Cantos 13-20

Canto 17, lines 32-33
The master said, "To experience this ring
Fully, go toward: learn what their state is,

You say not to moralize, but it's really hard not to for a line like this. Just as it's necessary to go through hell before reaching heaven, you've got to walk in a person's shoes before judging what they've been through. In this case, the master explains how Dante could never understand this ring of hell until he faces it up close and personal. Furthermore, this theme is important throughout the entirety of the soliloquoy in that in order for Dante to progress in his life, he must look at hell up close and personal in order to understand and avoid what he could potentially go through.

Canto 20, lines 19-22
Reader (God grant you benefit of this book)
Try to imagine, yourself, how I could have kept
Tears of my own from falling for the sake
Of our human image so grotesquely reshaped,

This passage really surprised me in the tone change. Dante rarely speaks directly to the reader and by using this technique, I felt more connected to Dante and to his experiences. Dante dictates the sympathy we should be feeling instead of simply assuming our feelings. This being said, it sounds kind of arrogant of Dante. I know in class we debated (slightly) over whether he was arrogant or not but there's a tone about this passage that makes it seem he is. He forces the reader to feel sorry for him and think of him as some brave soul by saying, "try to imagine, yourself, how i could have kept tear of my own from falling," when in reality, I would have preferred to feel sympathy for him on my own accord, not be told to. So, for a style choice, I thought that was a little different. So, while I appreciated the direct message for the reader, I didn't like being told how to feel.