Dante conveys to the readers that halfway through his life, he encounters a situation where he seemed lost, wherein he has gone astray of the right path.
He realizes that he was wandering alone in a dark forest, not knowing how he came into that place. He was unaware that he was walking into a path towards a fearful place, somewhere inside a dark and tangled valley. This situation that Dante uses as a start of his story tells the readers what to expect in the reading.The whole story’s sense and meaning is unfolded in these lines, telling the readers that Dante went into a realm outside reality, wherein the readers could expect things outside the natural, and many more.
Dante tells us that he has embarked in a journey, meaning, the story is moving from what is literal, from what is real, towards that of fictional, make believe and all. Saying that Dante has strayed from the “right road” is more on the religious aspect, meaning, it would be following a road different from what is taught as good or correct.In fact, Virgil merely illustrates to the readers what the story is all about, of how he seeks his God by going through the obstacles of Hell. He describes that he was following a different road yet he seeks to find his peace with God, a rather unusual way, as compared to what has been taught in religious doctrines and teachings. Also, being lost in the dark woods would mean being blinded by ignorance, having lack of faith in God, which Dante tells us the state he is in at that time.Dante as a sinner himself somehow seeks redemption, knowingly or unknowingly, since he tells us that he is lost in the dark woods.
Dante saying that it was “midway on our life’s journey,” would mean that it was not only he who experiences these kinds of things. It is natural to find one’s self in a path of darkness and going astray from the right road. Every human being comes into this path once in a while, and it is up to them if they will be able to go back to the right road. And that’s what Dante wants to show the readers.He is taking the challenge of going for the right road by looking for God in a sinful world.
Dante didn’t clearly specify where he came from and where he is going; only saying that he got lost midway in his life’s journey. This is because he believes that many, if not all, of us will come into this situation once in our lives. It will be necessary so as to understand every person’s sins, and be able to find peace with God. Dante himself shows us his “experiences” on his way to find the right road, to find our own ways so that we would get to know more ourselves by getting to know more of our sins.Dante vaguely describes the setting, where there is no clear idea of the place he is in at that moment.
The only thing clear to the readers is that the author is still lost, without anyone to talk to or ask for directions. Dante as a sinner who finds himself in the dark woods is looking for the light, which is attributed to God’s clear and powerful love. He sees the light coming from the sun shining down the hilltop. When he follows the light and climbs upward, he encounters three angry beasts; a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf.All of these has hindered him in his ascent, and has forced him to go back down. These wild beasts all drove Dante back to where the light shone dimly.
This is a manifestation that in a person’s ascent towards the light of goodness, there would always be hindrances in the way. This means that there is no easy way towards the path of goodness and God. Again, going back to the statement that would sum the whole Canto up, this is just the “midway of our lives journeys. ” There are a lot of obstacles that we have to go through in order to make it to the path of goodness and to have peace with God.The three beasts, leopard, lion, and she-wolf all represents different types of sins that we often encounter as we go about our lives; the leopard as the sign of incontinence, the lion of violence, and the she-wolf as a sign of deceit and fraud. We often encounter this in every path that we take in life.
This is all to test us, if we can be able to make it towards God’s right path. Dante was made to run back, but this doesn’t mean that it is the end of his journey. As he stumbles downhill, he meets a man who could help him with his quest towards meeting God and making amends for being lost from the “right road” towards the “dark woods.” Dante meets the poet, Virgil, he offers to be his guide as he goes through the world of sins and sinners in order to meet God and be at peace with Him. This is a sign of hope for Dante, where even if he was pushed back by the beasts of sins, he meets the man who will guide him in order to finish his quest. This is a manifestation of hope in Dante’s writing, wherein in the trying times, something or someone comes up and proves to be of use in order to go through that situation.
Dante finds Virgil as a sign of hope, for him to be able to get back to the right road he seeks. Dante’s First Canto opens the readers’ eyes of what to expect from the whole story itself. It shows us that even though it is a work of fiction, it has a religious basis of taking on challenges in order to be in a right path. It also shows that there are also other people taking the path and getting lost in the dark woods. It goes to show that everyone stumbles in this kind of situation at times also.
