“Midway upon the journey of my life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the right pathway had been lost.” In the middle of the Pilgrim’s (Dante’s) Life, he cannot find his way through the dark forest, which many scholars have interpreted as he is in a forest of sin and cannot use his moral compass to find his ways. Then, while trying to find his way out of the forest, he encounters a strange series of events that ends with him going down the pit of hell with Virgil the Poet as his guide. The inferno follows the story of the Pilgrim’s Journey in the Inferno and the sinners he meets there. Throughout the story, The pilgrim is told to take in the stories of these sinners to learn how to live and meets sinners of various culpability ranging …show more content…
We see his mercy and sorrow for people that were in hell for reasons of succumbing to sin, or just not being baptized, and his wrath for the traitors and those whose sins weren’t incompetence, but a hatred for God himself. The Pilgrim’s hatred for sinners of conscious choice is best demonstrated by his speech on the sins and wrongs of Simony. “I pray thee tell me now how great a treasure our Lord demanded of Saint Peter first, before he put the keys into his keeping? Truly he nothing asked but 'Follow me.' Nor Peter nor the rest asked of Matthias Silver or gold, when he by lot was chosen unto the place the guilty soul had lost. Therefore stay here, for thou art justly punished.” We also see Virgil evolve from a legend and a guide to a good friend and protector of the Pilgrim, physically, mentally, and spiritually. “Less shame doth wash away a greater fault," The Master said, "than this of thine has been; Therefore thyself disburden of all sadness, and make account that I am beside thee.” Together, The Pilgrim and Virgil’s characters grow into well-rounded and good people with this book’s plot and …show more content…
Throughout the book, Dante puts in his opinion of what is a mortal sin and his criticism of the church. He makes many mentions to important church officials being in, and deserving hell, as well as many people that according to the church says should’ve been able to receive heaven like moral Seneca. He even makes mentions to an archbishop whose soul is in hell and his physical body being possessed by a demon. He wrote very scandalous things about the church, the sin of simony, and was exiled while writing, which more than likely constituted these
The purpose of the pilgrim's journey through hell is to show, first hand, the divine justice of God and how Christian morality dictates how, and to what degree, sinners are punished. Also, the journey shows the significance of God's grace and how it affects not only the living, but the deceased as well. During his trip through hell, the character of Dante witnesses the true perfection of God's justice in that every sinner is punished in the same nature as their sins. For instance, the wrathful are to attack each other for all eternity and the soothsayers are forever to walk around with their heads on backwards. Furthermore, Dante discovers that hell is comprised of nine different circles containing sinners guilty of one type of sin, and that these circles are in order based upon how great an opposition the sin is to Christian morality and the ultimate will of God. We see here how Christianity plays a major role in the structure of hell and the degree to which each sinner is punished. Lastly, we can look at the story and see the importance of the grace of God not only to Dante during his journey, but how it affects the souls in hell and purgatory as well.
God states that we treat each other with the love he gives to us as individuals; while us stating violent acts against love, fraud constituting a corruption and, greed becoming normal thing amongst people defines everything god had envisioned for mankind. Yet, while Inferno implies these moral arguments, it generally states very little about them. Dante discusses with each of the souls in the different circles of hell although it is not truly stated as to why they are specifically in that circle. Only because God justifies there sin belonged there. In the end, it declares that evil is evil, simply because it contradicts God’s will and justification, and since God is God, he thus does not need to be questioned about his morals. Dante’s journey of evil progressed as he winded down the depths of hell pitiless and was driven to make it to purgatory. Inferno is not the normal text that most people would read, then think about how it relates to todays morals; its intention is not to think about the evil discussed but, rather to emphasize the Christian beliefs that Dante followed through his journey.
middle of paper ... ... The various journey of Dante to hell helps the readers to have a picture of how hell is and how real it is. Dante uses his poem to expose the rot in the church and also how dirty politics has become. References Alighieri, Dante.
Everyone has a different perception of what really is heaven and hell and where people end up in the after life. Some people are not even religious and have their own personal thoughts about what is next after death. The Inferno or to be more precise “Hell” can be described and defined as a place where people end up after death in the natural world, when people have not followed God’s ways and laws of living. It is has been depicted throughout the years of time that suffering in hell is horrific, gruesome, and unimaginable. In Dante’s Inferno, Dante portrays the protagonist as he is guided by his ghostly friend Virgil the poet through the nine chambers of Hell. The transition from one circle to another is very shocking and graphic at what he witnesses through each circle. Dante uncovers where each sin will lead people to once the sinners souls face death. He faces many trials and tribulations through the beginning to end of the Inferno. Dante felt impelled to write the Inferno because he was going through his own personal struggles at the time. In a way he was extremely depressed because he was exiled out of Florence, and the love of his life Beatrice died. While Dante was in exile for so many years, it allowed him to write some of his most significant works of literature that people still read to this day.
He had meticulously described it to illuminate the Bible’s interpretation, especially for the degrees of sin. For instance, during his journey through Hell, he had traveled through nine rings, each containing different forms of sin. Within the rings, Dante had met individuals who were cast into Hell for adultery and heretical beliefs. However, Dante had not only described who he saw, but also the quality of their lives in Hell. D’Epiro states, “The poet’s most famous portrait of flawed grandeur is that of Ulysses, whose sins as a false counselor have caused him to be enveloped in flames like a human torch.” (99) Dante had wanted to put an emphasis on how perilous Hell was because of the time period’s grasp on religion in 1320.
Dante’s Inferno is about a man who goes through, and describes hell in great detail. He describes the many different levels, and the levels within the levels. He tells about who and why someone would go there, at each different level. Each crime, or sin has a different punishment that has to do with how bad the sin was that the person committed. Some punishments are more intriguing than others, depending on the person reading them. Some of these more interesting, or more allegorical punishments are for the Prodigals, the suicides, and the seducers.
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.
...ards monstrous figures and sympathy towards those who seem to be tortured unjustly. In his perverse education, with instruction from Virgil and the shades, Dante learns to replace mercy with brutality, because sympathy in Hell condones sin and denies divine justice. The ancient philosopher Plato, present in the first level of Hell, argues in The Allegory of the Cave that truth is possible via knowledge of the Form of the Good. Similarly, Dante acquires truth through a gradual understanding of contrapasso and the recognition of divine justice in the afterlife. Ultimately, Dante recognizes that the actions of the earthly fresh are important because the soul lives on afterwards to face the ramifications. By expressing his ideas on morality and righteousness, Dante writes a work worth reading, immortalizes his name, and exalts the beliefs of his Christian audience.
Dante’s The Divine Comedy illustrates one man’s quest for the knowledge of how to avoid the repercussions of his actions in life so that he may seek salvation in the afterlife. The Divine Comedy establishes a set of moral principles that one must live by in order to reach paradiso. Dante presents these principles in Inferno where each level of Hell has people suffering for the sins they committed during their life. As Dante gets deeper into Hell the degrees of sin get progressively worse as do the severity of punishment. With that in mind, one can look at Inferno as a handbook on what not to do during a lifetime in order to avoid Hell. In the book, Dante creates a moral lifestyle that one must follow in order to live a morally good, Catholic
In Dante’s Inferno, the relationship between Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil the Guide is an ever-evolving one. By analyzing the transformation of this relationship as the two sojourn through the circles of hell, one is able to learn more about the mindset of Dante the Poet. At the outset, Dante is clearly subservient to Virgil, whom he holds in high esteem for his literary genius. However, as the work progresses, Virgil facilitates Dante’s spiritual enlightenment, so that by the end, Dante has ascended to Virgil’s spiritual level and has in many respects surpassed him. In Dante’s journey with respect to Virgil, one can see man’s spiritual journey towards understanding God. While God loves man regardless of his faults, His greatest desire is to see man attain greater spirituality, in that man, already created in God’s image, may truly become divine, and in doing so, attain eternality.
And if it is not, why do they suffer such a sorry fate?” (Canto XI 70-75). Dante’s questions can be viewed in two ways. First out of condemnation of all sinners, “Why are they not punished in this charred city” (Canto XI 73).... ...
Dante's "Inferno" is full of themes. But the most frequent is that of the weakness of human nature. Dante's descent into hell is initially so that Dante can see how he can better live his life, free of weaknesses that may ultimately be his ticket to hell. Through the first ten cantos, Dante portrays how each level of his hell is a manifestation of human weakness and a loss of hope, which ultimately Dante uses to purge and learn from. Dante, himself, is about to fall into the weaknesses of humans, before there is some divine intervention on the part of his love Beatrice, who is in heaven. He is sent on a journey to hell in order for Dante to see, smell, and hear hell. As we see this experience brings out Dante's weakness' of cowardice, wrath and unworthiness. He is lead by Virgil, who is a representation of intellect. Through Dante's experiences he will purge his sins.
“Midway along the journey of our life” (Canto 1) Dante the Pilgrim says at the beginning of his journey. Through out the comedy and the Pilgrims vision of hell, I believe he was truly on a journey of self-discovery. Dante encountered a guide to help him in his journey throughout the nine circles of hell. Going deeper and deeper into hell Dante realized many different sins that he could have committed in his life and realized the things that he did not need anymore. Base on the end of his journey I believe that Dante truly found himself and found a new person within himself.
Prior to this event, Dante was not a character who had showed his fright. But when the moment of panic occurred, Virgil was present to aide Dante in his episode of fright. Dante acknowledges that Virgil is an excellent guide that inspires and reassures himself of his purpose. Dante expresses his gratitude for Virgil as a guide for helping him in his first time of need during the journey. Virgil displays his power of reason again during their encounter with Charon. Charon, the ferryman refuses to let Dante enter the pathway to Hell as he is a living man. Virgil, however, persuades Charon to let them onto the pathway by telling Charon, “Charon, my leader, do not torment yourself. For this is willed where all is possible that is willed there. And so demand no more” (Inferno, Canto 3). Virgil uses his power of reason to help Dante deal with issues that Dante cannot deal with, because he lacks the intellect that Virgil has. However, Virgil’s power of reason is restricted to only Dante’s hell. Virgil informs Dante of this at the beginning of the Inferno. He says once they finish their journey through Hell, he will not be able to guide Dante through heaven because his virtues include only reason and intellect but not faith in God when he says, “if you shall ever wish to rise, a soul will come far worthier than me.” (Inferno, Canto 1). Virgil’s lack of faith in God or acknowledgment of the repentance of sin limited himself to Limbo as he died before the time of Jesus Christ, but he shows through reason that he is aware of his unworthy soul. Dante had Virgil be the character of reason and intellect, because Virgil has the experience and knowledge to aide Dante’s journey through Hell and Purgatory.
The first conflict Dante encounters in the story is person against self. Throughout the entire story Dante is trying to find a way to get on the right path. Dante opens the story by saying, “Midway on our life’s journey, I found myself in dark woods, the right road lost.” (Canto 1.1) The dark woods symbolize sin and the right road symbolizes the path that leads to the gates of heaven and God. So when he gets lost in the dark woods that means he is lost in sin and cannot find th...