The Franklin's Tale Summary

The Franklin's Tale begins with a love story between a noble knight named Arveragus and a beautiful noblewoman named Dorigen. The two marry, and promise to each other that they would remain faithful under all circumstances.

Soon, Arveragus goes off on a two-year journey, leaving Dorigen at home, mourning the absence of her husband. She often sat on the shore of Brittany, contemplating the dangers that confront her husband's life. While in her isolation, Aurelius, an equally courteous and handsome man, falls in love with Dorigen. When he reveals his love to her, she rejects him, sending Aurelius into a deep sadness. She tries to comfort Aurelius by saying that if he was able to remove all the stones from the shore of Brittany, she would be his, assuming that this task was beyond possible. Aurelius first tries to do this himself, but eventually hires a young magician to do the task for a large sum of money, and the task is done successfully.

Aurelius shows Dorigen that her request had been fulfilled, and she begins to weep, knowing that she had betrayed her husband. At this time, Arveragus returns and sees his weeping wife, she explains her predicament and then he allows her to go to Aurelius to fulfill her promise. Aurelius, when he heard of Arveragus's graciousness, he returned Dorigen to him. Aurelius also realised that he didn't have enough money to pay the magician, but upon hearing the story, he cancelled his debt.

Discussion Question on Canto XXVI

Why does Dante create this fantastic ending to the life of Ulysses given that so much material is available for him to use in his encounter with the sinner?

Dante's interactions with Ulysses are no different than that with other ancient (read classical) authors and characters, namely Virgil, Aeneas, and Dido. Of course Dante means to demonstrate his appreciation for these people in his Comedy by mentioning them, but they serve more greatly than Dante serves them in the Inferno. Ulysses, no differently, is being used in Dante's work to prove a point. 

In the case of Ulysses, Dante completely reinvents the story of the Odyssey. In the Comedy, Ulysses speaks of how, after returning from sea after many years, went out sailing again, "longing for experience of the world, of human vices and virtue" (26.94-5). He began pursuing land beyond the Atlantic, which during these times, presumably was considered not within human capability, and consequently, drowns on his voyage. Of course none of which never happened, at least not in the Odyssey. Once again, as Dante continues the story (or perhaps fate) of Virgil among other characters, he does so with Ulysses.

There is, however, quite precision behind Dante's retelling of the Odyssey. Had Ulysses went out to see and did all these things-humans-appreciated, without any credit to God, and still maintained the title of 'ideal hero', Dante would have to place Ulysses in heaven. Therefore, Dante makes death the obvious consequence for Ulysses's choice of 'earthly' pursuits.

Summary of Dante's Inferno through Canto XVIII

Through the eighteenth Canto of Inferno, Dante has experienced a long and treacherous journey. He has reached Malebolge, the eighth circle of Hell. He has trudged his way through fiery swamps and burning mud, through rivers of fire and seven circles of deafening sounds of pain. Despite how miserable this sounds, Dante is in fact in a better position than when he begun.

At the beginning of the poem, as you should recall at this point, Dante was hopelessly lost in a dark wood before Virgil came his way. Though geographically, Virgil leads Dante to a worse place, the progress Dante is making is toward an ideal place (positionally and geographically). Without the arrival of Virgil, Dante would never arrive at Paradiso. 

Dante, by walking the path of the unrepentant dead, is able to not only visualise a life apart from God's offered and abundant grace, but he reflects upon the nature of his own actions and how he has been involved politically. For example, when he interacts with his political enemies in hell, Virgil encourages an attitude of neutral grace rather than vengeful arrogance. 

As the reader, we are expected to follow the redemptive thoughts Dante experiences during his journey through Hell. As Florentines of his time, one is supposed to suddenly realise the corruption of Florentine (and Church!) politics and politicians, and the gradual but sure 'Decadence of Florence', as clearly explicated in Canto XVI.

Another interesting point is Virgil has lead Dante so far into Hell, that Virgil, himself, employs the help of others to further descend. For example, in order to cross into the eighth circle of hell, Virgil calls Geryon to ride.

The achievement of reaching Malebolge, meaning evil ditches: a place for those who committed sins of fraud, is quite significant. Here, in the "pit of hell", lie the fraudulent, and, as one could imagine, a great number of political and religious figures. Here, and leading up to this point, Dante makes his most apparent political thesis.

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.