Dante's Inferno: A Representation of His Own Sins

646 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Dante's inferno analysis

Some people believe the Inferno is an allegorical confrontation of Dante’s sins among his lifetime. There are many examples in his writing that show this, some of which include symbols, people form his lifetime, and events pertaining to his personal beliefs.The first main example of this exists in Canto Thirty-Two, the betrayers of kindred, or more specific to Dante himself; betrayers of country. Dante was exiled from his home in Florence where he served as a politician.Considering his own personal treachery, it makes sense for him to have chosen the ninth ring of the traitors to be the worst of all. In this Canto, Dante has a run-in with one of the sinners in particular, Bocca. In their confrontation, the Bocca is too embarrassed to admit his deed. Dante offers to discuss with Bocca his sin, being interested and curious with him. He asks, “if you should look for fame, I’ll make note of you with all the rest.”(Dante 32.92-93). Bocca replies, “I crave the opposite.”(Dante 32.94). By this Bocca means that he does not wish to share his deed, as he is most likely embarrassed. Considering Dante’s love of his country, I think that he included this confrontation to show that he too is embarrassed of his own treachery.
The second primary example of Dante’s confrontation to his own sins is located in Canto Twenty-Three, the Hypocrites in ring six of Hell. I believe that the reason Dante acted so afraid in this Canto is because he felt guilty. During this Canto, Dante exclaims quite a few words revealing his discomfort. The first, “O weary mantle for eternity!”(Dante 23.67) and he continues on asking Virgil, “Please find someone/who we might recognize by deed or name.”(Dante 23.73-75). In this section of Canto Twenty-Three, Dante is afrai...

... middle of paper ...

...ustice in the work against the sinners is clarified yet again in Canto Twenty. This particular ring of hell is reserved for those who meddle with the future, distinctively fortune tellers, astrologers, and witches and wizards. Dante writes these future-seers as, “For backward to the kidneys turned the face, and backward always did they have to go, as they had lost sight of the things ahead.”(Dante 20.13-15). To earn just against the future-seers, Dante writes them as having their heads facing backwards on their bodies so they can never see ahead, or more importantly, the future. Dante writes them being punished base on their fraudulent act, specifically this punishment for this sin. This supports the theory that Dante wrote based on his belief of divine justice. In the remaining cantos, Dante loosely bases the retribution of the sinners on their specific damnation.

Show More
Related

  • Inside Inferno by Dante Alighieri: A Story within a Story

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    Inferno is the story of Dante's journey through Hell on his way to heaven to see Beatrice. There is the recurring theme throughout the text. Dante loves her so he is willing to go through the perilous and difficult journey to get to her. Dante was a rather religious individual and it shows throughout his writing. “The time was the beginning of the morning; the sun was rising now in fellowship with the same stars that had escorted it when Divine Love first moved those things of beauty; so that the hour and the gentle season gave me good cause for hopefulness on seeing that b...

    Read More

  • Dante's Happiness: Inferno And The Paradiso

    1391 Words  | 3 Pages

    He reacts to the inscription by crying out, “Master, I said, these words I see are cruel” (Dante pg.14). By this he shows his fear of the unknown because he does not yet know exactly what he will witness during his descent. One of Dante’s truest display of fear occurs when he sees the angels. The angels deny the travelers access through the city. Virgil even appears startled and confused by this. This does not help Dante’s nerves at all. Dante doesn’t seem to understand why even the “well known” Virgil is denied access through the city. This seems to cause some confusion among them both. If Virgil is denied access then Dante will definitely be

    Read More

  • The Journey of the Inferno

    1987 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dante begins his struggle when he becomes lost in the dark forest and then later finds himself in the deep depths of hell with Virgil. “Everyman—that is, any human being—finds himself in the dark state of sin and error after having wandered from the true moral course established by God” (Rudd 10). He encounters a ghostly guy named Virgil who was the amazing Latin/Roman poet that guides him through the nine chambers of hell ba...

    Read More

  • Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy

    1145 Words  | 3 Pages

    When Dante and Virgil reach the gate of Hell, Dante is overcome with fear upon reading the inscription above the gate and hearing the screams and lamentations of those inside. He reacts to the inscription by crying out, " ‘Master,’ I said, ‘these words I see are cruel.’ " (III.12). By this he shows his fear of the unknown because he does not yet know exactly what he will witness during his descent. One of Dante’s truest display of fear occurs upon reaching the vile City of Dis. When the "fallen angels" deny the travelers access through the city, Virgil, usually unflappable, even appears shaken up. Understandably, this does not help Dante’s nerves at all. He actually makes a side comment to the reader declaring the terror he felt after the angels had defied Virgil’s request saying: "And now, my reader, consider how I felt / when those foreboding words came to my ears! / I thought I’d never see our world again!" (VIII.

    Read More

  • The History Of Dante's Inferno

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • God's Just Punishments and the Inferno of Dante

    439 Words  | 1 Pages

    This notion of the suitability of God’s punishments figures significantly in the structure of Dante’s Hell. To readers, as well as Dante himself (the character), the torments Dante and Virgil behold seem surprisingly harsh, possibly harsher than is fair, Dante exclaims this with surprise. He doesn’t actually wonder who decided on these tortures. He knows it was god. What he is questioning is how these punishments are just, since they don’t appear to be just from a human’s point of view which views each punishment together with its conjugate sin only superficially. For example, homosexuals must endure an eternity of walking on hot sand, and those who charge interest on loans sit beneath a rain of fire. At first glance, each one seems too terrible for any sin. However, when the poem is viewed as a whole, it becomes clear that the guiding principle of these punishments is one of balance. Sinners suffer punishment to the degree befitting the gravity of their sin, in a manner matching that sin’s nature. The structures of the poem and of hell serve to reinforce this correspondence.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Dante's Inferno

    1248 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Analysis of Dante's Inferno

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    Seeing as this work was written by Dante, and the journey is taken by Dante, he has a unique opportunity to judge his fellow men and decide how they will be punished. He also gets to place his enemies in hell, forever besmirching their names for generations to remember. Perhaps unknowing to Dante, that is worse than any of the punishments that he placed his enemies in. The reality of The Inferno is unlikely and therefore these punishments are nothing but a fictional insult, but generation after generation will read of the crimes, which Dante has illuminated, and punishments of these people, causing their names to be forever cursed and passed down as another evil sinner.... ... middle of paper ...

    Read More

  • What Is The Theme Of Canto 34

    1940 Words  | 4 Pages

    When one thinks of God as a synonym of love, it is then easy to understand why Dante chose fraud as the worst of sins; the act of fraud then serves as an antonym of love. The most relevant example of fraud can be found in Lucifer’s betrayal of God. He was Lucifer’s master, and even though Dis was heaven 's most beautiful angel, greed led him to betray his own master. The fact that an angel, a Celestine creature was lured by greed into betraying his omnipresent master, indicates that of all sins, fraud is the most severe of all. Since Lucifer’s betrayal was directly aimed at the creator of every living thing, it then transforms Satan’s disloyalty into a marker that denotes the most precarious side of human nature. In terms of severity, after Lucifer’s actions, Judas Iscariot is the figure best known for betraying a member of the divine trinity, in this case, his master Jesus Christ. Then, the reasoning behind the incorporation of Iscariot into the narrative becomes clear as well as why he was situated as a central figure. By Dante choosing to place Judas directly in Lucifer’s frontal mouth, and having Lucifer chew his skull for eternity, one sees the dire consequences of betraying God. Dante’s decision to include Brutus and Cassius in the narrative is less apparent, yet it can be traced

    Read More

  • Dante’s Inferno in Milton´s Paradise Lost

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many arguments have been made that Dante’s Inferno glimmers through here and there in Milton’s Paradise Lost. While at first glance the two poems seem quite drastically different in their portrayal of Hell, but scholars have made arguments that influence from Dante shines through Milton’s work as well as arguments refuting these claims. All of these arguments have their own merit and while there are instances where a Dantean influence can be seen throughout Paradise Lost, Milton’s progression of evil and Satan are quite different from Dante. Dante’s influence on Milton is noted by many scholars and is very apparent in several instances throughout Paradise Lost, however, Milton shows a progression of evil through his own vision of Satan and creates a Hell that is less meticulously constructed than Dante’s and more open to interpretation.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis: Dante's Inferno

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dante’s Inferno presents the reader with many questions and thought provoking dialogue to interpret. These crossroads provide points of contemplation and thought. Dante’s graphic depiction of hell and its eternal punishment is filled with imagery and allegorical meanings. Examining one of these cruxes of why there is a rift in the pits of hell, can lead the reader to interpret why Dante used the language he did to relate the Idea of a Just and perfect punishment by God.

    Read More

  • The Weakness of Human Nature in Dante's Inferno

    2210 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    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

  • 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

  • The Structure and Content of Dante's Inferno

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... Moreover, such belief in human reason signifies Dante's hope towards a bright society and the pursuit of God’s love as the other part of self-reflection. In conclusion, a great deal of tension and contrast between “dark” and “light” in The Inferno helps us to explore Dante’s self portrait—he fears dangerous desires and sinful darkness, but shows much courage and hope towards life since he nevertheless follows his guide Virgil to dive into horrible Hell. As shown in Canto I, such emotional reaction to dark and light symbols lays a great foundation for developing Dante’s broad and universal traits as his journey progresses.

    Read More

More about Dante's Inferno: A Representation of His Own Sins

Open Document