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Dante Alighieri’s masterpiece poem the "Divine Comedy" immediately projects his readers into a landscape that is barren and uncomfortable and eventually leads them into a breathtaking heavenly world. ... “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau scarcely seems like a story at all, at least in the conventional sense; it contains one man living in a shack in the woods; minimal description of the characters (besides Thoreau); a bit of dialogue; and one murky dirty lake, in which Thoreau religiously bathes for two whole years. But great meaning rides on the broad backs of descriptive passages, of settings so detailed, so intricate and passionately described, that the readers fairly often feel as if they are alongside Thoreau during his experience. With the descriptive passages put aside, a lot of meaning also rests upon the physical experiences which Thoreau endured daily during his experiment. ...
First, Dantes purpose for writing the “Divine Comedy” was expressed in a famous letter to his Veronan benefactor, Can Grande della Scala, where he said, "it is an attempt to remove those living in this life from the state of misery and lead them to the state of felicity" (Dante, 32) . Moreover, Dante describes his work by specifying the principal levels of meaning as both literal and allegorical. In a literal sense, the subject of the poem, according to Dante, is "the state of souls after death. ... Every section of the “Divine Comedy” contains one part of the overall process that Dante, the main character, undergoes. The Inferno, being the first step, emphasizes the educational process that one must undergo, as seen through the teacher role that Virgil, Dante’s mentor, takes over. ... “Walden”, whether Thoreau intended to or not, explains a hypothetical process that is extraordinarily similar when compared to Dante’s hypothetical process with the purpose of removing humankind from a state of boredom and then delivering them into a state of felicity .
It may be hard to comprehend how exactly the “Inferno” emphasizes the educational process one might undergo to achieve felicity, but the evidence is clearly shown through Dante, the main character, of the “Inferno”. From the very beginning of Dante’s journey, the Roman poet Virgil was a guide for Dante throughout the “Inferno”. Virgil said “I will be your guide and lead you forth through an eternal place with love and wisdom that will make straight your way” (Dante, 31).
Approximate Word count = 1891
Approximate Pages = 7.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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