Beginning on this blogging journey, I found myself In an empty classroom, the first post late.

"Midway on our life's journey, I found myself
In dark woods, the right road lost."
Canto I. lines 1-2

His journey is more internal for me than literal. Just from the first line, his surroundings [dark woods] and the fact that he's only in the middle of his life make it hard for me to read this as a literal journey. The dark woods, OF COURSE, are a metaphor...for a crisis in his life, or hard times or something along those lines? Later in the second Canto, when Virgil recalls Beatrice's visit...that cements this internality more. He's romanticized her, describing her as a holy being almost...he reveres her. In real life, Bea was a girl he'd lived next to as a kid [according to the notes in the back of the book], and he was obsessed with her [or something along those lines]. So obviously the description of her in Canto II is his interpretation of her, his feelings for her. That's so subjective that it can't be literal, can it? I dunno. I just get the impression that his journey is definitely an internal one more than an actually journey, is all.


"... Noah, and Moses the obedient
Giver of laws, went with Him, and Abraham
The patriarch. ...
... and His
Coming here made them blessed, and rescued them."
Canto IV. lines 46-51

It's frustrating that folks who lived before Christianity can only stay in Limbo, even if they lived so-called "virtuous" lives. When I first read the first five Cantos, his imagery and description made this hell seem so real and vivid, and true. But then this mess just is confusing and I get frustrated with the idea that kids who've not been baptized are stuck in Limbo with the fathers of Christianity! The guys who started the whole thing! I guess they were saved, but still.
[Is this too much of how I feel?]


"In dark woods, the right road lost. To tell
About those woods is hard – so tangled and rough
And savage that thinking of it now, I feel
The old fear stirring: ..."
Canto I. lines 2-5

The setting of The Inferno makes the whole thing seem realer than I think it is [see my first paragraph]. The feeling of the darkness, of the confusion mirrors Dante's internal struggle: "tangled and rough" describes the landscape/surroundings, but that also describes his feelings of confusion and deep grief. His surroundings seem so fantastical and therefore puzzling/unrealish. That imagery makes his journey so far all the more effective and gripping.