Question 1
"In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to/myself in a dark wood, for the straight way was lost./Ah, how hard a thing it is to say what that wood/was, so savage and harsh and strong that they/thought of it renews my fear!" (pg 27). Dante begins the first canto with a haunting description of where he was. The way he describes the setting makes it very easy, in my opinion, to visualize where he is and put yourself into the story, as if you are the narrator himself. He begins the story in a very dark tone, which sets the mood for the following canti. As the story progresses, there is no light that breaks through the gloom he is in; it only gets worse as he travels farther into Hell. I think his opening lines were a good lead-in to later events.
The main theme Dante continually touches on in the first canto is his unending fear. I found his description of the animals that were coming at him to be particularly fearsome. "He appeared to be coming against me with his/head high and with raging hunger, so that the air/appeared to tremble at him./And a she-wolf, that seemed laden with all/cravings in her leanness and has caused many/peoples to live in wretchedness,/she put on my so much heaviness with the fear/that came from the sight of her, that I lost hope of/reaching the heights" (pg 29).
This journey is not a fun journey, nor is it a journey most people would willingly want to embark on. If Virgil wasn't sent to be his guide, I don't think Dante may have ever gotten past the hungry animals and made it on the journey at all. Dante's continual state of mind is fear, which is only somewhat relieved when Virgil appears to him. As Dante tells us, "When I saw him in the great wilderness, 'Miserere/--on me,' I cried to him, 'whatever you may be,/whether shade or true man!'" (pg 29). However, although Virgil is being realistic, I don't think he helps Dante's fears much when he tells him that he must choose another path if he wishes to escape, "for the beast at which you cry out lets no one/pass by her way, but so much impedes him that she/kills him;/ and she has a nature so evil and cruel that her/greedy desire is never satisfied, and after feeding she/is hungrier than before" (pg 31).
Question 2
Out of the six canti that we read, the fourth canto made the greatest impression on me. Dante and Virgil had just entered the first circle of Hell; Dante perceives Virgil as being afraid and wonders how he, who is so full of fear, can follow someone sent to be a leader but is fearful himself - "And I, who had perceived his color, said: 'How/can I come, if you are afraid, who when I have fears/have ever brought me strength?'" (pg 71).
Virgil's description of why the souls were down in the first circle raised some issues with me. "My good master said to me: 'You do not ask what/spirits are these you see? Now I wish you to know,/before you walk further,/that they did not sin; and if they have merits, it is/not enough, because they did not receive baptism,/which is the gateway to the faith that you believe./And if they lived before Christianity, they did not/adore God as was needful...'" (pg 73). I find this statement particularly hard to justify. I find it hard to believe that a God who is supposed to love all his children, who created man in his image, would condemn people to Hell just because they were not baptised. What about those who are not Christians? Did God not create them? In my English class, we were discussing Pelagius, whose beliefs go against this idea that baptism is needed for salvation. He denied that idea of original sin, instead believing that people are not born inherently sinful and can still achieve grace through good works. But, as Virgil points out, having merits alone is not enough.
What I don't understand about this canto, however, is why the quartet of poets - Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan - and the great figures of the past are allowed into the castle with the green meadow. If they are like the other "sinners" condemned to the first circle, why do they get special treatment? Are the other people not good enough to be allowed into this sanctuary, or does Dante simply not mention them? He seems to focus on only the great poets and philosophers, and not the other "common" people that he sees.
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