Dante's Divine Comedy Term Paper

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Free Will in Dante's Divine Comedy

Everyone has the freedom to choose good or evil. The nature of freedom is that people decide what they want. God gave people free will. One expert defines the term free will as "the power of agents to be the ultimate creators (or originators) and sustainers of their own ends or purposes" (Kane 4). Dante's Divine Comedy shows this. People choose evil over God, and then they are knowingly committing an act of betrayal against God. God's knowledge of the choices people make does not mean people have no free will. God wants people to join and to enjoy Heaven with Him. He tests every individual's faith throughout his or her life in some way. The choices that people make will determine whether they go to Hell or Heaven, and this is a direct response to their own life choices and their own free will, as Dante's Divine Comedy will show.

In his work, Dante writes of free will, "You living continue to assign to Heaven every cause, as if it were the necessary source of every motion. If this were so, then your free will would be destroyed, and there would be no equity in joy for doing good" (Dante ADD PAGE # HERE). In the story, the circles in Hell represent the levels of seriousness of one's sin against God. Judas, who is the ultimate betrayer, thus resides in the lowest circle of Hell. The terraces in Purgatory represent the levels of penance that a person must go through as they purge their souls of each sin. A scholar notes, "Dante's Hell is a meticulously organized torture chamber in which sinners are carefully categorized according to the nature of their sins" (Felfoldi). In Purgatory, an angel puts seven P's on Judas' head and tells him, "when you have entered within take care to wash away these wounds" (Dante #). In Heaven, the spheres represent perfection.

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An example of this is that Dante attempts to describe how perfect God is in the last few paragraphs of the Paradiso. Dante describes God as perfect, so that no words can describe Him. Purgatory is the place for souls to repent. The souls in Purgatory repent the sins they have committed, but the souls in Hell are there because they did not repent their abuse of freedom. God is so loving and forgiving that He forgives the people that repent late. A pagan in the Paradiso dies and goes to Hell, but he is reborn and his will desires God so strongly that when he dies shortly after that he goes to Heaven. The terraces of Purgatory are like a stairway to Heaven. When souls do good deeds or make sacrifices they move up a terrace as a reward. People do not naturally desire God, so people have to train their will just like running in a marathon. Virgil writes, "Your will is free, erect, and whole - to act against that would be to err: therefore, I crown and miter you over yourself" (Dante #), Dante is in control of his own will, and he is on the right path.

Dante told a friend his intention when writing his Comedy was "an attempt to remove those living in this life from the state of misery and lead them to the state of felicity" (Felfoldi). He mentions that he feels pity for some of the souls in Hell. This is his way of telling people not to feel sorry for those in Hell because they chose to be there by their own actions. Many people say "actions speak louder that words," and the Divine Comedy proves this point. Those who attempt to leave Hell must climb the mountain and put their faith in God. People try to blame God for what happens, but truth is that people make bad choices that affect.....

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