I read parts of Divine Comedy back in high school, many years ago. Since I read it in my native language I understood the words but, in truth, nothing more than that. It definitely didn’t move my mind or heart. In other words it didn’t affect me in any way, because even though I understood the language I failed to understand the rich content. It is hard to explain why it happened, but for sure it was caused by many factors like cultural background, age, lack of ability to imagine certain things, limited understanding of various concepts.

A few years forward I am reading Dante’s masterpiece again. This time around I read it in a foreign language but with more mature and more analytical mind.

I have written a few posts based on cantos I read. In these posts I elaborate on concepts, ideas or images that I found interesting or intriguing. Choosing the subject for my posts and exploring it more while reading additional notes or materials available helped me comprehend the content even better.

My first post is a form of introduction of two main characters – Dante the pilgrim and his master Virgil, the circumstances the former unexpectedly found himself in and the journey that he is about to take. My second post doesn’t focus only on the main character but also introduces two secondary characters – Ciacco and Filippo Argenti – two sinners suffering in hell. This post also describes the political situation of Florence to which Dante (Dante – the author this time) was directly connected. In my third post I mainly concentrate on Dante’s (pilgrim) feelings, emotions and state of mind while the journey continues through hell continues. This analysis of someone’s behavior requires certain analytical skills and drawing conclusions from descriptions found in the book. The fourth post pays particular attention to sinners who represent the worst form of violence (the violence against nature) – the sodomites. It describes their wrongdoing and immorality, which result in eternal and horrific punishment. In addition it presents Dante’s view on the sin of sodomy and its very negative social and spiritual consequences. The fifth post contains description of the punishment for the Panders and the Seducers but also presents clearly Dante’s condemnation of corruption in Catholic Church. In my sixth and last post I analyze the relationship between Dante and Virgil, which in fact is much deeper than the relationship between a pilgrim and his guide.

After rereading my posts and reflecting upon them I can easily draw to a conclusion that I came a long way since reading Divine Comedy back in high school

First of all, my posts are not limited to a simple description of what happens in particular cantos. I am somehow able to analyze symbols, settings, images, behaviors of characters or even writing style to determine what message is being conveyed.

Besides, I utilize images available online to make my post and its content easier to visualize.

In addition, I try to use citations from the source to provide evidence to what I am trying to convey.

On the other hand, I have to admit that my posts lack coherency and logical organization due to the fact that I choose the most appealing image or topic of my interest in a particular canto without paying attention to what I previously wrote about. But there is in fact one element present in every single post that gives them a sense of unity. It is either Dante the pilgrim with his emotions, feelings and reactions or Dante the author with his opinions, beliefs, viewpoints and judgments.

I truly realize that there are a lot of elements I need to work on while writing my posts (coherence, more research on a chosen topic using available resources, logic organization) but, all in all, doing so helps me progress in understanding the complex content of Divine Comedy.

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