Order 985481: Fate in the Aeneid and Dante′s Inferno

Ivan Dino

Professor Borst

Core English 201

2 April 2018

Fate in Dante’s Inferno and the Aeneid

Fate and freewill are common themes of literature and are one of the major themes in Inferno and the Aeneid. Fate and freewill sound contradicting but they complement each other in these two stories. Both Inferno by Dante and the Aeneid by Virgil use fate and freewill to connect the living world with the spiritual world by using the theme to justify the plot of their works, progress the storyline, and how fate determines the outcome of events in both. God and deities are one driving force that helps determine fate. For example, God is what determines an individual’s fate in life in Inferno while in the Aeneid the Gods and speed up your fate or try and slow it down. In order to have a good outcome in life and in the afterlife people need to please their God. Individuals have a say in their fate and they have the free will to determine to live up to their current fate or try and determine a new fate for them.

The way the two stories portray fate differs from one other. The Aeneid focuses on fixed fate and that the individual can only change the amount of time it takes for his fate to happen. The complete opposite takes place in Dante’s Inferno. In Dante’s inferno an individual can choose the path they walk and choose the outcomes of their life on Earth and their life in the afterlife. These two different perspectives on fate is what the majority of people today still believe in.

The Aeneid is about the Trojans finding Rome and fate is an important factor in the entire story. Fate is what dictates Aeneas quest and determines the outcome of everything along the journey. In the Aeneid fate is already predetermined and that Aeneas finding Rome is already set. The story focuses on his adventures on finding the city of Rome as throughout the story fate is always mentioned. Aeneas strongly believed in his fate and believed that he was unstoppable and that he’s going to accomplish it. But even though fate is already predetermined, people have free will in pursuing their fate and have free will in choosing how they accomplish it. Even the God’s can’t change fate in the novel but they still try to change the outcomes.

Work Cited

Duckworth, George E. “Fate and Free Will in Vergil's ‘Aeneid.’” The Classical Journal, vol. 51, no. 8, 1956, pp. 357–364. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3293518.

Hollander, Robert. “Dante's Use of Aeneid I in Inferno I and II.” Comparative Literature, vol. 20, no. 2, 1968, pp. 142–156. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1770035.

Montemaggi, Vittorio. “The Bliss and Abyss of Freedom: Hope, Personhood and Particularity.” Vertical Readings in Dante's Comedy: Volume 1, edited by George Corbett and Heather Webb, 1st ed., Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK, 2015, pp. 57–76. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt17w8gx0.10.