ipl-logo

Beatrice Portinari In The Inferno Analysis

1270 Words6 Pages

From Worldly to Divine: An Analysis of Beatrice Portinari in The Inferno

Taken from the works of Dante, it is evident that Beatrice Portinari went from being a symbol of a high social class to an abstract form of God himself. Dante Alighieri was a loyal Guelph who was raised in Florence, Italy. This Italian poet is best known for creating his own journey through Hell while maintaining his inspiration on the works of Aristotle. The entire comedy Alighieri comprises is in dedication to his Love, Beatrice Portinari. After meeting Beatrice at a festivity, Dante fell in Love with the worldliness and purity she offered. Throughout his most famous writings, Dante slowly changes Beatrice’s figure to represent God. When he meets her for the first time, she embodies a worldly, high-class girl. Then after another meeting, she represents virginity and purity. Finally, in The Inferno, Beatrice symbolizes Divine Love. In La Vita Nuova, Dante traces his entire relationship with Beatrice. He explains that in 1274, the then nine-year-old accompanied his father at a party hosted by Folco Portinari. There, Dante saw Beatrice for the first time. She wore a crimson dress. The color crimson is associated with a high social standing. He fell in Love with eight-year-old Beatrice immediately. Unfortunately, by the time Dante was twelve he had been promised an arranged marriage to ten-year-old Gemma Donati. Nine years later, an unexpected meeting of the two occurred: While walking down the

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Contrapasso In Dante's Inferno

    1207 Words  | 5 Pages

    "The Inferno" is the first book in the epic poem called the “Divine Comedy” by the Italian politician Dante Alighieri and it is followed by "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso”. The book "Inferno", which is the Italian translation for Hell, tells the journey of its author through what he believes is Hell, which consists of nine circles of pain and suffering. In his journey, he is guided through the nine circles by the Roman poet Virgil. Each circle in the book represents a different type of sin with a different type of punishment, varying according to the degree of the offense they committed in their life. By the end of his journey through all of the circles, Dante realizes and emphasizes the perfection of God's Justice and the significance of each offense towards God’s unconditional love.

    Read More

  • Dantes Inferno Analysis

    977 Words  | 4 Pages

    The same way, disorder means damnation. In both of the masterpieces we find the same way in conceiving coordinates and juxtaposing politics and religion, empire and church. Analogous is the way to express certain forces of nature, intimate qualities of the spirit, sublimation or degeneration of senses through animals. Dante’s Comedy and the mosaic of Otranto teem with animals and monsters: dogs, wolves, dragons, lions, sphinxes, griffins, centaurs, etc. We find all of these representations in both of the works and with the same meaning, same analogies, and same functions.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Women In Dante's Divine Comedy

    1730 Words  | 7 Pages

    Dante emphasizes the differing roles of these women by three mediators. First, he gives Francesca the freedom to defend herself, letting her to have a partial guidance/autonomy; in contrast, Dante delivers his own freedom in the hands of Beatrice, allowing her to have a complete guidance/complete control over the poem. Second, Dante focuses on the physical aspects of love when talking about Francesca’s love story, while he talks about a selfless, spiritual love when referring to his and Beatrice’s love story. Third, Francesca does not take the responsibility of her actions, has a lack of remorse and blames the power of love for her fate, while Dante and Beatrice respect the rules and morals, by only coming together in the afterlife. In other words, they have opposite interpretations of

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Helena Maria Viramontes Under The Foot Of Jesus

    470 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the except from the novel “ Under the feet of Jesus” by Helena Maria Viramontes shows the development of Estrella from being angry to understanding what she needed to do to succeed. The author uses figurative language and selection of detail to show the changes Estrella’s character went through, which reveals that knowing what things are is beneficial. The author uses figurative language like similes and metaphors to show Estrella’s frustration with her teacher and her understanding of tools. The author says, “ all that a jumbled steel inside the box… seemed as confusing and foreign as the alphabet she could not decipher.”

    Read More

  • Dante The Pilgrim Analysis

    982 Words  | 4 Pages

    5.141). This reaction seems misplaced since Dante is talking to two people who committed a deadly sin; however, this reaction conveys that Dante believes that love itself is a valuable virtue, but the reader must be aware that adulterous love is not virtuous. The position that Dante the Poet establishes is that the souls in Hell are there not only because they committed sins, but because they corrupted pure virtues to work in their favor. In Purgatory, Dante encounters lust and love again, but the souls have a love for God in addition to the perverted love they had in their life. Virgil presents to Dante that there is a love that is naturally within everyone and that the “natural is always without error /

    Read More

  • Theme Of Women In Dante's Divine Comedy

    1237 Words  | 5 Pages

    Francesca and Paolo lack remorse, and forget reason, which led them to Hell. In contrast, Beatrice and Dante’s love story is described in terms of divinity and with respect to God. Francesca di Rimini and Paolo Malatesta are in the second circle of hell, where the lustful sinners are punished. Francesca had an affair with her husband’s brother; two of them were innocently reading a romantic story – Lancelot, and swept up with romantic passion. Consequently, they are being punished together in Hell.

    Read More

  • Pride In Dante's Inferno

    1552 Words  | 7 Pages

    Down to the penultimate Canto, Dante meets the second pair of sinners bound together: Ugolino and Ruggieri. Ugolino bites the skull of Ruggieri—the vengeance that he badly wanted on earth is given to him for eternity. This image of Ugolino and Ruggieri reminds us of the image of Paulo and Francesca as the only sinners in Hell that are bound together. The juxtaposition of Ugolino and Francesca ultimately demonstrates two facets of love: A fatherly love that was rejected because of pride and a passionate love that was pursued despite its unlawful nature. (Inf.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Divine Justice In Dante's Inferno

    1874 Words  | 8 Pages

    But, as the poem continues to progress, it becomes quite clear the there is a perfect balance within God’s justice as the degree of each sinner’s punishment perfectly reflects upon the gravity of the sin. Furthermore, the inscription on the gates of Hell explicitly states that Hell exists as a result of divine justice; “ll. “ Justice moved my great maker; God eternal / Wrought me: the power and the unsearchably / High wisdom, and the primal love supernal (III.4-6).” Prior to delving into the structure of Hell and how it displays God’s divine justice, one must first familiarize themselves with both the historical context of Dante’s life, along with the beliefs of the medieval church.

    Read More

  • Christian Religious Beliefs In Dante's Inferno

    1247 Words  | 5 Pages

    Dante sees a Florentine in the group of Sodomites, by the name of Ser Brunetto Latino. Latino was a mentor to Dante after the death of his father and had a significant influence on Dante. “Therefore, go on; I will walk at your hem, / and then rejoin my company, which goes / mourning eternal loss in eternal flame / I did not dare descend to his own level / but kept my head inclined, as one who walks / in reverence meditating good and evil” (Canto XV, lines 40-45) Dante uses Ser Brunetto Latino as a symbol of his influences he had in life, as well as, to help explain the beliefs of Dante. On some accounts, Dante put Latino in Hell, because of his homosexuality, which Dante disliked, due to the views of Church.

    Read More

  • The Epic Hero Cycle Of Dante's Inferno

    751 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dante Hero Essay Pieces of writing are often viewed as a product of their origin time period, even in the modern day it is not uncommon to view our time plane as independent to what preceded as if we were somehow separate from every moment that came before. Instead every aspect of a story is ingrained with the message of millenniums before it, so much so the effect that the present has pales in comparison. This is present throughout Dante’s inferno written by Dante Alighieri as it is not merely a representation of the time period it originated from, rather the present represents the top of an iceberg whose very existence and stature are fully dependent on the times that preceded. This phenomenon of the past is fully present in Dante’s epic hero cycle. Dante’s resurrection reveals to be heavily influenced by the history of humankind.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Odyssey And Dante's Inferno

    989 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Inferno, Dante is the main character who is fighting between good and evil, which translates to be the theme of the story. Dante explores deeply the Christian hell and heaven, which includes the immediate Purgatory. This experience makes him cast his allegiance to good and God. The differences between these two stories are depicted when comparing the epic conventions, epic characteristics, and when comparing the various religious backgrounds of the times in which these two stories were written.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Dante's Inferno: A Comparison Of Greek

    1040 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Greek’s Inferno: A Comparison of Greek and Catholic Underworlds For nearly 2000 years, various religions continue to perpetuate the idea of an underworld, or a place after death. For the Greeks, much of their mythology deals with Gods, Goddesses, and the afterlife. Catholics, however, base their idea of an afterlife with three levels: Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, a place for people who must experience a purification of sorts. Numerous Greek writers wrote about the idea of their underworld, or Hades, one of the most famous being Homer, writer of The Odyssey. The Odyssey details the hero Odysseus’ journey back to his homeland of Ithaca.

    Read More

  • Religion In Dante's Inferno

    1633 Words  | 7 Pages

    “Durante Degli Aligheries Inferno {Part of the Divine comedy} is widely regarded as the greatest poem in modern european language, its allegorical comparisons, metaphors and satirical critisism of italy in the 15th century all contribute to its level of prestige. However, what influenced Dante Aligherie to create such a masterpiece? By looking at Dante Aligheries participation in Florentine Politics and comparing it to the extensive amount of political references used in Dantes Inferno it is clear that Politics played a vital role in creating Dantes depiction of Hell. Furthermore, by examining the importance of religion in medieval Italy and Dantes connection to the church, one can easily see that Dante heavily uses religious references to the pope of the church. Finally, this essay will investigate how Dantes connection to Florentine art influenced the poems content.

    Read More

  • Dante's Inferno Research Paper

    1078 Words  | 5 Pages

    The year is 1302, Dante Alighieri is absent from his role as one of the six supreme magistrates. Prior to that he had an extremely successful political career who had no problem exerting his power. Dante considered himself “a moderate White, he found it necessary during the two-month term to join in banishing his brother-in-law, Corso Donati, and his "first friend," Guido Cavalcanti, as ringleaders respectively of the Blacks and Whites.” Blacks and Whites were faction groups who had ongoing fights in the streets of Florence. This is an extremely admirable trait of a great ruler and/or ruler, the ability to at any moment turn on friends or family in order to uphold the city or government.

    Read More

  • Allegory In Dante's Inferno

    741 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dante’s Inferno represents a microcosm of society; meaning, laymen, church, politicians, and scholars are all compiled into one place and punished for their sins. Hell, despite being depicted as brutal, ugly, and chaotic, is made realistic because the inhabitants come from every country and every walk of life. While Dante Alighieri did not invent the idea of Hell itself, he did create an important and in depth concept that still receives attention in biblical, classical, and medieval works. The Divine Comedy itself was written sometime between the years 1308 and 1321 and scholars still consider it the “supreme work of Italian literature.” The work itself is an epic poem divided into three separate sections: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso; respectively Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

    Read More

More about Beatrice Portinari In The Inferno Analysis

Open Document