Fame and Glory in Dantes Divine Comedy Essay -- Divine Comedy Inferno

What is fame? Fame is and a slow decay Even this shall reap away. Theodore Tilton The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, is a poem laden with such Christian themes as love, the search for happiness, and the trust to see God. Among these Christian themes, however, is Dantes obsession with and desire for fame, which seems to be a surprising departure from conventional medieval Christian morality. Indeed, as the poem progresses, a striking contradiction emerges. Dante the writer, in charge with Christian doctrine, presents the desire for fame and glory among the souls of Inferno in order to convert it with humility among the souls of Purgatorio. Yet this purification of desire is not entirely embraced by Dante, who seems preoccupied with his own personal fame and glory. Therefore, how do we reconcile the seemingly hypocritical stance that the souls must strip themselves of pride and become humble, yet Dante crapper continue in his quest for fame and glory and still be rescue? This contradiction is developed as the reader and the character Dante travel with Inferno and Purgatorio and is resolved in the second sphere of Paradise. It is this sphere, which allows for fame and glory for just reasons, that permits us, as readers, to resolve this tension. It is in this sphere that Dante elucidates that fame is not always bad, but only becomes so when ones motives are impure. The power of fame and glory is nowhere to a greater extent powerful than among the souls of Inferno. The importance of earthly fame is particularly apparent in the figures of the several(prenominal) shades who have asked Dante to recall their names and stories on Earth. In fact, it is this bid of fame that induces most of the souls to ... ... of Paradise when we find that fame can have a array in paradise if it is sought for righteous reasons. Works Cited Ciardi, John, trans. The Divine Comedy. In The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Expanded Edition. Vol. I. Ed. Maynard Mack. impertinently York W.W. Norton, 1995. Works Consulted Bergin, Thomas Goddard. Dante. New York hunting watch P, 1965. ---. Dantes Divine Comedy. Englewood Cliffs Prentice, 1971. Niven, Larry and Pournelle, Jerry. Inferno. New York Pocket Books,1976. MacAllister, Archibald T. Introduction. Inferno. By Dante. New York Mentor, 1954. Pinsky, Robert. The Inferno of Dante. New York Harper Collins, 1994. Shippey, T.A. Into Hell and Out Again. Times Literary Supplement, 8 July 1977, .820. Spinrad, Norman. Introduction to Inferno, by Niven and Pournelle. Boston Gregg Press, 1979.