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From "Dante: His Times and His Work" by Butler, Arthur John
Count Ugolino
A traitor imprisoned and starved with his sons, found in the ice of Antenora in Hell, gnawing on the head of Archbishop Ruggieri.
Core Belief
"Believes in vengeance and the futility of hope, consumed by the memory of his suffering and the injustice of his fate."
Worldview
Sees the world as a cruel and unforgiving place, where betrayal and suffering are inevitable, and where even the bonds of family cannot offer protection.
Personality
Driven to desperation and madness by starvation, consumed by hatred for Ruggieri, a tragic figure of betrayal and suffering.
In Their Own Words
"'Father, it gives us much less pain If thou wouldst eat of us; thou didst invest Us with this wretched flesh, and thou divest Us.'"
"'Thou wilt show hatred unto him, Whose name I now withhold not; and for this I make no lamentation, knowing it.'"
"'Brief was the waking; and the more intense The hunger than the grief.'"
Other Characters from Dante: His Times and His Work
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