A number of overlapping themes have persisted throughout all three canticles of Dante's Commedia. The politically charged and spiritually passionate Florentine elegantly inserted general topics into his masterpiece - affairs of state, religion and human nature - and expressed them thematically from the deepest trenches of Hell to the highest celestial bodies of Paradise. One such theme that has resonated throughout Dante's work is the idea of ​​dualism. Dante focuses throughout the Comedy on the dual nature of man, underlining the idea expressed in Monarchia that «man alone among created beings is the link between the corruptible and the incorruptible; and for this reason it is rightly compared by philosophers to the horizon, which is the connection between the two hemispheres" (91). Even Dante, as an active member of the Florentine assembly before the exile and as a devout man devoted to God, underlined the synthesis and the struggle between Church and Empire. Dante recognized Church and Empire as two equal and distinct faculties of God manifested in two different forms on earth. This duality of roles is deeply explored and intensely criticized by Dante throughout the Commedia Dante expresses the duality of man, Church and State are not always clear; however, his point is quite clear: all humanity is divided between the divine and the earthly, even every creation of man, that is, the hierarchy of worship and government offices, must represent this duality. Everything controlled by man must reflect his internal struggle between the corporeal and the divine. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned "? Get an original essay The duality of Church officials is evident in Canto XIX of the Inferno. Dante visits the bedlam of the Simonists, people who paid for graces and positions in the Church. Here Dante finds sinners hanging by their feet in holes in the ground with flames coming from their soles. Dante approaches the soul "which in its torment writhes more than any of its peers and is licked by a redder flame" (239), which he discovers is the soul of Pope Nicholas III. Nicola, when Dante approaches him, shouts: "'Are you already there, are you already there, Boniface?" (239). The voice that rises from this fiery hole in the trenches of hell is surprised only by the fact that Boniface arrived three years earlier than expected (Boniface died in 1303). Dante makes explicit that "the destiny of the great Pope [is] a thing not so much affirmed as determined and beyond question" (Sinclair, 244). Nicholas was Boniface's predecessor in the Church and began the "crescendo of iniquity" (Sinclair, 244) that characterized the terms of Nicholas, Boniface, and Pope Clement V. Nicholas began the downward spiral of the Church's moral practice; however, Boniface took the malpractices further. Boniface was "a worldly, unscrupulous and powerful ecclesiastic, and incidentally the corrupter of the public life of Florence and the cause of Dante's exile" (Sinclair, 244). Thus, when Nicola thought that Dante was Boniface, Dante "became like those who stand as if mocked, not understanding the answer that is given to them, and do not know what to answer" (239). It is an interesting contradiction that a devotee like Dante would be offended when mistaken for a Pope; however, this is exactly the kind of satirical duality that Dante intends to present. Dante is so much more pious than Pope Boniface, despite the latter's prominent position in the Church, that comparing the two is an insult to Dante. Dante clearly articulates his feelings on the duality of human nature in Purgatory, when he expounds his concept of the "Small Simple Soul" and how it is compromised in humans. Dante claims, “The heavens initiate your impulses… To a greater power and abetter nature you, free, are subject, and this creates the mind in you. "that the heavens do not have in their power" (213). Here Dante is quite explicit regarding the duality of man in soul and mind. He attests that God gives man the materials - the impulses - of the human conscience, that is, the soul, but it is up to man's free will to allow that soul to guide him in earthly affairs. Dante goes further by saying "From his hand that looks at him affectionately before he is, goes out, like a child playing. , tearful and smiling, the simple little soul, which knows nothing, but, moved by a joyful Creator, turns avidly to what delights it" (213). Dante's metaphor is based on desire, a human emotion that is the basis of consciousness, yet he is applying the metaphor to an intangible of the heavens: the soul. This subtle duality is clearly intentional because Dante is then ready to enter into a fiery discussion about the natural duality of a specific human being: Pope Boniface VII. The “little simple soul” can be compared to a child, the Pope and the Emperor can be mirrored as shepherds directing their “children” into the “social and spiritual order” (Sinclair, 218). With two equally powerful shepherds, one of the Church and one of the State, the simple little soul should be led to the right path. However, “when power becomes unbalanced, you cannot see clearly that bad leadership is the cause that has made the world evil” (213). Dante gave himself the perfect opportunity to attack the duality of Pope Boniface VII and the direction he was taking the Papacy in the late 13th century. Dante had a personal vendetta with Pope Boniface, a man whom Dante partially blames for his exile, and makes clear in the Inferno that he blamed the Pope for the corruption that was rampant in the Church. Dante, as a member of the more moderate White Guelph party in Florence, was sent on a mission by Pope Boniface in 1301 to plead with him to cease interfering in the affairs of the state, particularly in the Pope's latest expansionist policy, which Dante explicitly condemned. Back in Florence, however, the Black Guelphs, papal supremacists, defeated the White Guelphs and, thus, Dante was severely persecuted and condemned to exile for his disloyalty to the Pope. The overarching personal duality of Pope Boniface is unique because it is a The struggle between the divine and the temporal manifests itself as a struggle between duty and greed. Pope Boniface, although the Church was his kingdom, transformed himself into a dominant political force determined to have all of Italy under his jurisdiction. Pope Boniface's duality showcased the weakness of human nature and how any human being, even one who is supposed to be at the pinnacle of his field, cannot be a true representative of the divine faculty. Pope Boniface was characteristic of the tragic flaw which is omnipresent in every office held by man. In addition to the personal dualism of a Pope, there was a great deal of institutional dualism in the Church itself. Surprisingly, Pope Hadrian V says in Canto XIX of Purgatory: "'When I was appointed Roman Shepherd I discovered how much life is a lie'" (XIX: 106-107, p251). The Pope, the true "husband" of the Church, is the last to utter such a phrase; however, it was the nature of the corrupt Church to require habitual lying and deception. In a short soliloquy by Adrien, Dante includes Christ's words from the Scriptures, "'Neque unbent,'" which is a reference to the Gospel of Matthew, when Christ says, "'[In the Resurrection] they neither marry nor are given away wife. marriage'" (251). Using the Latin translation, Dante places particular emphasis on the phrase; Dante, using the formal language of the Church and not translating the phrase into the "vulgar" in which he writes, underlines the absolute sincerity of Christ's words andthe hierarchy of their importance. Dante's words in the Commedia are speculation and largely fictitious and, therefore, are appropriately written in the crude language of the common man. The words of Christ, on the other hand, are divine truth and should be treated with greater linguistic reverence. However, they can be used in the context of Dante's vernacular because Christ was divine and human, symbolizing the juxtaposition of these two natures, which is reflected in Dante's choice of quote and language. More important than words, however, is their meaning. In the previous passage, Dante kneels before Pope Hadrian to pay him reverence. "'What cause,' he said, 'has bent you thus?' And I said to him: 'For your dignity has pricked my conscience, standing upright'" (251), Adrien, by referring to Christ in his response, is devaluing his earthly status as the "husband" of the Church, because, in the resurrection, marriage, like any other earthly bond, does not transcend into the afterlife. Dante is demonstrating that the status and prestige of the Church's earthly officials have no weight beyond the temporal office on the earth should be a terrestrial representation of the celestial one, it was in the hands of some very dishonest figures Pope Hadrian also admits that "'avarice quenched all our love of good, so that our labors were in vain'", but, despite his rank in the Church on earth, in Purgatory "'now, as you see, I am here punished for [greed] ... so here justice holds us, seized and bound in the feet and hands, and as long as it pleases the righteous Lord we will stay motionless and lying down"" (251). Dante makes the important moral point that the Lord's justice is inevitable and is based on personal conduct, not artificial titles. The Church was a flawed institution because its mission to serve God and spread the Word of the Lord on earth was tainted by power-hungry and selfish clergy members. This dualism of the Church was recognized and satirized by Dante, who, through his use of Pope Hadrian V, made a strong argument for divine justice. Dante continues with the theme of duality in reference to Rome, the center of the Empire. In Paradise, Dante meets Justinian, the first Christian emperor, who identifies himself as "I was Caesar and I am Justinian" (87). This simple yet striking duality is indicative of Dante's broader attitude towards Rome as a link between heaven and the world. When Dante enters the sphere of Mercury in Canto V, just before being introduced to Justinian, Beatrice tells Dante "'Speak, speak with confidence, and trust them even as gods.'" (81). Implicitly, Dante emphasizes "the divine authority of the Empire of which Justinian speaks, the creation by God, through his victorious history, of an earthly order in which men can find their public justice and peace" (Sinclair, 95). Dante is stating his idea that the glory of the Empire is a direct reflection of God's divine plan for humanity. In the opening of Canto VI of Purgatory, Dante refers to the Emperor Constantine and his movement of the seat of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople in the following way: "After Constantine turned the Eagle back against the course of the sky which he had followed behind him of an old woman who took Lavinia as his wife..." (87). The Eagle is a common metaphor for God that Dante uses often throughout the Comedy; therefore, turning the Eagle "against the sky" is an explicit comment on Dante's disapproval of Constantine's attempt to move the center of the Empire. The rest of the passage, “he who once took Lavinia to wife,” is a reference to Aeneas, the divinely directed founder of Rome. Dante clearly opposes the.