The Divine Comedy/YMMV: Difference between revisions

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* [[Intended Audience Reaction]]: Beatrice is used by [[This Wiki]] as the example of a "good" [[Mary Sue]] to show that [[Tropes Are Not Bad]]. Dante is similarly a "good" [[Marty Stu]].
** Dante isn't a [[Marty Stu]], he's got loads of character faults: he's cowardly, petty, violent at times and he submits himself to the penances for Pride, Lust, and Wrath in Purgatory. Beatrice's faultlessness can possibly be explained by the fact that Dante was madly in love with her when he wrote the poem.
*** He is also a [[Marty Stu]] in the sense that he lavishes a ''huge'' amount of praise on his own writing skills. In Canto IV of ''Inferno'', Dante and Virgil meet up with the ghosts of Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. All five of these great poets from history -- the 4four they meet, and Virgil -- then accept Dante as a ''sixth member'' of their exalted group, as if to say he was their equal.
*** While there's no doubt that Dante was being a bit egotistical keep in mind that he is still studied centuries later and his work receives numerous allusions in modern fiction. He seems to be pretty on the level with them in terms of how much he influenced society.
* [[Memetic Mutation]]: "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."
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** If you're just passing through, there's the wood of suicides, where you have to walk through a forest where the trees bleed from every snapped twig and torn leaf. Through the bleeding holes in their wooden flesh, they wail in pain or ask why you're hurting them. And then one of the local denizens comes crashing through, leaving a trail of blood and agony in its wake...
** [[No Party Like a Donner Party|Ugolino]].
*** There are two possible meanings to what Ugolino says: Yes, he did OR''no'' No, he didn't. The line is fairly ambiguous.
*** Would he really be in Hell if he didn't do it?
* [[Painful Rhyme]]: Since [[wikipedia:Terza rima|terza rima]] is much harder to pull off in English than in Italian, some translations fall into this.
* [[Tear Jerker]]: Ugolino's backstory and tragic death.
* [[Unfortunate Implications]]:
** In Canto IV of ''Paradisio'', Dante asks Beatrice why the nuns who have been raped (in both the old school meaning as well as [very likely] the contemporary meaning) are placed in the sphere furthest from God's love, to which Beatrice replies that people are complicit in the violence acted upon them.
** The part of ''Inferno'' where Dante meets [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Christian_views_on_Muhammad a certain religious figure] suffering in the Eighth Layer for being a "schismatic" is omitted from modern adaptations and analysis, for obvious reasons.
** While Dante does feel sorry for what happened to his mentor, homosexuality is still considered in this work an act of treason against God. To put this in perspective, [[But You Screw One Goat|those who have committed bestiality]] are on the same layer, and the layer itself is lower than the ones for murderers. And not to beat a dead horse, it still must be said, this is Dante's opinion, ''not'' that of the modern church (or even the church at the time, actually, although they did frown upon it) as a whole.
* [[Values Dissonance]]: A'-plenty. Remember, this ''is'' medieval Christianity.
** Heresy.
** Sodomites are on a burning plain. 'Nuff said.
*** Dante's homosexual mentor, found on the same plain, is treated sympathetically, however.
*** That may be [[Values Resonance]], as his teacher was assumed to be a pedophile. It should also be noted, quite a few homosexuals end up in Purgatory/Heaven, for various reasons.
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** In Dante's Hell, thieves and counterfeiters are regarded as worse sinners than murderers. The First Circle (Limbo) consists of "virtuous pagans" and the unbaptised, whose only real crime is not being Christian. Nowadays, condemning someone to hell for such a fact is generally considered a wee bit harsh.
*** However, and perhaps ironically, quite a few "virtuous pagans" [[Values Resonance|end up in Purgatory]]. Some translators noted that this was usually due to some [[Heroic Sacrifice]] and general [[The Messiah|messianic ideals]].
* [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?]]: The final cantos of ''Purgatorio'' describe creatures that wouldn't be out of place in the biblical Book of Daniel or Revelation to John. These included 6six-winged angels with eyes covering their wings, a gryphon, an analogue for the Whore of Babylon, and a giant who abused said Whore of Babylon.
 
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