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Intro: Talk about the maturation of a human being and the influences that are necessary for this transition. Dante shifts from childlike behavior to adulthood throughout his journey in the inferno. Dante begins his journey when he finds himself alone in a dark wood. “I never saw so drear, / so rank, so arduous a wilderness! / Its very memory gives shape to fear. / Death could scarce be more bitter than that place/”(I, lines 4-7). He is very frightened and confused. Dante realizes that he needs guidance and cannot get out of the wood alone, and that is when Virgil appears. Dante begs Virgil to rescue him from the She-Wolf of Incontinence. “See there, immortal sage, the beast I flee. / For my soul’s salvation, I beg you, guard me from her, / for she has struck a mortal tremor through me /”(I, lines 85-87). It is like he is hiding behind Virgil and clinging to the back of his leg just as a small child who is frightened would do. Dante begins to wonder if he is worthy of such a journey. He starts to back down from his commitments, as children often do. Dante is afraid of failure and does not consent to the journey until Virgil reassures him that he will lead him as far as he is allowed to go. Afterward, Dante is willing and very eager to follow Virgil, just as a child is constantly reaching out to have their parents show them the way and tell them what to do. When the poets enter the Gate of Hell Dante is immediately overcome with the tormented souls. Everything begins to move really fast and his head spins with multiple emotions. “When he had spoken, all the twilight country / shook so violently, the terror of it / bathes me with sweat even in memory: / the tear soaked ground gave out a sigh of wind / that spewed itself in flame on a red sky, / and all my shuttered senses left me.
Approximate Word count = 1338
Approximate Pages = 5.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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