Imaginary Journey in Dantes Divine Comedy :: Divine Comedy Inferno Essays

Imaginary Journey in Dantes betoken Comedy Dantes Divine Comedy is a moral comedy that is designed to make the readers think about their own morals.  The poem could have been used almost as a guide for what and what non to do to get into Heaven for the medieval people.  Dante takes the reader on a journey through the afterlife to imprint in the readers minds what could surpass to them if they dont follow a Godlike life and to really make the reader think about where they will go when they die and where they would like to go when they die.  In the Divine Comedy, Dante uses his imagination and his knowledge of the peoples intuition of the afterlife to create a somewhat realistic yet somewhat imaginary model of the afterlife.        In the starting signal lines of the Divine Comedy, Dante says In the middle of the journey of our life I came to my senses in a dark forest, for I had lost the straight path.(Dante 1416 lines 1-3)  This is th e typical stereotype of today for when a person becomes lost or consumed in sin.  The sinful life is a dark life and a sinless life is a bright, white, and double-dyed(a) life.  Dantes coming to his senses in a dark forest symbolizes his realizing how lost in sin he truly was and realizing that he needed to do something about it, moment he needed to go through the seven sacraments so that he could become pure enough to see God in Paradise and not have to spend and eternity in Hell.  Dante realized that he had strayed from the true faith without realizing it, not knowing exactly how it happened, and is trying to return.  Losing the straight path symbolizes losing the holy, pure, or Godlike life. Darkness is more or less a symbol of evil and light or brightness a symbol for good. Throughout the poem, Dante is advocating that humanity must consciously aim for righteousness and morality.  People can often become so involved with day-to-day living that they will fall into a life consumed with sin.  Man must always be aware of his need to perform righteously.  The dark forest symbolizes a human life where every wakeful moment is not consciously devoted to morals and righteousness.        The Inferno is probably the most realistic section of the Divine Comedy because it comes closer to fitting the peoples perception of what Hell is really like then than Purgatory and Paradise do.