Poem writers; Dante and Milton
Dante and Milton are both poem writers who talk about the theme of repentance through their poems. Dante, who has written Divine comedy, mentions how some souls, through humility and repentance, get to avoid the Inferno’s experience while at Purgatory. Dante also says how pride is a perverse form of love for oneself, which misdirects one from committing deadly sins. On the other hand, Milton shows the theme of repentance through the characters of Stan, Adam, and Eve. This paper will discuss how Milton and Dante demonstrate humility through the theme of repentance evident in the poems.
Dante passes through Purgatory after his experience in the Inferno, which is considered as a place where salvation takes place. Those who did not have the chance to get saved while they were on earth are allowed to get saved while in Purgatory. The condemned souls are offered an opportunity to avoid the horrible experience happening in Inferno “Thy soul is by vile fear assailed.” Through humbling themselves and asking for forgiveness, their souls are saved from the eternal damnation in the Inferno of hell (Alighieri, 65). However, Milton mentions the lack of humility demonstrated by Satan when he decides to challenge the authority of God “Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.” Satan and other angelic rebels are involved in a battle against the faithful angels of God (Milton, 52). Satan and the rebels are defeated and sent to hell for their sinful action of trying to challenge God. Satan is proud, and he thinks that he cannot be under the authority of God, that is where he decides to be involved in a battle to prove that he can also be in power.
During his Purgatory experience, he realized that love could lead one to sin even though it is the most treasured virtue. Love that flows from God is pure, but when it reaches the humanity, humans corrupt it with sin through pride. Pride is an obstinate form of love for oneself while desire a dishonest love for something that another person owns “There, pride, avarice, and envy are the tongues men know and heed, a Babel of depsair” (Alighieri, 107). The misdirected love as a result of pride leads to deadly sins such as greed, lust, sloth, envy, pride, wrath, and gluttony. On the other hand, Milton shows how much Satan lacks humility, even after being sent to hell. Satan assumes the shape of a serpent and decides to go against God and tempts Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. “Knowledge forbidden? Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord. Envy them that? Can it be a sin to know? Can it be death?” (Milton, 52). Instead of doing good by God, Satan chooses to show how much power he still has after being banished from Heaven. By Satan lacking humility, God punishes him and other rebels by turning them into a serpent, denying them the freedom of feeling their limbs, and even their freedom of speech.
While in Paradiso, Dante decides to humble himself before the presence of the Triune God. Dante gets to understand more about God in ways that he finds difficult to express. He gets to understand the mystery behind humanity and the divinity of Christ. He agrees to repent his sins, which helps his soul be aligned with God’s love. “But already my desire and my will
were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed, by the Love which moves the sun and the other stars.” On the other hand, Milton shows humility, by the way, Adam and Even went before God to ask for forgiveness (Milton, 55). After the serpent tempted Eve, she fell for the temptation and ate from the tree of knowledge. When Adam came along, he ate from the tree, even after being aware that it was wrong. However, after their sinful act, Adam and Eve humbled themselves and came before God and asked for forgiveness. Both of them were forgiven and given their freedom, but they were given life-lasting punishments for their sinful act, “I formed them free, and free they must remain.”
Dante, who is the epic hero of Divine Comedy, has the virtue of humility. Dante humbles himself and allows Virgil to save him from the lowest point he was heading to when in the Inferno (Alighieri, 60). When in the company of the three beasts, Dante demonstrates humility by allowing the creatures to guide him, even though it was difficult to escape. In Paradiso, Dante gets a chance of witnessing the Triune God, where he states the experience is indescribable. After the encounter, Dante decides to humble himself and accept the Christian ways, through aligning himself with the love of God. Milton’s epic hero lacks the virtue of humility. Despite being left alive after sinning against God, Satan vows to torment the essential creatures of God, humankind, after they are sent on earth.
In conclusion, Dante and Milton demonstrate humility through the theme of repentance. Dante mentions Purgatory to be a road to salvation where condemned souls are given a chance to repent their sins through being humble before God. At the same time, Milton talks about how the lack of humility led to Satan and other angelic rebels being banished to hell after being defeated. The act of being humble and asking for forgiveness saves the souls that have been condemned and are in Purgatory from the damnation of Inferno in hell. Dante explains how pride is a perverse version of love that misleads humans to committing the seven roots of sinfulness. At the same time, Milton mentions how Satan lacked humility and decided to go against God by tempting Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. Milton says that Adam and Even humbled themselves and went before God to ask for forgiveness, while Dante talks about how his experience before Triune God made him change his ways and follow God’s love.
Work Cited
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio & Paradiso. e-artnow, 2018.
Milton, John. Paradise lost. Hackett Publishing, 2005.