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Dante lives again in Umbria Dante lost in the dark wood

Dante does not seem to be in a wood at all. The cave seems, rather, to be more like an anticipation of or entrance to Hell. The adjectives which Dante uses in Inferno I, 5 "esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte" have been elaborated: the savageness (selvaggia) is expressed in the horrid anthropomorphous heads constituting the vegetation; the asperity (aspra) in the roughness of the landscape; and the strength (forte) in the capacity of the same landscape to nullify the man present and make him part of the surroundings. Dante the protagonist has his arm raised as if he wanted to rub his eyes "tant'era pien di sonno" (Inf. I, 11 - as I was so sleepy). Here there is a possible allusion to Adam just after he had been forced out of Eden. Like Adam, Dante must also hide his head, that is, his sinning intellect, from the blinding light of divine wrath. The faint light in the cave, on the contrary, shadows his head and characterises the obscuring nature of the infernal world. Indeed, the only light source in the cave seems to be situated elsewhere, above and outside the cave itself. The fact that the pilgrim's body is almost completely assimilated to the landscape with his head enveloped in obscurity indicates that Dante is already a part of this landscape. He is irrevocably to be considered a sinner destined to err throughout the realms of the hereafter. Dante will have to fight very hard indeed against his own condition before he will be able to see the stars again.
Dante lost in the dark wood

Introduction
Dante lost in the dark wood (Inferno, I)
Dante - follower of Christ made flesh (Inferno, I)
The arrival of Caronte (Inferno, III)
The Noble Castle of Limbo (Inferno, IV)
Tremendous Minos (Inferno, V)
The lustful Guido Guinizelli and Arnaut Daniel (Purgatorio, XXVI)
Souls in the circle of the envious (Purgatorio, XIII)
The sky of Mercury - the active spirits (Paradiso, V-VI)
Invective of St. Benedict (Paradiso, XXII)
index

Dante lives again in Umbria	Dante lost in the dark wood
Dante does not seem to be in a wood at all. The cave seems, rather, to be more like an anticipation of or entrance to Hell. The adjectives which Dante uses in Inferno I, 5 "esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte" have been elaborated: the savageness (selvaggia) is expressed in the horrid anthropomorphous heads constituting the vegetation; the asperity (aspra) in the roughness of the landscape; and the strength (forte) in the capacity of the same landscape to nullify the man present and make him part of the surroundings. Dante the protagonist has his arm raised as if he wanted to rub his eyes "tant'era pien di sonno" (Inf. I, 11 - as I was so sleepy). Here there is a possible allusion to Adam just after he had been forced out of Eden. Like Adam, Dante must also hide his head, that is, his sinning intellect, from the blinding light of divine wrath. The faint light in the cave, on the contrary, shadows his head and characterises the obscuring nature of the infernal world. Indeed, the only light source in the cave seems to be situated elsewhere, above and outside the cave itself. The fact that the pilgrim's body is almost completely assimilated to the landscape with his head enveloped in obscurity indicates that Dante is already a part of this landscape. He is irrevocably to be considered a sinner destined to err throughout the realms of the hereafter. Dante will have to fight very hard indeed against his own condition before he will be able to see the stars again.
Introduction Dante lost in the dark wood (Inferno, I) Dante - follower of Christ made flesh (Inferno, I) The arrival of Caronte (Inferno, III) The Noble Castle of Limbo (Inferno, IV) Tremendous Minos (Inferno, V) The lustful Guido Guinizelli and Arnaut Daniel (Purgatorio, XXVI) Souls in the circle of the envious (Purgatorio, XIII) The sky of Mercury - the active spirits (Paradiso, V-VI) Invective of St. Benedict (Paradiso, XXII) index


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