There are a number of comparisons to be made between Hesse's essay "The Brothers Karamazov" and Dante's treatment of Arnaut Daniel in Purgatorio, Canto XXVI
- Dante:
- "I am Arnold, who weeps and goes singing."
- Hesse:
- "The common man laughs about the songs and is offended, the saint and the prophet are listening in tears."
- Dante:
- Writes of the holy abyss of Purgatory and the stairway out.
- Hesse:
- "moving in ... holy delusion along the abyss"
- Dante:
- "--be mindful in due time of my pain."
- Hesse:
- "The common man laughs about the songs and is offended, the saint and the prophet are listening in tears."
- Dante:
- "I see in thought all the past folly." ... "Then dived he back into that fire which refines them."
- Dostoevsky:
- In Dostoevsky's plot Dmimtri Karamazov goes to jail for a crime he did not commit to repent past transgressions.