Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature)
Dante’s Characters: Part Three, Guido da Montefeltro
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Quick takeaways
- Guido da Montefeltro's monologue showcases modernist techniques of narrative fragmentation and disorganization, reflecting the complexities and self-deceptions of the modern psyche.
- Guido's portrayal as a paragon of the modern psyche in Dante's Inferno highlights the internal struggle of a divided self and anticipates the stream of consciousness narrative techniques of literary modernism.
Deep dives
Guido de Montefeltro: A Complex Character in Dante's Inferno
In Fair Note 27, Dante encounters Guido de Montefeltro, a complex character who was a brilliant military general in real life. Guido and Ulysses are the only two major characters in Inferno punished for the same sin: fraudulent counsel. Guido's punishment involves wandering in a flame, where he engages in a self-reflective monologue. This monologue showcases modernist techniques of narrative fragmentation and disorganization, as Guido's speech is filled with parenthetical clauses, subjunctive exclamations, and conditional phrasings. Guido's psychology is characterized by a form of bad faith, as he chooses to believe what he knows is not true, particularly when it comes to his own salvation. His inner conflict and self-deception make him a paragon of the modern psyche, similar to J. Alfred Prufrock in T.S. Eliot's poetic monologue.
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