Dante's "Inferno," Reader Response
Dante's "Inferno" tells the story of Dante, a good man who has lost his way on the road of life and so finds himself on the precipice of Hell. "When I had journeyed half our life's way,/I found myself within a shadowed forest,/for I had lost the path that does not stray" (I, 1-3). Having strayed onto the path that leads to a permanent residence in Hell, Dante is kept from passing by several great beasts and, when he has lost all hope and is sure he will be devoured, encounters Virgil who directs him to another path, this one a direct route to Hell. The idea here seems to be that if he continued on the path he was treading, he would have been devoured and become a permanent inhabitant of Hell, a fate Virgil's intervention -- upon Beatrice's request -- is meant to prevent.
Beatrice is apparently one of three heavenly spirits who care a great deal for Dante. As Beatrice is heaven-sent, she is invulnerable to the horrors of Hell. "God, in His graciousness, has made me so / that this, your misery, cannot touch me; / I can withstand the fires flaming here (I, 91-93)....
Tom Shulich ("ColtishHum") A comparative study on the theme of fascination with and repulsion from Otherness in Song of Kali by Dan Simmons and in the City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre ABSRACT In this chapter, I examine similarities and differences between The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre (1985) and Song of Kali by Dan Simmons (1985) with regard to the themes of the Western journalistic observer of the Oriental Other, and
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