Brunetto

In Canto XV Dante does not express pity, but "admiration and affection" (210) for one of the damned. Brunetto is in Hell for acts of sodomy but the canto does not make reference to the sin directly. Musa's comments explain that the imagery in Brunetto's speech is "explicit" (210) but Dante does not show any sign of noticing the nature of Brunetto's inappropriate language. I found it odd that neither Virgil nor Dante pointed out Dante's admiration of Brunetto as improper behavior. Brunetto is a sinner and when Dante showed pity for sinners in higher levels of Hell he was reprimanded. But now when he praises Brunetto no mention is made of the impropriety of Dante's actions. Is personal relationship and emotional attachment capable of excusing Dante from reproach? Furthermore, Dante looked up to Brunetto as a mentor and a teacher. Why would he place Brunetto in Hell and reveal to the world that he was a sodomite?

Lofty Endeavors

Canto II explains how Virgil has come to guide the Pilgrim through the underworld. Three women, to counter the 3 sins (embodied by the lion, she-wolf, and leopard), have passed along a message to Virgil to help Dante. The Virgin Mary makes a request to Lucia who asks Beatrice to help the Pilgrim, Beatrice in turn goes to Virgil who recounts the chain of events to Dante. In her explanation to Virgil, Beatrice says, "I am Beatrice, who urges you to go; I come from the place I am longing to return to; love moved me, as it moves me now to speak" (Canto II, lines 70-27). These lines are a testament to Dante's philosophy on love. The introduction made a point of mentioning that throughout all of Dante's studies and changing understandings his perception of love remained constant. Dante considered love "the most important force behind noble actions and lofty endeavors." (28) Beatrice's journey to find Virgil led her away from where she was "longing to return to" expressing a great devotion Dante. Her love for him overrode selfish desires to stay in Heaven for love itself moved her. Dante, as the Poet, has characterized Beatrice as such. The introduction mentions that Beatrice "was offended by the attention Dante paid other women" (19) but never asserts that she loved him as he loved her. Dante idealized Beatrice and believed she would lead him to "inner perfection" (20). Dante is known for "the lover's glorification of his own feelings, and his glorification of the beloved" (25). In Canto II less is said about Beatrice's love for Dante and their relationship than about Dante's understanding of love and the virtue Beatrice represented. Dante's belief that love is the primary motivational force behind "lofty endeavors" is explored in lines 70-72 in terms of love as a whole rather than in Beatrice and Dante's relationship specifically.

Over my dead body

        Because we are so used to it, we hardly ever think of how odd it is that the underworld is arranged like a monarchy. Hades and Persephone are the king and queen of Hades, serving as rulers of the dead. The significance of an underworld understood to be a kingdom is that there are undeniable parallels between being dead and being alive. Even once death has struck you down, there is still an authority you must answer to. You are eternally the subject to authority rule. So what is it that differentiates life from death? We glean some sort of answer to this question from the ghosts interactions with Odysseus. The spirits miss their bodies. They miss physicality. They miss blood. Death, it seems, is the state of existence deprived of a body. Death is a "joyless kingdom" (252) to the Greeks because the body was the most important part of being--far more important than the spirit. The shades resent that all they are left with in the underworld are their spirits. The people Odysseus meets in the underworld are for the most part military heroes and mothers of heroes, emphasizing the importance of glory in warfare in Greek culture. It should be noted that everyone is glum and unhappy in the underworld; there is no sense of a "freedom" from the trials of life. Achilles expresses his wish to have a body again at any price, "I'd rather slave on earth for another man--some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive--than rule down here over all the breathless dead." (265) Being unable to do what is what that defined Achilles in life removes all sense of identity from him. The removal of the body is the removal of selfhood.