Literature concepts and applications

Dante is characterized as a sort of foolish, blundering figure because he lost his path to God through sin. By giving into sin, this caused him to act foolish enough to lose himself as well. He wanted to prove he could overcome sin by traveling through hell where evil was punished by God's justice. In this journey, he failed to realize sin brings temptation and became a victim of it, which represents the human race.

For this reason, Dante the character does not emerge as a particularly well-defined individual; although we know that he has committed a never-specified sin and that he participates in Florentine politics, we learn little about his life on Earth. His traits are very broad and universal: often sympathetic toward others, he nonetheless remains capable of anger; he weeps at the sight of the suffering souls but reacts with pleasure when one of his political enemies is torn to pieces. He demonstrates excessive pride but remains unsatisfied in many respects: he feels that he ranks among the great poets that he meets in Limbo but deeply desires to find Beatrice, the woman he loves, and the love of God (Inferno).

In today's society, the Inferno can represent how we function and how we handle sin. On our path to God, we tend to become tempted by sin because it gives us instant pleasure as it did Dante.

Thirty-five years old at the beginning of the story, Dante -- the character as opposed to the poet -- has lost his way on the "true path" of life; in other words, sin has obstructed his path to God. The Divine Comedy is the allegorical record of Dante's quest to overcome sin and find God's love; in Inferno, Dante explores the nature of sin by traveling through Hell, where evil receives punishment according to God's justice. Allegorically, Dante's story represents not only his own life but also what Dante the poet perceived to be the universal Christian quest for God. As a result, Dante the character is rooted in the Everyman allegorical tradition: Dante's situation is meant to represent that of the whole human race (Inferno).

The lowest points of Hell reveal about Dante's thoughts on what keeps society functioning. "To exit Hell, one must climb down the body of Lucifer, which is covered in shaggy hair; the ice stops a yard or so from Lucifer himself. If one climbs down for long enough, one eventually feels as if one is climbing up again. This marks that one is crossing the centre of the earth, or "the point to which all weight from every part is drawn." One then makes their way up to a type of hollow tomb, an echoing grotto of dimly lit grey rock, from the floor of which the hooves of Lucifer project upwards, upside-down from this perspective. A stream of clear, sweet water runs through this grotto" (the Exit from hell). In all reality, people are spiritual beings that have religion as their foundation to become complete on a higher level, which can be demonstrated from the following.

From the evidence above it is clear that having a religion has become more of a spiritual experience in order for a person to become closer to their God and have a better understanding of themselves. For some people, beating on drums and meditation is a spiritual way to experience their religion on a higher level, which releases a different understanding.

The Decameron includes a frame story about the plague in Florence in 1348, which can be explained from the following.

AN EPOCH-MAKING EVENT in the development of early Italian narrative is the canonization, thanks to the astounding success of Boccaccio Decameron, of the cornice, the framing device. The formula of the novelliere aperto, the loosely structured anthology of stories (such as the Novellino), becomes secondary to that of the novelliere chiuso, in which a meta-story encompasses all others. In contemporary developments within the genre of lyric poetry, the fragmentary collection evolves into the prosimetrum (Dante Trita nuova) and the canzoniere (Petrarch Rime). In order to monitor the progress of literary forms out of the archaic period, one must focus on the development of innovative modes of collection, structuring, and closure. Italian literature marks its prime by mastering the art of what semiologists call the macrotext. 1 (Forni, 1996, p. 1)

The theme of love in Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" is very unclear due to the misuse of metaphors

Misusing metaphors adds to the comedic value of the sonnet and sets a satirical tone. But when the literary devices change, the tone changes from satire to authentic language. This change in tone and language takes place in the couplet, the last two lines of the sonnet, "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/as any she belied with false compare." (lines 13, 14). By abandoning literary devices for sincerity the narrator has concluded his theme; that sincerity and realism is worth more than false comparisons. This is when the method of satire to convey an authentic message becomes effective. When the theme of the sonnet is concluded with sincere language and the audience then understands Shakespeare's use of satire. (Poetry analysis: 'My Mistress' Eyes are nothing like the Sun,' by William Shakespeare).