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  • Essay / Depiction of love in Dante's Inferno and Boccaccio's Decameron

    Although love isn't exactly the first thing you imagine when you think of Dante's Inferno, it surprisingly appears to all kinds of ways throughout history. Dante informs his readers of the love that arises from the goodness of God and that its bond can be broken by the sins of those God has created. And just like Dante, Boccaccio's Decameron also contains many stories on the theme of love. However, his stories contain combinations of men and women and stories about the limits of love clearly stated throughout the passage, but without the involvement of God and divinity. While both Dante and Boccaccio represent love and the experience of love through their writings, Dante's form of writing is merciless and emphasizes Dolce Stil Novo, while Boccaccio is rather compassionate and strongly denies the theme of Dolce Stil Novo and writes about the weak loves of the flesh. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay To begin with, both writers formed their creations around love and its effects on their lives and well-being. Dante, although his parents forced him to marry Gemma Donati, loved a Florentine woman named Beatrice all his life. When he died, Dante turned inward and began to compose poetry dedicated to his memory. This collection of poetry, along with the writings he had written before his death, became known as La Vita Nuova. However, this was not Beatrice's last memory, as Dante many years later created his epic poem La Divina Commedia, in which she became his inspiration. As an important character in Dante's poetry, Beatrice became his intercessor in the Inferno, the goal of his journey through Purgatory, and his guide through Paridiso. An example of Beatrice's advice in Inferno is the scenario where she took pity on Dante and asked Virgil, another important character in Dante's Inferno, to help her on her journey. Dante wrote: "A lady's voice that called me where I dwelt In limbo...I fear he is already lost, without help I came from Heaven too late...offer the help you must bring Before it is lost… I am Beatrice, come from where I want… ”. Even in the simplest way, Dante made sure to include his true love, his admiration. Because without Beatrice, the character of Dante Pilgrim would have been continually lost without Virgil's help. Although Boccaccio's love story may not be as interesting as Dante's, his love and desire for Maria d'Aquino, whom he called Fiammetta, became part of the Decameron storyline. However, unlike Dante who made his love a primary focus of his writing, Boccaccio focused on the act of compassion towards women in love and created a short story that carefully protected women's honor. He demonstrated that women are carnal and lustful just like men, if not more so. Boccaccio wrote: "She decided to see if she could secretly find herself a worthy lover... she was able to observe many... men... one more than all the others attracted her... she silently and passionately fell in love with him , and more. she saw him, the more she admired him. The young man… noticed her attention… and he took her so deeply into his heart that he could almost think of nothing but his love for her.” With this example, Boccaccio demonstrated that admiration of the opposite sex, finding someone visually attractive, can be a step towards finding love, even if it is perverse. Boccaccio does not separate thesexual appetites and the naturalness of love. He attempts to show his readers that the world allows the cruel and the perverse, as well as the sinful and the merciless, when it comes to serving love. In other words, he wants to show his readers the complex understanding of what it means to love and be loved as a human being. In the writings of Dante and Boccaccio, the action of lust is explored in depth and explained from two points of view. Dante explains lust throughout Hell as a carnal, sexual desire that consumes individuals so that they act according to their reasons for sinning. Their actions often lead them and their lovers to death. The location of Dante's Lust, one of the seven rings of Hell, is ambiguous. On the one hand, Dante considers lust to be one of the least serious sins of Hell and places it at the forefront, furthest from Satan himself. But, on the other hand, Dante first introduces lust into his writings because of its association between sex and original sin: the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned. The story of Francesca and Paolo explains the deviance of lust and how it consumes both man and woman equally. Dante wrote: “We read Lancelot, compelled by love… Sometimes, at the moment of reading, our eyes joined, looking from the book to the eyes of the other… and he kissed my mouth, trembling… ". While Francesca made it appear that love was responsible for their sin, in reality it was lust that consumed them. While reading a book, the story of Lancelot aroused sexual desire. In other words, it turned them on and led them to consummate the desire they had for each other, not a forbidden love. The other view of lust is explained by Boccaccio as an innate way of human nature. Boccaccio wrote: "Ghismunda, I thought I knew your virtue and your honesty so well that it would never have occurred to me, whatever anyone said, that you could submit to any man who was not your husband, or even think of it I would, if I had not witnessed it with my own eyes.” With this line of writing, Boccaccio shows his readers that even under her father's contempt, Ghismunda could not help but explain that she is only human, that she felt love and desire for a man, and that her class level would not deter her. feelings. She explained that her love and compassion for him will remain, even after his death, and that it is a natural feeling that she cannot help but feel. Throughout his writings, Boccaccio shows his implicit insistence that his readers understand that men and women must honor their requests and their choices, and admit the limits of their nature and their decisions. Dolce Stil Novo, a new gentle style of writing, was first used by Dante in his writing of Inferno. This poetic writing is considered superior in quality and intelligence while it demonstrates metaphorical symbolism and subtle double meanings when used. However, instead of being material in nature, Dolce Stil Novo represents love as “divine love”. Dante uses Dolce Stil Novo throughout The Divine Comedy with his theological views and symbolic imagination. The adoration of women's beauty is explicitly depicted but Dolce Stil Novo poets tend to delve deeply into introspection. In this depiction, women's beauty is often compared by comparing the desired woman to a creature from heaven. The woman tends to be described as a kind of bridge to God. Dante writes, “In heaven a lady feels such pity,” referring to the moment when Beatrice came down from heaven and spoke to Virgil. In this case,.