieri wrote when he was exiled out of Florence, Italy. How could he do it? Simple, he was prepared for challenges, independent, he had a focus, and always had a sense of higher purpose.