The nations rise and fall by her decree.
None may foresee where she will set her heel:
she passes, and things pass. Man's mortal reason
cannot encompass her. She rules her sphere
as the other gods rule theirs. Season by season...
What do you think Dante is saying here about fate and fortune through this mythological figure of Dame Fortune? How does this relate to Dante's conception of God? How do you think this compares with the way fate is explored in Sophocles' works?
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In the Inferno, Dante uses Dame Fortune to reflect Catholic Ideology of the day. The Catholic view of Christianity saw God as all powerful and beyond human comprehension, but did not believe in predestination. This view is similar to Sophocles's belief in the power of the Gods to control men, but fundamentally differs in what aspect of men's lives the gods/ God is controlling.
This poem can easily be used to reflect the belief that God was all powerful and impossible to comprehend with human reason. Since Dante was not a pagan, we can safely assume that Dame Fortune is an allegory for God. Dante mentions how Dame Fortune's actions cannot be predicted in the line "None may foresee where she will set her heel." This inability to control Dame Fortune is probably Dante's way of telling how men cannot begin to control or comprehend God. Those who try to accomplish actions that only God can do, for example seeing/controlling the future, are found in the lowest levels of hell. The fortune tellers are found in level 8. Their belief that they could see the future removes some of God's power, since they believed that the future they saw was what would happen, they denied the power of God to change the future to what he saw fitting. This leads to the next point.
The medieval Catholic Church did not believe in predestination, but did believe in an omnipotent God. This is a difficult belief to hold, but can be rationalized through the viewpoint that Dante expresses in the poem. Using Dame Fortune as an allegory for God, Dante states that "She rules her sphere as the other gods rule theirs. Season by season..." This sentence shows the belief that God did not directly control men's future, but on occasion, controlled only their present. God has the ability to directly control everything, but out of respect for free will, very rarely intervenes with earthly matters, and does not set individuals future in stone. This differs greatly from Sophocles's viewpoint on fate.
Sophocles and Dante both agree on one thing, the ability of God to completely control man. Their viewpoint differs on whether God actually does control the fate of men. Dante does not think that he does, as made obvious by the quote in the paragraph above, as well as the fact that Catholics of Dante's day did not believe in predestination. Sophocles believes that God maps out men's lives, while Dante believes that God lets men make the decisions, and only intervenes when it suits His purposes.
You have some thoughtful ideas here, Billy, but one paragraph does not cut it. You have 3 claims incorporated into one blob paragraph. This is not acceptable for honors work at the end of the 1st semester. I would also like to see you really work on looking more closely at the text and elements of language within it. You have veiled references to parts of the passage that are not quoted that are sort of evidence but then never do you really comment on that evidence directly. All in all - this seems rushed. If it was not and you are having a hard time understanding where to go from here - I am happy to help anytime.
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