Explain The Point Of View Of Hell In Dante's Inferno

Hell has always been depicted with a negative connotation and has always been a place where no one wishes to be once they die. Hell is seen as a place where you go to and spend eternity, after you have died, due to the sins you have committed during your life on earth. Hell is a place where people who have committed sins go to and pay for their sins with pain that is inflicted on them. This essay informs about three different points of view on Hell. Which are Dante’s book titled The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno, Martin Luther’s point of view from his article titled 95 Theses, and my overall point of view. In the book, The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno Dante describes his view of Hell. In his Hell, Dante created Nine Circles

The Third Circle is Gluttony, and the fourth circle Greed these souls could not control their appetite for materialistic goods. When the Pilgrim is in the Third Circle he states that Hell is a “. . . sad place, afflicted by such torture” (Dante 122). The Fifth Circle is Wrath, those who are active haters, and the Sixth Circle is Heresy, those who have gone against the Church. Dante states that the Fifth Circle was filled with hatred where the souls “fought each other, not with hands alone, but struck with head and chest and feet as well, with teeth they tare each other limb from limb” (133). The Seventh Circle is Violence, in this circle there are three sections, the first one for those who committed violence against your neighbors, the second one for violence against yourself, and the third for those who committed violence against God, Art, or Nature. The Eighth Circle is Fraud, within this circle there are also different sections called Malabolgia’s. The Ten Malabolgia’s are Panders and Seducers, Flatterers, Simoniacs, Sorcerers, Barrators, Hypocrites, Thieves, Deceivers, Sowers of Discord, and Falsifiers. The Ninth and final Circle is Treachery, where you find people who betrayed someone they had a special relationship with. This last

When the Pilgrim meets Virgil and he offers to take him through Hell to God, he begins to feel doubtful about himself stating “But why am I to go? Who allows me to?” meaning that The Pilgrim is scared about the journey he is to face (80). Despite being already dead, the soul in Hell still have to suffer a great deal of pain. For example, in the Seventh Circle there is a sand land where there is “. . . a fall of slowly raining broad flaks of fire showered steadily” (Dante 197). Aside from being a place that afflicts great pain Dante also states that Hell is a “. . . disgusting overflow of stench” (168). All this is what Dante thought of when he spoke of Hell, however I think differently. I was raised as a Catholic who went to Church every other weekend. Despite being raised a Catholic I had never really thought about Hell before this course in such a depth. Everyone has an idea of Hell, but my idea was not as complex as Dante’s. In my opinion Hell was an empty space full of void. Unlike Dante’s Hell with different Circles, my viewpoint on Hell was all one endless space, because the souls in my Hell were all together no matter what sin they committed. In Dante’s Hell it had different authority figures within the Circles, my viewpoint was ruled by one ruler, The Devil. When I thought of Hell before this course I pictured a place where the