Choose one of the following topics to write a tightly focused, carefully argued, richly illustrated essay. Your argument should proceed from a substantial thesis judgment, that is, a significant interpretive judgment about literary meaning.Underline or italicize your thesis statement. Document and illustrate your argumentation with specific reference to the text and selected quotations. Cite in parentheses canto and line numbers, thus: (V. 15-17). Quotations of three or more lines should be indented and single- spaced with line divisions reproduced exactly as in the text. Quotations of two lines should indicate line breaks with a slash (/). You should make full use of the text, citing the notes in the Hollander edition by page number, thus: (Hollander, p. 641). You should not need to consult any other outside sources, but if you do you must include full and complete citation.
1. The struggle of the pity / la guerra de la pietate: Repeatedly the stories of the damned and their torments evoke a sense of pity. What Dante calls the “the struggle of the pity”is central to the poems meanings. An early commentator, Guido la Pisa wrote, The suffering of the damned souls should move no one to compassion, as the Bible attests.And the reason for this is that the time for mercy is here in this world, while in the world to come it is time only for justice. With specific reference to at least two important episodes, explain how and why you or disagree with this judgment. What are the forms and implications of pity in the Inferno? Does Dante imply a distinction between the sinners and their sins, permitting human compassion while at the same time upholding divine justice? How does Dante the pilgrim grow, change, and develop over the course of his journey?
2. The struggle of the way / la guerra del cammino: In addition to the struggle of the pity, that action and meaning of the Inferno unfolds as an allegorical journey full of its own trials, obstacles, difficulties, and frustrations. Consider the struggle of the way,and choose two or three episodes for detailed discussion in which Dante and Virgil struggle to make their way forward. Quite aside from the narrative interest, suspense,and tension generated by these moments, what is their function in the poems allegory?How do these incidents ask to be read in terms of the struggles of the moral life and in the context of the soul’s pilgrimage of sanctification? Choose these incidents carefully and relate them to the larger patterning and design of the poem.