How Does Dante Change Throughout The Inferno

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Within the divine comedy The Inferno, the choice of Virgil as Dante’s guide through the perilous depths of Hell is a deliberate one powered by his omniscient knowledge, steadfast protection, and complete loyalty; these qualities that protect Dante in the planes of Hell are also the qualities that guided life during this time. As Virgil guides Dante a parallelism between the reader's life and Dante’s journey is apparent in how they should live their lives. The reader sees this as Dante is proceeding down the wrong path of life at the beginning of the book, but by the end, through Virgil’s guidance, he has changed his views of the world. The Inferno begins “Midway upon the journey of our life/I found myself within a forest dark/for the straightforward pathway had been lost” and goes on to mentioning the forest full of the terrible creatures of the night (Dante, Cantos I). The turmoil at the beginning of the book is…show more content…
They approach the gates of hell and Virgil informs the old man - in charge of ferrying across the souls of the damned - that they are on a mission from on high; the man lets the two cross the river unhindered. God entrusting Virgil with the well-being of Dante solidifies the fact that Virgil’s traits are to be regarded as holy and to be desired. Further worth of Virgil’s guidance is shown with the encounter of the ferryman, for Dante’s great journey would have stopped at the gates of this unholy place without Virgil’s help; this marks the beginning of Dante’s new life as he makes his way from the dark forest into the Inferno and hopefully through to Paradiso. “Whatever worth Dante had already achieved was due to his having taken Virgil as his model”; Virgil proves once again that his knowledge of these dark recesses is to the benefit of Dante, as so the Lord commanded of him (Hollander,

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