Daunte's Hell

701 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: virgil's role in the divine comedy

Dante was a very intellectual and provocative writer. He wrote the Divine Comedy, which has three poems in it. It has been said by many “The secret to originality is the ability to conceal one’s source.” Dante, when he wrote the Inferno, used many sources, but he never gave credit to those he quoted. Students today are taught that if they take somebody else’s ideas and use them as their own, it is intellectual thievery. Dante never got in any trouble when he concealed his sources by not giving credit to the others. Dante got the idea of the nine circles of hell from outside sources such as the Aeneid, and the Bible.

One important source that Dante used was Virgil’s Aeneid. Dante probably wanted somebody else’s opinion of what hell is like. So Dante looked at the Aeneid because he had a general idea that Virgil wrote something on hell. Since he could not meet Virgil face to face, he probably took some of Virgil’s ideas of hell and put them into his own words. Dante created a more specific idea of hell by giving it circles. I think that Virgil thought that hell was just one huge pla...

Show More
Related

  • Juxtaposition In Dante's Inferno

    1536 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first being that there was a certain construction to his hell. The shape, first and foremost, was with a cone. Being largest at the top and getting smaller and smaller as you went down. Of course, the farther you went down, the worse the sins. When taking into consideration how I would construct my own hell, I decided I would follow this same format. The people who committed the worst sins would sit in the bottom on hell, in like a pit. The people that committed sins that were the least offensive would be at the top of the cone, where it’s the widest. As far as the actual geography of hell, I don’t think I would follow Dante’s schemata exactly, although I would draw a couple ideas from it. One thing that I would keep the same is the fact that the punishment of the sinner would reflect the sin that he or she committed while on Earth. The thing that I would change would make hell a lot more personal. For example, the sin committed would deal with the person directly. What the person feared or dreaded the most would be the punishment inflicted upon them. Depending on the severity of the sin. For instance, someone simply lied, then the extent of their own fear wouldn’t be as severe as it would if they had killed

    Read More

  • The Use Of Tortures In Dante's Inferno

    605 Words  | 2 Pages

    On the other hand, the punishments that are borrowed from medieval torture techniques and imprisonment inflicts a physical and bodily pain upon the sufferer that is supposed to be taken literally. In the Medieval Era, their prisons were more like dungeons in the way that they were usually dark rooms with naked and ragged men that were chained to the stone floors. These prisoners were not allowed to move so they had to live in their own excrements, blood, and vomit which ended up filling the room with an odor that was so pungent it could have been a form of torture within itself. Dante used this idea of darkness and awful smells throughout the Inferno as the overall atmosphere of Hell. Also, the idea of the fiery and icy environments that Dante incorporates comes from the medieval prisons where the room would get so hot the prisoners would feel like they were on fire, and during the winter it would be extremely frigid. These ideas of extreme temperatures and darkness are only a few of the torture devices that Dante uses throughout his novel.

    Read More

  • Dante's Sense of Irony

    1075 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Inferno we follow the journey of Dante as he wanders off the path of moral truth and into Hell. The Virgin Mary and Santa Lucia ask Beatrice, Dante’s deceased love, to send some help. Thus, Virgil comes to the rescue and essentially guides Dante through Hell and back to the mortal world from which he came. However, things begin to seem kind of odd. When reading the Inferno one may begin to question the way Dante describes Hell and the things that occur within, or even the things we have always believed about Hell. Despite the way it is described and well known in western civilization, Hell is not at all how we expect it to be because of Dante's use of irony throughout this poetic masterpiece.

    Read More

  • Divine Love In Dante's Inferno

    1273 Words  | 3 Pages

    Inferno is the first and most famous of a three part series by Dante Alighieri known as the Divine Comedy that describes his journey to God through the levels of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise written in the early fourteenth century. Scholars spanning over nearly seven centuries have praised its beauty and complexity, unmatched by any other medieval poem. Patrick Hunt’s review, “On the Inferno,” states, “Dante’s extensive use of symbolism and prolific use of allegory— even in incredible anatomical detail—have been often plumbed as scholars have explored the gamut of his work’s classical, biblical, historical, and contemporary political significance” (9). In the story, each of the three main characters, Dante, Virgil, and Beatrice, represent

    Read More

  • Punishments in Dante's Inferno

    592 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dante Alighieri's The Inferno is a poem written in first person that tells a story of Dante’s journey through the nine circles of Hell after he strays from the rightful path. Each circle of Hell contains sinners who have committed different sins during their lifetime and are punished based on the severity of their sins. When taking into the beliefs and moral teachings of the Catholic Church into consideration, these punishments seem especially unfair and extreme.

    Read More

  • Dante's Divine Comedy - Symbolism in the Punishment of Sin in The Inferno

    4191 Words  | 9 Pages

    Inferno, the first part of Divina Commedia, or the Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, is the story of a man's journey through Hell and the observance of punishments incurred as a result of the committance of sin. In all cases the severity of the punishment, and the punishment itself, has a direct correlation to the sin committed. The punishments are fitting in that they are symbolic of the actual sin; in other words, "They got what they wanted." (Literature of the Western World, p.1409) According to Dante, Hell has two divisions: Upper Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of incontinence, and Lower Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of malice. The divisions of Hell are likewise split into levels corresponding to sin. Each of the levels and the divisions within levels 7,8, and 9 have an analogous historical or mythological figure used to illustrate and exemplify the sin.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Dante's Inferno

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    Despite the obvious flaws of Dante himself, he does give a clear vision of how punishments will be taken forth in the afterlife. He gives reason to fear and respect the law of God lest eternal punishment be your only promise in the afterlife. These punishments are as relevant as can be, so he offers a very vivid picture of hell. The men that he puts in hell give it a realistic twist, enhancing the fear that is felt upon reading this work

    Read More

  • Rewriting the Concept of Hell in Dante's Inferno

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rewriting the Concept of Hell in Dante's Inferno. The idea of making up a "Hell", or inferno, is not an experience in which I, even in my wildest thoughts, had started to imagine. Call me an optimist, but the idea of imagining Hell never appealed to me. However, as I read through the Bible, I have come across many images of hell and will now attempt to create a partial picture.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Dante's Inferno

    1248 Words  | 3 Pages

    As mentioned above, the structure of Hell is determined by the sins people commit during their lifetime (the specific morals people disobey) and how ‘bad’ these sins are considered to be (within their respective divisions). The sins being described in The Inferno abide by the rules written for the Catholic religion in The Bible, which is why The Inferno is often viewed as a religious text. This explains why Aristotle and Dante would disagree on a few key points of what it means to be virtuous. Aristotle is adamant about not having excess nor deficiency and rather finding a middle ground (mean), whereas Dante abides by the virtues laid out in The Bible. Hell usually personifies what would be considered excessive rather than deficiency in Aristotle’s code of ethics because of its background in the Catholic religion. One example of this exists with humility. In the Catholic context, humility stands a virtue that is praised in The Bible (and therefore Inferno) whereas in Nicomachean Ethics humility is a vice to be looked down on. This continues to be the case with many different excesses and virtues for

    Read More

  • Nine Circles Of Hell In Dante's The Inferno Of Dante

    1575 Words  | 4 Pages

    The poem begins with Dante wandering through the woods pondering the rights and wrongs of life. While walking through the woods Dante becomes threatened by creatures blocking his path, but then a dead poet, he admires named Virgil comes to rescue him. Dante wants to get to the other side of the hill and Virgil will help him, but first they have to go through hell. Therefore, when Virgil arrives, he begins to take Dante through the woods to begin his guided tour of hell. When the two of them approach the first circle of hell Dante is afraid and passes out in fear (as he will continue to do throughout the story) because on the gate of hell it states, “ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER HERE” and this was too terrifying for him. After, he awakes and is in the first circle of hell he learns that it is a place for unbaptized souls and people who lived before Christianity. These people could not be “proper” christians so they ended up here. Virgil resides in the first circle of hell along with other writers such as Homer. The second circle of hell consists of lustful sinners. This circle had greater punishment than the first and smaller than the first. Also, here is where Minos stands in front

    Read More

  • Examples Of Allegory In Dante's Inferno

    1773 Words  | 4 Pages

    What inspired Dante Alighieri to write the slightly disturbing, dark writing that is “Inferno”? What caused Alighieri to write this piece on the journey of his own version of Hell? Dante Alighieri’s historical implications in “Inferno” were influenced by many factors in his life at the time. “Inferno” is a part of the series called The Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy is an example of an allegory. An allegory is a deeper meaning that is expressed through characters or events in the writing. Allegory was a widely used literature tool throughout the medieval times, in which Dante lived ("Dante Alighieri: Excerpt from The Divine Comedy” 3). Alighieri’s “Inferno” displays allegory in many different ways in order for problems on earth to be acknowledged, such as church corruption throughout the Catholic Church and political upheavals in his own life. Many of these factors were helpful in Alighieri’s writing of The

    Read More

  • The Portrayal of a Just God in Dante's Divine Comedy

    680 Words  | 2 Pages

    The relationship between justice and punishment has been an essential fabric of society for centuries. It’s important to note the significance of justice in this equation. Justice to Dante is whatever you do in this life will haunt you in the next one. Whatever sins you commit will be your punishment. The circles of hell Dante creates is a just punishment for sinners. Those who commit incontinent crimes, violent crimes, fraudulent crimes, and worse crime against the perfect city deserve to be in the inferno. This punishment is just and supports the claim that Dante presents an image of a just God.

    Read More

  • Punishments In Dante's Punishment

    1555 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dante is undoubtedly biased in his punishments and rankings of his sins as a result of his personal thoughts and experiences. Although some of his punishments are fairly reasonably and match the crime, there are also some circles that are in the wrong order and have unjustified punishments. A few of the circles that are the most disagreeable include limbo, the lustful, violence against self, and complex fraud. These specific circles are disagreeable because Dante ranks them based on his own experiences and thoughts. Hell could also be redesigned in a completely different way to make it more reasonable. Dante’s divine comedy has some major biased within it, making the sins and punishments arrangements arguable, and able to be completely redesigned.

    Read More

  • Perception Dante Alighieri’s in The Inferno

    1319 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is a strong emphasis on perception throughout the novel. It is through sight that Dante acknowledges hell and learns from it. At the commencement of his journey into hell, Dante says to Virgil, "lead me to witness what you have said . . . and the multitude of woes" (Inferno 9).1 Dante’s purpose is to witness and learn from the perils of hell so he can li...

    Read More

  • Dante's Role In The Inferno

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    As they entered the first circle of Hell, Dante sees words that he thought were cruel inscribed on the gates of Hell and heard all sorts of confusing and frightening noises. Dante asks Virgil what the words and sounds that he sees and hear mean and Virgil explains that they are in hell “And I: Master, what torments do they suffer that force them to lament so bitterly? He answered: “I will tell you in few words: these wretches have no hope of truly dying, and this blind life they lead is so abject it makes them envy every other fate” (Canto III, lines 43-48). In each circle of hell, Virgil explains to Dante what sin the souls have committed and their punishments for committing the sins. Without the help of Virgil, Dante would be very confused and that would have frightened him even more. Having the help of Virgil explaining all the confusing noises and events that are taking place help to keep Dante informed and

    Read More

More about Daunte's Hell

Open Document