What an interesting read! The images are fascinating. I wonder, though, about the proper way to approach this text. I know that it is literary by nature, and not theological, but then again, it is theological in many senses. If this is a theological attempt to explain the realities of Hell, most of the images are merely speculation, or even just hypothetical. However, there seems to be a general truth behind all the encounters between Dante and the Hell-Dwellers, that is suffering and God's absence.
The most interesting element is the classifications of the damned. The way they are categorized, being group-specific, reminds me of a prison, as those convicted of the same or similar crimes are grouped together to live or maybe to do work. However, the groups of damned people do nothing productive, nothing active, but rather are passively tormented.
*** -Mary Kate's
I think that every work is theological or at least doctrinal in some way, pushing some belief or worldview. Lately I am beginning to wonder what the world is really about if so many different people can see the same things so many different ways.
ReplyDeleteGiven the time period that Dante was writing I believe he not only had some religious basis that influenced his writings, but that he expected religious responses. Given the four different time periods I have studied in honors, this one is certainly the most religiously oriented in its literature.
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