The Tempest By William Shakespeare And Inferno - 1358 Words

Written about 300 years apart, The Tempest, a play, by William Shakespeare and Inferno, a poem, by Dante, both highlight the topic of justice. Being from different time periods and composing stories of different genres, having different definitions of justice. Justice in The Tempest is Prospero, the protagonist who is stranded on an island, returning to Milan and reclaiming his rightful dukedom. Justice in Inferno is divine, with God’s creation of nine levels of Hell with individualized punishments for sinners. In both texts, Shakespeare and Dante similarly prove that justice is hypocritical and selfish with three components: their motives in writing the stories, the cruel actions taken to bring about justice, and the desired balances that the justice creates. These three overarching characteristics, however, vary in the content of the actions, the balances, and the motives. The authors’ motives for writing contrast. Dante Alighieri wrote Inferno while wandering, having been exiled from Italy. In writing Inferno as one of the three parts in the Divine Comedy, he was channeling his loss of hope and feelings of injustice in the world. He writes, â€Å"Midway on our life’s journey, I found myself/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: death is hardly more bitter.† Dante wants people to see the injustices done to him in the world, feel his pain, and experience theShow MoreRelatedThe Question of Justice in Dantes The Inferno and Shakespeares The Tempest1405 Words   |  6 PagesThe Question of Justice in Dantes The Inferno and Shakespeares The Tempest Dante Alighieri lived in the 13th- and 14th centuries Florence, Italy, and wrote his famous comedy The Inferno in response to the political and social events of his environment. William Shakespeare lived in late 16th and early 17th centuries and his play The Tempest is a critical commentary on the problems facing England at the time. Despite the fact that the two authors lived in different societies at different times,Read MoreKing Lear By William Shakespeare1612 Words   |  7 PagesThe overarching theme that surrounds King Lear by William Shakespeare is justice to nearly all. The play opens in a royal â€Å"court,† but this court is unjust with wicked people such as King Lear, Goneril, Regan, Duke of Gloucester, Edmund, and numerous others. The justice does not come in this literal court, but the figurative court of nature. Stunningly reprimanded by two of his three daughters, along with the natural tempest that causes him to be enveloped by insanity King Lear is punished. GonerilRead Morethatcher4803 Words   |  20 PagesHopkins, â€Å"The Windhover†, â€Å"I wake and feel the fell of dark†¦Ã¢â‚¬  2. William Shakespeare, Sonnets 1-7 3. John Donne, â€Å"Valediction Forbidding Mourning†, â€Å"The Flea†, â€Å"Hymn to God, My God in my Sickness† 4. George Herbert, â€Å"The Collar†, â€Å"The Altar†, â€Å"Love III† 5. Andrew Marvell, â€Å"To his Coy Mistress† 6. T.S. Eliot, â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock†, â€Å"Journey of the Magi† 2. Poems for individual reading: 1. William Shakespeare Sonnet 73 (â€Å"That time of year†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ) 2. John Donne, â€Å"Holy Sonnet I†