Dantes Lessons on Reading
In Dantes The Inferno of Dante, Dante Poet gives several lessons on reading throughout the poem. Through these lessons, he advises readers on how to read, whether it be literally or metaphorically, and hence, how to read his poem. Since Dantes poem was meant to be a metaphorical account on how to live, the reader would assume that these lessons would advise the reader not to read literally. ... In other words, Dante encourages the reader to read what is written and take it for what it is worth, but to also be thorough in his or her reading and not make decisions without taking the entire story and message as a whole. ... Francesca (the only one of the two to speak) tells Dante Pilgrim of how one day they were reading the story of Lancelot: "One day, for pleasure,/ We read of Lancelot, by love constrained:/ Alone, expecting nothing, at our leisure. ... "(Dante, 43) Therefore, Francesca and Paolo did not finish the story of Lancelot and stopped reading at the beautiful part of Lancelot kissing Guinevere -- they were not thorough readers. Had they continued reading the story of Lancelot that day, they would have seen that it did not end happily for Lancelot or Guinevere. ... Another important scene in the poem pertaining the lessons in reading comes in Canto VIII, the Woods of the Suicides. ... "(Dante, 103) Referring to his own epic poem, the Aeneid, Virgil scolds Dante Pilgrim for not reading his work literally.