The Literary Fabric of Dante's Inferno

Dante is one of history's most acclaimed and well known poets. He is known as the father of the Italian language. He has influenced, both directly and indirectly; consciously and subconsciously, many writers and poets. Not only has the metaphorical story of his journey through the spiritual world attracted world fame, but the styles, techniques, and allegories used in his story. Dante's work is one the most influential and complex literary works of all time: a thick and tightly knit interweave of philosophical ideas and political thought, masterfully crafted at the loom of his own intellect.

One element of Dante's writing that is quite notable and apparent, is his copious use of references to other literary works and mythologies. Throughout the entire story, Dante references numerous texts and stories, using them as preset tools to provide infinite detail to his own work. Among the references used, the Bible and the Aeneid are the two most common. Dante uses the biblical ideologies as obvious inspiration for his own work but also nearly directly quotes from the Scriptures in his work. The Aeneid provides Dante not only with a set of characters to populate his Inferno, but also a preset mythology and pagan set of ideologies. Both of these texts were widely well known in Dante's time (and until now) due to the religious and re-emergence of classical texts. 

Dante also uses characters and places from his modern time in medieval Florence (or at least from its recent history) as well as famous associates of the medieval, italian, Church. Dante pulls characters from Florentine history (and present) as example and allegory to the circle of Hell in which he describes. For example, in the second circle of Inferno, Dante places Francesca and Paolo, both of whom were murdered and were hot topics of the late Florentine history. Also, Dante strategically places his enemies in particular places in hell. Pope Boniface VIII was the major contributor to Dante's exilation from Florence, and thus, reserves a special place and mention in the Inferno. 

These allegories continue virtually infinitely through the Divine Comedy. It would take thousands of pages of commentary to even cover a fraction of them. Because the story itself is an allegory for our mortal lives and eternity with (or without) God, the allegory is quite expansive. Also, among the story includes allegories relating to the topics of (and not limited to) the meaning of life, morality, the structure of time, space, and the universe, God's love and perfect justice, etc.... To claim a knowledge of them, and how Dante intended them to be read, would be ignorant.

The final element of Dante's work that also shows great literary prowess is his ability to structure his poem. The entire Comedy is divided into a (nearly) perfect three. Each stanza is also structured into terza rima, or three lines. The obvious reference to a holy trinity structure, I think, also implies some degree of perpetuality and cycle. Each time you read three lines, another set of three begins again; each time one's soul travels the path through the spiritual realm, another soul must follow.

The complexities of Dante's work continue to further present themselves more complex each time I review them. Each individual thread of Dante's complex and expansive tapestry are evidently each carefully chosen from an abundance of the world's material. However, the only way to see why he chose each thread and element of his great work is by looking closely to each one as it relates to another. 

The Source of Pain in a World of Hurt: an Augustinian Analysis

It only takes only a few moments of careless inspection to see it. It has existed since the beginning of time. It is what binds all humans together yet creates distinct and distasteful boundaries under which we are repelled from one another. The universal topic of philosophical thought; ubiquitous in all questions. No matter what set of beliefs one holds, there is one thing to be sure, and perhaps one of the only things: the world we exist in doesn’t function properly. In Augustinian terms, “evil” certainly does exist in our world. Religion and philosophy alike try to put reason behind why the world is corrupted and how we can understand this corruption, since that is the only experience we hold. If there was something as ideal goodness, we could not comprehend it considering we have no comparison, having only experienced a less-than-good world. Augustine explains in his Confessions the reason behind our fallen world; why there is the concept of evil. He says that God, who is a perfect being, created man and the world, also perfect. However, when sin contaminated the world, it created a string of improper relationships in the world, that is things interacting contrary to how God intended them to. As Christians, our goal is to come back to the proper relation we had with God and creation before sin entered the world. Augustine sees the relationship between Creator and Creation after the Fall as a complex mixture of the original good God intended and the sin-contaminated interactions between them.

The first aspect to look at when dealing with the problem of evil is establishing what evil is to begin with, where did it come from, and so on. Again, this is an onslaught of philosophical problems and abstract terms. Augustine, however, quite clearly defines evil in the context of good, reaching his definition through several logical steps. First he notes that God created all things, and everything he created was good. Since we understand evil to be, perhaps, the polar opposite of good, it therefore cannot be a ‘thing’ at all, otherwise God put evil in the world, contradicting the first two premises. The next questions that Augustine follows with is, “Where, then, is Evil...?” (Bk. VII, 5.7). Augustine argues that evil is not material at all, nor is good. Rather both are entities that exist in the essence and context of material, that is how material is used. The articulation of evil is solely based on the quantity of good within the material, evil then, being a relative term. 

This concept may be hard to comprehend, however, the nature of light and darkness effectively communicates the parallel nature of good and evil. Light and darkness, both being non-physical, in a tangible sense, are yet detectible entities and exist under human visual senses, yet are invisible to all of our other senses. In a similar way, humans can detect good and evil, perhaps not through any neurological sense, but rather a moral sensory device, noted by no scientific evidence. Also, darkness cannot exist without the acknowledgement of light and vice-versa. Yet darkness only can exist without light, or is defined by “the absence of light”. Evil also exists in the absence of good, being defined in Augustine’s words as “...evil is nothing but the diminishment of good to the point where nothing at all is left” (Bk. VII 7.12). 

Augustine, desperate for answers to the problem of evil in our material world then asks, “...where does it come from and how does it creep in?” (Bk. VII, 5.7). Surely evil though it may not be a ‘thing’, stems from absolutely no root. To properly consider evil’s true origin, Augustine traces it back to its birth: the Fall. He notes how the Fall was again, not begun by any evil object, for everything God created in the Garden was truly good, but rather the Serpent’s persuasion and the choice man was given.  After pondering the mysteries of the Fall, and how humanity became imperfect beings influenced by evil he sources “...the cause of evil is the free decision of our will...”(Bk. VII, 5). It is not the actions themselves not the results they may cause that are evil, for they are only the victims of human defected will (the term voluntarius defectus is used in Ch. IV of Augustine’s Enchiridion). Humans have corrupted will in that they do not submit in obedience to the higher power who created them as they were designed. Instead, we exist in a state of constant rebellion to a force that we can and will never overcome.

Now that the source of evil is identified, it is for man to determine where good is and to align himself accordingly with it. In order to understand how Augustine would determine this. Firstly, goodness should be understood in Augustine’s terms, the way to goodness is the same way to Truth. Augustine considers goodness is a mere stem of Truth, and Truth is parallel with God. Therefore, all good things, or all things, have elements of Truth, but not all of Truth exists within each individual thing. This is a gateway to whole other philosophical study, that being the pursuit of Truth, but also drives Augustine’s audience to inquire what the essence of man is and how man can extract goodness from a fallen world. Augustine’s understanding of philosophical ideas and general Epistemology moves from a Manichean ideology to a Neo-Platonist’s perspective in the context of Christianity. A Manichee sees the world as fallen as well, but not by mere defected will, but everything in it being evil. Augustine’s language strongly reflects his distaste of this idea, provided that at the time of writing he believes all Creation to be good. After abandoning Manicheism, Augustine’s post conversion philosophy shows quite strong Platonic sympathies. In reference to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Augustine explains the nature of reality. The key to understanding Augustinian Epistemology and how Augustine views the material world is in understanding the Platonic concepts demonstrated in the Allegory of the Cave. 

Through Plato’s ideas, Augustine accounts for reality among the material we live in. He highlights the points of the Allegory of the Cave, creating a parallel to a Christian theology. Here, Augustine sets a Platonic standard that is closely kept throughout the Medieval and Renaissance Church, as can be seen later in the writings of Thomas Aquinas and Dante Alighieri. The significance of Plato’s influence on the Church through Augustine during this time period is key to understanding the shifts the church went through at this time. In the Allegory of the Cave, men are bound to face a wall of shadows, imitations of their true forms. These shadows, while they are not as “real”, or in Augustinian terms as “good”, as the original true form, they reflect parts of it, and thus are not the ‘unreal’ or ‘evil’, but rather they are faded forms. In Augustine’s terms, these imitating forms that we interact with on earth are considered to be “the lowest kinds of goods”(Bk. II, 5,10). The prisoners chained to the wall of the cave, having only been taught that they shadows they see are true, in Augustine’s words “turn away from the better and higher [goods]” (Bk. II, 5,10). However, due to our lack of contact with the greater goods, we are unable to understand the scale of goodness and “these lowest goods hold delights for us indeed” (Bk. II, 5,10).  Humans confuse the lesser goods, which we desire because of the aspects within it pointing toward the greater goods, with the greater goods themselves. Or in Plato’s terms, the prisoner finds beauty and truth within the shadows cast upon the wall because they see part of the beauty and truth in the shadows that exist in the world outside. Augustine says that men “distort Truth into a lie and worship and serve the creature instead of the creator”(Bk. V, 5).

Even though the world that exists around us is good to some extent, it surely cannot be the only means by which we perceive true goodness. Trying to understand Truth through material is as difficult as trying to fully imagine a painting with only exposure to a square inch of it. The often conflicting free-wills of humans who attempt coexistence in the world are indeed corrupt (as men naturally are), and we are to “shape ourselves no longer to the standards of this world, but rather restrain ourselves from it”(Bk. XIII, 30), noting that we should not isolate ourselves from it. If we were meant to completely isolate ourselves from the world, we would have no sensual access to God’s goodness through his Creation. Since we are human, we have a great deal of reliance of the material, rational experience, because we have become “servants of reason”(Bk. XII, 31). God’s encouragement to retain a degree of contact with the world is evident in the reincarnation of Christ, which otherwise would’ve been completely pointless. If we were to rely solely on irrational faith, then we would’ve never been created into physical existence in his Creation to begin with. God very specifically intended the physical, material world we live in and created us to be rational beings to understand the material around us. Since we understand truth in a rational way, he sent Christ as a means of sensual and rational connection. Had we been created to only account for God on a rational level, the miracles Jesus performed would have been only a mystery and the breath of God amid the world would be nonexistent and invisible. It is in our individual lives we are to account for both God’s rational, through the material world, and irrational, through faith, communication and decide how we will control our loose free will.

     Augustine demonstrates through the Confessions the complex relationship between God, man, and the world. He presents God as being the innate-known ideal goal after whom man pursues, all men having a desire for Truth and an understanding of evil. The Platonic forms he refers to reflects the nature of God and how the world appears good to us. It is through the material world that we were designed to know God. However, through our defected will, we deny God’s superiority and often live our lives in futile disobedience. This corruption is evil and therefore, we confuse the world, the means by which we reach the goal, with the goal itself, creating an ambiguous journey for man which God actively tries to clarify through the events in our lives.

Augustine's Confessions: Book X Response Questions

6. What does Augustine tell us in book X that helps us understand the structure of the Confessions as a whole, including the non--narrative books?

Books I-IX serve as the narrative of his life describing the events leading to his conversion. In book X however, Augustine justifies the validity of this narrative through the power of narrative as he compels the audience to reexperience the events of his past with him in order to further understand the relationship between man and God. Memory, Augustine claims in book X, is the mode of recalling events and reexpereicing the feeling and senses that came with it. Doing this in Augustine's life allows him to analise the difference between his human-centered motives prior to his conversion compared with his God-filled attitude after it. The change Augustine observes, which he clearly points out to his audience, was extremely provocative in explaining the relationship between man and God, using his Memory to employ himself as a humble example. Reading Augustine May cause some Christians some spiritually nostalgic feelings in recalling their personal experiences after reading Augustine's.

Augustine's Confessions: Book IX Response Question

2. What can we infer about Augustine as a father from what he tells us about his son in this book?

Although Augustine is shamed by the circumstances under which Adeodatus was born, he still shows immense love toward his child and vast grief at his death. In Book IX, Augustine must not only cope with the death of his son, but also his mother. Augustine's relationship with his son was filled with respect and companionship. He describes his own spiritual maturity being at a similar level with that of his son's. They were both baptised together and had very similar timing in their spiritual growth. The parallel nature of their lives comes to a disruptive stop at Adeodatus's untimely death, and Augustine loses not only his son, but also a spiritual companion.

Augustine's Confessions: Book 8 Question Response

2. How is the conversion of Victorinus, told in this book,  a model for Augustine's own conversion?

Augustine's conversion reflects that of Victorinus in that there was a transitional distinction between being nominally christian and real salvation. For Victorinus, he considered himself a "christian", yet he still revelled and associated in the pagan rituals of Rome, popular among his friends. One of Victorinus's true Christian friends confronted him of his duality. Later, Victorinus sees the downfall of his ways and rejects the Roman paganism completely, isolating himself from some of his friends. Augustine in a similar way saw christianity as a philosophical answer rather than a personal divine relationship. His duality was solved when he also made his official conversion to Christianity, breaking the ties with his secular friends in Rome. The duality in both Victorinus and Augustine is not tolerated at all in Christianity, where it might be tolerated in eastern religions at that time, such as Zoroastrianism, if not outrightly encouraged. Duality is even encouraged today in religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism, claiming multiple ways to Truth. However, Christianity clearly claims one way only, and in the words of Governor Danforth, "there be no road in between".

Augustine's Confessions: Book VI Response Question

3. Why does Augustine "interrupt" his narrative to tell us about how Alypius became addicted to the violence of the gladiatorial contests.

Augustine's friend Alypius is a base and prime example of the process of any kind of addiction, and therefore any form of idolatry. Augustine is not sidetracking in the slightest telling the story of Alypius. In fact, rather than "interrupting" his broader narrative, he is making a great addition, further supporting what the image of a good Christian might look like. Alypius went to a gladiatorial fight unwillingly, yet he went but only after closing his eyes for the duration of the fight. This is a great demonstration of how even when we blind ourselves to temptation and are even perfectly aware of sin's evil nature, we are still vulnerable to being completely overtaken by worldly things. Before, Augustine has given his audience personal examples, but in this instance perhaps he cannot recall or cannot relate a life event to this particular idea. Calling on Alypius's story is another kind of experience, not personal, but still quite effective.

Augustine's Confessions: Book V Response Question

2. How does Augustine's disappointment with Faustus's response to his questions further his quest for wisdom?

                                                 

Augustine begins to realise the appealing elements of the Manichean worldview, not necessarily the worldview itself being appealing. For one, he realises, as he states earlier, that the Manichees pride themselves with what they perceive as 'superior wisdom'. Augustine admits to a feeling of importance as a part of the Manichees. On another level, he begins analysing the content of Faustus, and being a great orator himself, identifies the sophistesque structure of his arguments, not backing the way he speaks with any intellectual power. The "last straw" for Augustine to reject the Manichean worldview comes when he realised that Faustus cannot support his claims by the reality in which we inhabit, and furthermore questions how he can interpret any reality if he cannot even correctly interpret the one which he experiences. This in turn leads Augustine to declare himself out of the Manichees, rejecting the ideas on which he based his reality for the past decade.

Augustine's Confessions: Book IV Response Question

3. How do Augustine's interests in astrology and the writings of Aristotle demonstrate that education is not easy and that there is no straight movement toward wisdom?

Augustine points out that the pursuit of wisdom outside of Christ is a very confusing and time-wasting act. While knowledge in the terms of man can be considered to be universally understood and agreed upon, wisdom varies across the earth as the people who populate it. Augustine retrospectively sees himself looking for philosophical Truth in those only esteemed in human knowledge. But these 'knowers' are only in contact with our physical, human world. Augustine sees the need to search for knowledge among humans, but Truth and wisdom is something of only divine possession, something we must look past humans for. Humans may be a means of being guided toward philosophical Truth, but never was/is/will be the final means of obtaining it. Education, therefore while being an appropriate means of learning, is not an effective manner to pursue Truth, considering the vast array of opinions and worldviews to select from. Had Augustine not had realised this, he very well could've spent his lifetime experimenting in every ideology known and still be able to makeup an infinite amount himself.

Augustine's Confessions Book III Discussion Question

2. What is the argument Augustine is making regarding the "moralities of countries and times" and "the most righteous law of almighty God"? What proofs does he use to support his claim? How convinced are you by his argumentation?

In section 13 of the third book, Augustine's begins to compare the nature of God's law with the human-written laws of nations. For Augustine, the main difference between the two is their flexibility and universality. Augustine notes that God's law "has remained unchanged everywhere and always" and that it is "not one thing in one place and something different elsewhere". God's law for the Jews and then for the Church has always been the same, no matter when or where. While there are aspects of universality among human law (e.g. murder, stealing, etc... are wrong) it is not wholly universal and accounts for the beginning of many human arguments. He compares the world's nations as a knight trying to fit armour to the appropriate appendages. This knight spends his time finding the correct placement of each piece of armour and what its purpose is rather than using it (correctly). Humans make righteousness seems as if it can be constantly sculpted to an ideal image, but in fact, God has already designed the perfect statue, all we must do is replicate it. I agree with Augustine as far as how flimsy human morality is, but I would give humanity a little more credit for having a reflection of universality. Even though we are corrupted by sin, I believe there is a degree of righteousness we innately know of.

Augustine's Confessions: In My Own Words

How shortsighted am I, oh God, that I am unable to foresee the plans You have before me. You whose judgement is flawless, whose precepts are more precious than the purest gold, sweeter than the honey from the honeycomb. When I reveled in the ignorance of my own humanity, You sat in silence, overlooking my stupidity, but now I am called to repent. Even though You said, oh Lord, “There is a time and a way for everything” I am called to repent to the one who shows light to man. Why is it that man is ignorant to the ways of God? For what cause is man blind to the God that looks down from heaven upon mankind? Is it according to his own folly? God what do You endlessly search for? Men with whom You are pleased? Or is it truly any man who searches for You? Oh God, how foolish was I when I searched for answers rather than You, the provider! From where does my help come? My help truly and surely comes from the Lord, maker of Heaven and Earth.

It was upon the departure from my last home, the home from which I was called away. I was Jonah in my comfortable place. But then You, oh God, called me from my place! While my heart fled toward Tarshish, You called me back into obedience, which in turn leads to righteousness, to where I considered a Ninevah. But I was not called to help, nor was I being punished, despite my current thinking. I was blinded to Your Love by my own folly! What acts You made in love, because You are Love, oh God, I interpreted as punishment. But it was certainly not for punishment that You called me. For now, I see Your goodness through You commands, the Love You abundantly poured out for me. To where You sent me, I was further able to develop as a human of You. You gave me opportunity, which I so ungratefully rejected. It was by genuine Love that You forced me into discomfort. And it was through discomfort that I was brought into understanding. 

Now God, I see the righteousness of Your ways, and I give thanks! While in my blinding ignorance I refused the gifts You so lovingly gave, I now try to express the gratitude to match the extent of Your grace! Come, mankind, and see what God has done for me, his awesome deeds he extends also to you all! But still yet, oh God, we are still blind to Your ways, and revel in the darkness of our ignorance.

Confessions Response Questions: 3. What would you say are the "moral standards of the world" according to Augustine? How do you think Augustine understands the "moral standards" of God? How and where are these standard different?

"Such were the moral standards of the world at whose threshold I lay, a wretched boy; this was the arena in which I was to struggle." (19, 30)

Augustine makes a clear distinction between the morality that we are "taught" in this world and that of God's standard. Our human morality may not be entirely separate from God's, but there is a certainly a difference to be noted. The morally righteous actions we commit on earth are only reflections of the good character we wish others to assume of us by our appearance. Augustine says that prior to his conversion he "believed that living a good life consisted in winning the favour of those who commended me." (19, 30). Implicitly, Augustine sees God's morality supported by the pure desire of good, being the omni-benevolent being He is. Perhaps the audience may make the logical bridge to say that the closer humans come to God, like through conversion, the purer their motivation of morally righteous acts is. Augustine doesn't deny a sense of 'God-like' moral standard among humans, he only condemns the selfish motivations of these standards.

Augustine's Confessions: First Impressions

Augustine presents to his audience an analysis of his life that not only deals with the events of his life not only on a factual level, as many autobiographies are constructed today, but also on a philosophical and theological level. As if this was not already interesting enough, Augustine's mode of presentation is set as a prayer. In the first book alone, we are confronted by Augustine's inquisitive nature as he asks God what it means to be a Christian and how we are, as humans, to exist with and in relation to God. I am excited to not only study Augustine biographically, but also go through the questions he asks, being those I have my self only tried to comprehend. Perhaps being quite pretentious goal, I hope by reading Augustine's Confessions, to not only have a historical education, but also to further understand Christianity and its history.