Dante Like Aeneas example essay topic

Love and Suffering The Aeneid by Virgil and Inferno by Dante are both works centering around adventures. In both of these adventures, love is intertwined with suffering. Why are love and suffering connected as such? In The Aeneid, Aeneas suffered a great deal and then was fated to lead his people to Italy and Rome. Aeneas 'marries' the Queen of Carthage, Dido, who eventually kills herself out of despair. In Inferno, Dante is taken on a divine mission to see the depths and horrors of Hell.

While in Hell, Dante stumbles upon and is intrigued by two lovers, Paolo and Francesca, who were tragically killed by Francesca's husband, Gianciotti. In The Aeneid, Aeneas is on a journey to lead his people, the Trojans to a new homeland. Aeneas was chosen by fate to lead the Trojans to establish a new homeland in Italy and Rome. This fate also represents the national destiny of Rome. Aeneas looks towards the future, towards Rome's power over the known world. In the same way that the Promised Land was guaranteed to the Hebrews in the Old Testament, the Trojans' Promised Land was guaranteed by fate.

History is the guarantor. The theme of this work is that of how a nation came to be. Aeneas suffers a great deal. Emerging from this suffering, Aeneas will lead his people and conquer their new homeland.

Aeneas has many obstacles that stand in his way. Juno hates the Trojans and wants to do everything in her power to prevent the Trojans from reaching Rome and Italy. Aeneas has inner obstacles as well. Until Aeneas descends into Hades, he will never fully gave up his old life in Troy. He constantly thinks about his life in Troy.

'Weeping, I must give up the shores, the harbors that were my home, the plain that once was Troy' (Book, lines 14-15). He was still grieving for the family and friends that he lost in Troy. At one point Aeneas even said that it would have been better if he had died in Troy. When Aeneas descended into the underworld, Anchises showed Aeneas his lineage and all of the great Roman leaders that came from Aeneas.

Anchises told Aeneas that the Romans' great gift would be for ruling. ' Roman, these will be your arts: to teach the ways of peace to those you conquer, to spare defeated peoples, tame the proud' (Book VI, lines 1135-1137). Aeneas was inspired by this vision of the future. On the way to Rome, Aeneas and his men landed at Carthage. Aeneas met the Queen of Carthage, Dido, and during a storm arranged by the gods they consummated their love.

When Aeneas had to leave Carthage, he reasoned that he was not married to Dido and that he had no obligation to her. Dido, on the other hand felt that there was a commitment between her and Aeneas and that the experience that they shared meant that they were married. After Aeneas left Carthage, Dido killed herself on Aeneas' funeral pyre by throwing herself on to Aeneas's word. When Aeneas saw Dido in Hell, Aeneas begged her to forgive him, but she didn't answer him. Since Dido committed suicide and she refused to forgive Aeneas for wronging her, the love between them was tragic. Dido was a very significant character in The Aeneid.

Dido represents both love and suffering. Aeneas and Dido shared a common bond. They both loved each other. Dido represents suffering because she died in the name of love, when she committed suicide. Aeneas consummated his marriage with her in the cave, however, knowing that he was fated to lead the Trojans to Italy and Rome, Aeneas was careless in starting a relationship with Dido. He then picked up and left Carthage, acting to the benefit of his countrymen.

Dido belongs in The Aeneid as a character of love and suffering. Dido is an important character in The Aeneid because she illustrates how Aeneas behaved heroically. Aeneas has no choice in leaving because he was chosen by fate to lead the Trojans to Italy and Rome. In The Aeneid, Dido was a character who had elements of both love and suffering.

She had sex with Aeneid and she committed suicide because of Aeneas. In Inferno, Dante wrote of the love shared between Paolo and Francesca. The love shared between them was tragic in the sense that they were killed for falling in love, something that they had no control over. In Dante's Inferno, Dante goes on a grand voyage to explore the depths of Hell and to correct his incapacity to see sin. One major aspect behind the voyage is the city of Florence. Throughout his exploration of Hell, Dante meets up with many citizens of Florence.

Dante discusses the politics of Florence with these characters. The reader experiences the life of Dante as the life of an exile. Dante's incapacity to see sin is developed throughout the novel, eventually allowing him to understand sin and deal with it. When Dante saw the souls of the opportunists being tormented and chased by hornets, he fainted.

'I fell as one falls tired into sleep' (Canto, line 136). When Dante saw the tragic couple of Paolo and Francesca, he was disturbed. In Hell, Francesca was bound forever to Paolo without the possibility of growth or change. She could have chosen the love which leads to God and forms eternal bonds with glory and perfection.

Dante is trying to demonstrate how easy the first step into sin is. We are aware of the consequences of the lovers' choice. But if we hadn't seen them in Hell, we might not understand this step as a sin, as a weakness of will, as a wrong choice of brief passion over eternal glory. Dante fainted after seeing Paolo and Francesca. 'I swooned as though to die, and fell to Hell's floor as a body, dead, falls' (Canto V, lines 141-142). No other canto of the Inferno has inspired such attention and artistic interpretation as this canto has.

The lovers's tory is very beautiful and very sad. Why are they in Hell? They died when Gianciotto found the lovers together and stabbed them both. Yet their love and the passion are so understandable. The punishment of eternal damnation in Hell is not fair for the 'crime' of falling in love. Dante, like Aeneas, was a heroic traveler.

Dante seeks a better understanding of sin. He is a figure of wisdom. Aeneas is a character who goes through punishment. Aeneas must undergo suffering in order to realize that he must give up his old life in Troy and concentrate on conquering Hesperia and establishing Rome and Italy. Dante doesn't undergo punishments nor does he confess acts in his life. Dante points out things in other people's lives.

'O you, there, with your head bent low, if the features of your shade do not deceive me, you are Venedico Caccianemico, I'm sure. How did you get yourself in such a pickle?' (Canto XV, lines 48 - 51) Love and suffering are closely intertwined in these two works. In The Aeneid, Aeneas suffers through the fall of Troy and the loss of his wife before finding Dido and 'marrying' her. In Inferno, Paolo and Francesca suffer in Hell after they were killed for falling in love.

In The Aeneid, a reoccurring theme is that bad things are ahead and that we must go through the bad things in order to get to the good things. The opposite is true in the story of Paolo and Francesca in the Inferno.