In life there is suffering. There has always been suffering and there will always be suffering; it is part of what makes us human. This is something that has been known for much longer than any of us have even been a part of the human experience. It is something that both Dante Alighieri and William Shakespeare took note of hundreds of years ago and something that both of them thought was a topic important enough to explore through their respective writings Dante’s Inferno and King Lear. With these works being written hundreds of years apart, there are of course some different approaches to the idea. Both works feature completely different landscapes, but they both seem to convey the same message: our decisions make us who we are. In Dante’s
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This theme is spread all around the work with examples of relationships between friends, family, allies and even servants and masters. One of the major examples of how decisions affect our relationships can be seen in Lear’s decision to outcast his daughter Cordelia in favor or his other daughters Regan and Goneril after Cordelia would not flatter him with unrealistic words of love. In the end, this decision created pain and suffering for not only him, but also his daughters, his allies, and still a few others. This can also be seen in the decision Edmund made when he ordered the captain to execute Lear and Cordelia. This decision cost not only Cordelia her life, but also the captain his own life when Lear killed him. This shows that your decisions really do affect more people than just yourself. Another way Shakespeare approaches the idea of human suffering is that he focuses on the idea of how our “nothings” can turn into big somethings if we don’t address them. “The weight of this sad time we must obey, speak what we feel, not what we ought to say” (Shakespeare, Act V.3, Lines 330-331). This quote tells us how we can save ourselves hardships by telling people how we really feel about an issue and addressing it instead of just telling them what we think they want to hear. Shakespeare uses the word “nothing” …show more content…
One of the biggest similarities is that they both are very focused on the idea that our decisions have consequences. In Dante’s Inferno every soul in the Inferno is being punished there because of decisions he or she made on Earth; likewise, in King Lear nearly all of the difficulties that arise in the play could have been avoided if characters had made better decisions. It’s clear both works show that our decisions make us who we are and that our suffering is often times directly related to those decisions. Another way the works are similar is that they both seem to suggest that the worst suffering is the internal storm that rages within us. In King Lear, Lear would rather wait outside in the brutal storm than go into the hovel where he would be left alone to his thoughts. “This tempest will not give me leave to ponder on things would hurt me more…” (Shakespeare, Act III.4, Lines 26-27). Similarly, in Dante’s Inferno one of the least gruesome punishments is that of the lustful who are tossed about in a stormy wind, while near the bottom of hell, shades of traitors of frozen in the ice left only to their thoughts. There are also several ways the works are different. One way that they are different is that Dante’s Inferno seems to portray the idea that you cannot undo the decisions you make, while King Lear shows that change can be made. In the Inferno, all of the souls are
This theme is spread all around the work with examples of relationships between friends, family, allies and even servants and masters. One of the major examples of how decisions affect our relationships can be seen in Lear’s decision to outcast his daughter Cordelia in favor or his other daughters Regan and Goneril after Cordelia would not flatter him with unrealistic words of love. In the end, this decision created pain and suffering for not only him, but also his daughters, his allies, and still a few others. This can also be seen in the decision Edmund made when he ordered the captain to execute Lear and Cordelia. This decision cost not only Cordelia her life, but also the captain his own life when Lear killed him. This shows that your decisions really do affect more people than just yourself. Another way Shakespeare approaches the idea of human suffering is that he focuses on the idea of how our “nothings” can turn into big somethings if we don’t address them. “The weight of this sad time we must obey, speak what we feel, not what we ought to say” (Shakespeare, Act V.3, Lines 330-331). This quote tells us how we can save ourselves hardships by telling people how we really feel about an issue and addressing it instead of just telling them what we think they want to hear. Shakespeare uses the word “nothing” …show more content…
One of the biggest similarities is that they both are very focused on the idea that our decisions have consequences. In Dante’s Inferno every soul in the Inferno is being punished there because of decisions he or she made on Earth; likewise, in King Lear nearly all of the difficulties that arise in the play could have been avoided if characters had made better decisions. It’s clear both works show that our decisions make us who we are and that our suffering is often times directly related to those decisions. Another way the works are similar is that they both seem to suggest that the worst suffering is the internal storm that rages within us. In King Lear, Lear would rather wait outside in the brutal storm than go into the hovel where he would be left alone to his thoughts. “This tempest will not give me leave to ponder on things would hurt me more…” (Shakespeare, Act III.4, Lines 26-27). Similarly, in Dante’s Inferno one of the least gruesome punishments is that of the lustful who are tossed about in a stormy wind, while near the bottom of hell, shades of traitors of frozen in the ice left only to their thoughts. There are also several ways the works are different. One way that they are different is that Dante’s Inferno seems to portray the idea that you cannot undo the decisions you make, while King Lear shows that change can be made. In the Inferno, all of the souls are