Parallel Journeys

Physical Journey

Metaphysical Journey

– Dante and Virgil enter the Sixth Circle of – At this point, not much is happening in Hell, where the Heretics are eternally our hero’s little brain. He’s just checking burned in flaming coffins. out his new surroundings. – Farinata Degli Uberti, a “majestic” heretic, talks with Dante about the goingson in Italy.

– So yeah, Dante’s supposed to be headed towards “moral redemption,” but he’s not getting very far at this point. He seems to at least respect this sinner.

– Cavalcante dei Cavalcanti asks Dante why Guido is not with him. Dante accidentally puts a verb in the past tense, and Cavalcante jumps to conclusions and assumes that his son Guido is dead. Dante doesn’t correct him immediately, and Cavalcante swoons from grief.

– NOW we’re getting somewhere. Instead of pitying a sinner, Dante does a little something to make Cavalcante’s life (death?) a little worse. His tolerance for sin may be diminishing—cross your fingers!

– Farinata and Dante end their conversation, and before he leaves, Dante asks Farinata to tell Cavalcante that Guido isn’t really dead.

– And…dang. Whatever moral redemption Dante achieved a few minutes ago just totally died. He’s still pitying and being kind to sinners. Well, at least he’s not sobbing at their plight.

– Dante and Virgil enter the first round of the Seventh Circle, where people who were violent against their neighbors stew in a river of boiling blood.

– Dante’s more curious and confused than pitying. Once again, he’s just checking out his surroundings.

So in a nutshell, Dante’s comes a little closer to moral redemption in Circle Six. Instead of pitying sinners (you know, all that “swooning in compassion,” “weeping at their plight,” etc. etc.), he’s starting to accept that they’re in Hell for good reason…at least, he was, until he helped alleviate Cavalcante’s pain a bit. So he’s not totally virtuous yet—after all, he doesn’t scorn the sinners, and he even respects a few of them (like Farinata). But when he reaches Circle Seven (round one), instead of pitying, he’s just curious, and maybe a little confused. He does nothing to help or to punish the sinners there. In doing so, he’s moved beyond the “extreme pity” stage, but he hasn’t quite accepted what’s going on yet. So yeah, it’s not the total moral makeover we’re looking for, but our mild-mannered hero is making some progress towards that goal.