The Role of Virgil as a Guide in Dante's Inferno, Literary Essay Sample

Why does Dante choose Virgil to serve as Dante the Pilgrim's guide through Hell and Purgatory? What does Virgil represent? How consistently does he represent it? How was he sent? Why? What are his strengths? What are his weaknesses? What does Dante wish to represent through his characterization of Virgil?

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Dante' s Inferno is one of the most imaginative, impressive and influential literary journeys in the Western canon. As Dante's Divine Comedy in many ways follows the format of the medieval 'visions', the narrator needs to have a guide who will lead the way through the otherworldly realm. In Heaven Dante is guided by Beatrice, "a fair, saintly Lady" (Canto 2) and "a lady of virtue" (Canto 2), who is seen by the poet as being very close to the traditional figure of an angel. But before he can find the joy and peace of Heaven, the narrator has to purge his soul by passing through Hell and Purgatory. So, Beatrice asks Virgil to help Dante escape from the dark forest and the sinful dangers symbolized by the three beasts, saying "... with thy speech ornate, / And with what needful is for his release, / Assist him so, that I may be consoled" (Canto 2). Beatrice is trusting Virgil's poetic gift and her words indicate that she believes it to possess the power to save a human soul. Thus, Virgil is not an accidental figure in the poem. Dante chooses Virgil to serve as the Pilgrim's guide through Hell and Purgatory for a number of ethical and aesthetic reasons. All in all, this choice is a bright manifestation of the Renaissance thinking in this crowning achievement of the great Italian poet.

First of all, for Dante, Virgil is a threefold example of a perfect human being. He is a good, modest, and kind man. Though he never knew the Christian god and is therefore punished with his stay in Limbo, he takes his hardships stoically, with a lot of patience and understanding: "He governs everywhere, and there he reigns; / There is his city and his lofty throne; / O happy he whom thereto he elects!" (Canto 1). He is a loyal, law-abiding and industrious citizen. It is obvious from the text that he is very much concerned with the destiny of his motherland. When speaking about the hound that will chase away the terrible she-wolf which has frightened the narrator, he says: "Of that low Italy shall he be the saviour, / On whose account the maid Camilla died, / Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds; / Through every city shall he hunt her down, / Until he shall have driven her back to Hell" (Canto 1). But, most importantly, Virgil is a superb poet. The narrator calls him "that fountain / Which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech" (Canto 1), indicating the indebtedness of both Antique and Renaissance literature to Virgil who became, in modern terms, the father of discursivity.

Dante singles out Virgil among other antique authors from whom the Renaissance men of letters used to take guidance: "O, of the other poets honour and light, / Avail me the long study and great love / That have impelled me to explore thy volume!" (Canto 1). This meticulous study of Virgil's poetry has obviously profoundly informed Dante's concept of The Divine Comedy and further on in Canto 1 Dante goes on to specify that not only the literature in general but he himself is much indebted to Virgil: "Thou art my master, and my author thou, / Thou art alone the one from whom I took / The beautiful style that has done honour to me" (Canto 1). Apart from being under Virgil's stylistic influence, Dante also borrows some of the plot elements from the Aeneid, which deal with the wanderings of Aeneas in the underground kingdom of the dead. Thus, it can be easily seen that Virgil is a landmark figure for Dante. Nonetheless, choosing Virgil - a poet, not a saint - as a guide in Hell and Purgatory was an idea completely innovative for the age. One of the reasons Dante might have attempted it is that Vergil's mysterious lines about a virgin and a child in the Fourth Eclogue started to be interpreted as a prophecy about the birth of Jesus Christ as early as approximately 312-313 AD by Constantine the Great and the idea persisted well enough into the age of the Renaissance (Bourne, 1916, p. 390-397). Bourne writes: "The common interpretation of the eclogue from the time of Constantine up to the fourteenth century offers a sufficient explanation of the part which Virgil plays in the Divine Comedy" (Bourne, 1916, p. 397). Obviously, the Christian interpretation of the image of Virgil seems to be one of the keys to understanding Dante's ingenious design of the poem.

Here one should say that the image of the guide, who accompanies the protagonist on the journey through the circles of Hell, is not only a concrete representation of the poet Virgil, but also embodies the principle of perceiving, experiencing and cognizing the world without the support of faith. Dante admits and even highlights the greatness of Virgil, nevertheless, he portrays him as an inhabitant of the Limbo. This Roman poet who lived in the pagan times is the allegorical representation of the human mind. When Dante descends into hell, suffocating from sulfuric smoke, unable to endure the suffering that he sees, Virgil supports him - in this way Dante builds up a sustained allegory: in severe trials the soul must supported by the mind. And since the way of exploring the world of the supreme truths is open to genius creative people, the poet is chosen as a guide to the otherworldly realm.

Thus, the image of Virgil can be viewed both in its concrete, historical plasticity and allegorically. If Dante is the allegory of man in general and of mankind as a whole, that has lost hope and is looking for the right path, Virgil is the incarnation of a human mind, the reason, as he is a companion of Dante and constantly explains all the events that are happening in Hell and Purgatory. He himself believes that listening to the reason is the best guarantee of peaceful afterlife - when the two approach the entrance to Hell, Virgil says: "We to the place have come, where I have told thee / Thou shalt behold the people dolorous / Who have foregone the good of intellect" (Canto 3). Yet, the powers of the intellect are limited. It is able to perceive the tragic and the sad, but it is unable to comprehend fully the greatness of God and the bliss of religious devotion. Because of this Virgil leaves Dante on the threshold of Paradise, and in the abode of the eternal light, Beatrice becomes the guide, being the allegory of heavenly wisdom. Beatrice also embodies the power of love in the philosophical, and also transcendental understanding. And at the same time, she is the allegory of Beauty and the related idea that Beauty will save the world. Together, the human mind and heavenly wisdom, love and beauty manage to save the endangered soul of the narrator and ensure his moral ascent.

The literary mastery of Dante helps him create a persuasive character that is both a philosophical allegory and a portrait of an individual with his own strengths and weaknesses. Virgil is a perfect guide who tries to answer the Pilgrim's multiple questions and explain all the intricacies of the afterlife. Dante praises Virgil's judgement, saying "Thou'rt wise, and knowest better than I speak" (Canto 2). Virgil is fearless and dauntless in the way he deals with Cerberus, Charon, and other mythological figures. But he also treats the fears of the narrator with profound understanding of the human ways: "Thy soul attainted is with cowardice, / Which many times a man encumbers so, / It turns him back from honoured enterprise, / As false sight doth a beast, when he is shy" (Canto 2). Yet, Virgil himself seems to be above this human flaw.

Virgil is portrayed as devoid of human passions, but quite often also compassion. He is looking at the suffering of the sinners without any empathy characteristic of the Pilgrim. Yet, he is not completely devoid of all human features. When Virgil and Dante do not succeed in entering the city of Dis, though Virgil is usually extremely calm, now he is obviously disappointed: "His eyes cast down, his forehead shorn had he / Of all its boldness, and he said, with sighs, / 'Who has denied to me the dolesome houses?'"(Canto 8). But this unexpectedly discovered ability to feel only makes his image more likable. Moreover, even in this perturbed state of mind, Virgil is trying to console his companion, saying "Thou, because I am angry, / Fear not, for I will conquer in the trial, / Whatever for defence within be planned" (Canto 8). Yet, Virgil is not as fearless as he seems. When he realizes that the alternative of a fight is quite real, he exclaims, "O how I long that some one here arrive!" (Canto 9). He also certainly possesses fear and disgust of the Limbo where he is destined to stay imprisoned. He pales before the descent into it:

"Let us descend now into the blind world,"

Began the Poet, pallid utterly;

"I will be first, and thou shalt second be."

And I, who of his colour was aware,

Said: "How shall I come, if thou art afraid,

Who'rt wont to be a comfort to my fears?" (Canto 4).

The allegory here can be decoded as an idea that the human reason is mighty yet it does not stand the comparison with the divine wisdom. Without faith, there is no consolation and even the intellect is not able to overcome the iron grasp of the despair. Yet, Virgil's reply offers also an alternative interpretation: "The anguish of the people / Who are below here in my face depicts / That pity which for terror thou hast taken" (Canto 4). These lines tell the reader that pity is the key to overcome fear and compassion for others is the means to forego one's own suffering.

Dante's Divine Comedy is a unique example of the productive, though at times slightly contradictory synthesis of the Christian paradigm of the Middle Ages and the antropothentric views of the Renaissance with its focus on the uplifting role of human creative potential. The image of Virgil is one of the key elements in the poem that embody this synthesis.

Reference

Alighieri, D. (n.d.). Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Hell (H. W. Longfellow, Trans.) [EBook #1001]. Retrieved April 9, 2018, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1001/1001-h/1001-h.htm.

Bourne, E. (1916). The Messianic Prophecy in Vergil's Fourth Eclogue. The Classical World, 11(7), 390-400. Retrieved April 9, 2018, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/3287925?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.