Love is Everywhere

        After reading Dante’s Inferno, Petrarch and Goethe I have to admit that I am tired of  love. Well love is fine, but it is the tragic love idolization of love from a male perspective that I am tired of. The theme of lost love has been in all three of the past books that we have read. Dante is lead by his lost love, Beatrice. Not much is know about their relationship or discussed in his work of The Inferno, but it is part of the foundation for the story. Petrarch’s work, Selections for the Carzonere is internally based off of his love affair and obsession with Laura. All of his sonnets are based off of his love for her. He expresses the double-edged sword of love, pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow. When Laura dies, his poems reflect his loss of her love and the emptiness he fells.

Goethe portrays almost the same story in his work, Sorrows of the Young Werther. The woman who Werther is infatuated with is named Lotte and is married to a man named Albert. Werther taken his obsession with love to the next step when he kills himself after Lotte denies him. His love is meaningless and empty without her and sees no point in living.

Why are these men, falling in love with women who they cant have, who are married or taken? Why is suicide the answer to love lost? These are the questions that I have asked by self as I have read these works, which have been so influential in literature. Are these men so self absorbed that they cannot see past their own needs or the limitation of life? Or are they so romantic that they would rather die than not be with their one true love? I personal look forward to hearing a female’s perspective on love and relationships. I have learned that denial is a part of life, but it seems as if these men cannot learn this important life lesson. 

Till Fame Do Us Part

Last week I was watching E! True Hollywood Stories, Celebrity Divorces and began to think about why celebrities have such a high record for divorce. Is it their wealth that divides couples or does fame ruin a marriage? In Dante’s Inferno one of the themes is the idea of Lust and those that committed sins of the flesh and public love. Dante meets Francesca in the Second Circle of Hell and she tells him her story of how her love leads to her eternity in hell. She was married to a man but fell in love with Paolo de Rimini. They read the love story of Lancelot and Guinevere, which is another tale of public life. Francesca’s husband found out about their affair and had both of them killed. In the tale of Lancelot and Guinevere. Guinevere was King Arthur wife and Lancelot was a King Arthur’s noblest knight. Guinevere and Lancelot had a secret love but it was revealed when Lancelot heisted in saving her because it did not want to show favoritism.

The negative effects of public love were also shown in Virgil’s Aeneid between Dido and Aeneas. After they fell in love, Dido revealed her love for Aneneas to the city but it isn’t long before their love is broken and Dido killed herself. She could have been so ashamed that she ended her life. Public love puts pressure on the couple, especially when they are in position of authority or fame. In the Art of Courtly Love by Andreas Capellanus, he writes, “when made public love rarely endures”.

 This quote makes me think of the modern example of Jon and Kate Gosselin. I have to admit that I was a fan of the show since the beginning but have stopped watching after all the drama about their divorce. If any one has seen the early shows, Jon and Kate seem like a happy and loving couple that is lucky enough to have twins and sextuples. After they are given a television show, their lives become public and before you know it, they are no longer a happy family, but anther broken story of divorce. I blame it on the fame and fortune; it is not natural to have your life broadcasted around the world. The love of their family and marriage made public ruined what they once had. I think it is a shame, but I don’t know if it is entirely sinful or would qualify for Jon and Kate plus to eight to be sent to the Second Circle of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.

Dorothy's Inferno

Lions, Leopards and a she-wolf, oh my! I was first drawn to see the connection between Dante’s Inferno and The Wizard of Oz when I though about the three animals that threaten Dante when he is lost in the dark wood, a lion, leopard and a she-wolf. Dorothy and her gang of the scarecrow, cowardly lion and Tin man are afraid of lions, tigers and bears when they are walking long the yellow brick road on their way to Emerald City.

Although these two works seem very different, they do have many similarities including the way in which the Dante finds himself in the underworld and Dorothy in the Land of Oz. Both lost souls seem to reach these new places in somewhat of a trippy way. Dante is lost in the woods and happens to meet the dead poet, Virgil and he becomes Dante’s guide through the levels of hell. He has now taken on the responsibility to share with humanity his experiences in hell so they will be warned of the torture that awaits them in the after life if they choose to continue to live in sin. Dante has his own person journey through his travels in hell; he wishes to understand his life and meaning.

As a Kansas country girl, Dorothy is caught in a tornado and wakes up in the land of the Munchkins in the Land of Oz. her arrival has killed the wicked witch of the east and has to travel to the Emerald city in order to ask the Wizard of Oz how to get home. She desperately wants to return home to her family. Dorothy and her friends experiences personal change and growth through they journey. Although the Wizard of Oz proves to only be a man behind green curtain, they learn that what they desire has been inside of them all along. The Scarecrow has a brain, the Cowardly Lion has courage and the Tin man always had a heart. When Dorothy finally returns home to her family she is so happy to be back and now has a new outlook on life. This is the same for Dante, after his experiences he now thinks differently about his purpose in life and how we will pay for our sins.