Summary
1. The sin is excessive hoarding and excessive spending. The contrapasso is that they have to push heavy weights with their chests around in half circles. This represents the constant burden of material wealth held over these sinners during their lives. In this way, yes, the punishment fits the crime. (Gallagher)
2. Dante names no specific residents of Circle 4, but he notes that many of them are bald as they were the priests, popes, and cardinals who worked for the money and fame as opposed to for God.
3. A mythological creature found in Circle 4 is Pluto, but the text can also be interpreted to mean that it was Plutus. Pluto is a Greek ruler of the underworld and thus it would make sense that he would be found in Dante’s Hell. Plutus is the Roman god of wealth and thus it would make sense that he would be guarding those who were consumed by it in life. The text can be interpreted to mean that either is the guardian of the prodigal and avaricious. (Alford)
4. Excessive greed, both hoarding and spending, are both still very prominent in today’s world. One fictional character I feel would be found in Circle 4 is Ebenezer Scrooge. Of course, pre-A Christmas Carol Scrooge is who would be found in Circle 4, not the Scrooge after the events of Charles Dickens’ story. In the story, Scrooge becomes kind and generous, but before the story began he was a cold-hearted, self-absorbed wealth hoarder. He would never spend more than needed to live, would not spare a dime for someone in need, and only paid his employee, Bob Cratchit, as little as allowed. These are typical characteristics of a greedy man, and thus, Scrooge would fit in well with his fellow money hoarders of Circle 4. Many CEOs and celebrities are known for being greedy. One particular CEO known for his lavish spending is Mukesh Ambani. He is the chairman of Reliance Industries. He is the richest person in India and the second richest in Asia. He has a personal wealth of over $20 billion. His home in Mumbai, India is reported to be the most expensive home on Earth and requires over 600 staff members to maintain it. It is 400,000 square feet, has three helipads, a carpark, and 27 floors. It is estimated to have cost up to $2 billion. If this was not already enough of a display of Ambani’s greed, he built this home in a slum where thousands of impoverished people are suffering.
For centuries humans have been drawing parallels to help explain or understand different concepts. These parallels, or allegories, tell a simple story and their purpose is to use another point of view to help guide individuals into the correct line of thought. “The only stable element in a literary work is its words, which if one knows the language in which it is written, have a meaning. The significance of that meaning is what may be called allegory.”(Bloomfield) As Bloomfield stated, it is only how we interpret the words in an allegory that matters, each person can interpreted it in a slightly different way and allegories are most often personalized by a reader. Dante’s Inferno allegory is present throughout the entire poem. From the dark wood to the depths of Dante’s hell he presents the different crimes committed in life as they could be punished in death.
To further interpret The Inferno, the Italian poet, Dante Allegheri, created a method called The Fourfold Analysis. This method involves analyzing the historical, moral, political, and spiritual effects of the topic. For example, Dante’s fourfold method helps the reader to further understand the thieves and their allegorical symbolism. The Thieves are found in the Seventh Pouch of the Eighth Circle of Hell in Dante’s Inferno, guarded by Cacus, a centaur. They are found with their hands tied up, being punished by snakes and lizards. The Thieves played a significant role in The Inferno, as they take up two entire cantos. The sight of the thieves in hell makes Dante’s “blood run cold with fright.” (Ciardi 197) At first glance, the actions of a thief seem to only affect 2 groups of people-the thief and the victim(s)-however, the effects include damage of community trust, personal costs, and continued separation between good and evil.
Fantastic elements occur in both Dante’s Inferno and The Tales of Sinbad but it is obvious that Inferno uses a lot more of the fantastic than Sinbad. In Dante’s Inferno, there are several fictional creatures (Cereberus, the Furies, Geryon) in the realms of hell, which all serve a specific purpose in hell and in Dante’s journey through the depths of hell. Through Sinbad’s journey, we see a lesser quantity of fantastic creatures, but, similar to Dante’s Inferno, the creatures that appear in Sinbad’s voyages all serve a purpose to the plot of the story. The main connection that both Dante and Sinbad have in relation to the use of the fantastic in their journeys is the purpose of the fantastic creatures themselves—they serve to cause death among others, but oftentimes are the sources that help advance the plot of the poem forward.
“There must be contrast before there can be comprehension, we can realize good only through the ministry of evil (122 Blow).” Dante’s Inferno and Saint Augustine’s Confessions are both like the Bible, they both have some good advice but they are nothing more than someone’s vision. Augustine is able to give the reader a close experience of his journey through life, just as Dante carries the reader with him through his journey through hell. Both of these works paint a vivid picture of the expeditions of man through his search for a deeper spiritual connection. They make their audience aware of the sin in their lives as well as the others they surround themselves with. Themes common from both of these authors are punishment of sin, and the search of self.
Like gluttony, this sin is a sin of excess. Its most common form is the excessive love of money, manifested in various forms such as miserliness and unethical business practices. This sin turns the sinner away from God by promoting selfishness, destroying charity, and creating a preoccupation with the acquisition and preservation of material things and possessions. As such this sin blinds the sinner to the fact that material possessions such as gold are worthless compared to the everlasting rewards of heaven. But because the sinner guilty of greed does not see that what he covets the most is worthless, he ignores the treasure and rewards of Heaven and therefore does not follow the right
"Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit” (Romans 3:13). Snakes have been a universal symbol of fraud in literature since “The Fall,” when God transformed Satan into a beguiling snake and “[c]ursed” Satan to slide “on [his] belly” for all eternity for his deception (Alter 41). Dante uses snakes in his epic poem, the Inferno, to tie the fraudulent nature of thieves to their punishment in the seventh bolgia of the eighth circle of Hell. Snakes have metaphorically slithered through time and shed, taking on new appearances as deceivers in society. In 2005, they revealed a new face, Olatunji Oluwatosin, an identity thief. From his base in Los Angeles, Olatunji Oluwatosin stole private information, such as credit card numbers, of hundreds of United States citizens from the national database ChoicePoint. Oluwatosin, utilizing the snake’s deceptive arts, remained undetected when he began; however, as his crimes progressed, people became aware of his crimes, leading to his eventual capture. Oluwatosin’s crime shows the complex relationship between modern identity thieves and the serpentine thieves of Dante’s Hell. By avoiding detection and transforming, Oluwatosin effectively mutated into a snake until an eventual punishment that embraces Dante’s ideal of contrapasso.
In the Christian tradition, Satan is commonly accepted as a hideous and monstrous being in direct contrast to God’s graceful mercy, often a shadowy figure with little depth. Yet there exists another very gothic view of this figure, as demonstrated by Milton in Paradise Lost, of a long suffering villain who appears more tragic artist than ultimate deceiver. The Monk, by Matthew Lewis, makes use of more tragic and mythical elements to make something altogether different, a Dionysian figure. Lewis uses such descriptive speech, symbols, and themes all connected to Greek myth to present a chaos creating character who transgresses not only God, but societal boundaries. While transgressions have been profusely researched in Gothic literature, the Dionysian myth connected to the Daemon spirit have been overlooked. I will reveal how much the scene of Ambrosio’s first meeting with Satan draws upon myths, symbols, and perceptions of the Greek God, and furthermore why these connections exist and reinforce the gothic genre.
The Inferno is the first section of Dante's three-part poem, The Divine Comedy. Throughout Dante's epic journey into the depths of Inferno he encounters thirty monsters and five hybrid creatures. The most significant of these monsters are of central importance to his journey and to the narrative, as they not only challenge Dante's presence in Inferno, but are custodians of Hell, keeping in order or guarding the "perduta gente". In this essay I am concentrating on these prominent beasts, namely Minos, Cerberus, Plutus and Geryon, establishing why they feature in Dante's eschatological vision and discussing the sources which influenced his inclusion of these particular creatures. These four monsters all fulfil important functions as well as representing important themes in Inferno, establishing them as symbols which reinforce Dante's allegory.
Guy Montag changes from a stolid character, incognizant of his surroundings, to a person conscious of everything, so enlightened by the new world he is exposed too. There are many people in Montag's society that help him change. The people who influence him to change are Montag's wife Mildred, his next door neighbor Clarisse, and his boss, the chief of police, Beatty. At the beginning of the novel Guy Montag, is a devoted fireman, he loves his job and never questioned society. Once his wife attempts suicide, Montag begins to question the monotony and drabness which his society is enveloped by. When he meets Clarisse, a new side of him is brought to light. She encourages him to question why things are the way they are. Questions like why books aren’t allowed? His development is complete, as he becomes a rebel and a fugitive and finally, at the novel's resolution, decides to rebuild society.
Roman, Luke, and Monica Roman. “Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology”. New York: Facts On File, 2010. Web. 1st December 2012.
Kleinhenz, Christopher. “Inferno 8: The Passage Across the Styx.” Lectura Dantis. Brown University. No. 3 Fall 1988 21 pars: 21 Sept. 2009 .
Starting off with The Inferno, Dante Alighieri was born in Florence, Italy in 1265. He came from a moderate wealthy family who immersed themselves in the complex Florentine political environment. While his family had a tremendous impact on Dante, he started to study philosophy, which only intensified his political views. Dante’s personal life during the late thirteenth century parallels greatly with the comedy, Inferno. During this time period the struggle between the church and state for temporal authority affected Italy in various ways. Specifically in Florence, two parties were developed as a result to this crisis, one being the Guelph’s loyalty, supporting the papacy and the Ghibelline loyalty focusing on the imperial power. Dante being apart of the White party, supporting the independence of Florence from papal authority eventually has personal issues with Pope Boniface VIII, supporting the black party. This specific ground had individuals who were willing to work with the pope in order restore power; Boniface eventually exi...
In The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, the stereotypes and roles in society are reexamined and made new through the characters in the book. Chaucer discusses different stereotypes and separates his characters from the social norm by giving them highly ironic and/or unusual characteristics. Specifically, in the stories of The Wife of Bath and The Miller’s Tale, Chaucer examines stereotypes of women and men and attempts to define their basic wants and needs.
Today, having power is what everybody in this country relies on day to day and couldn't function without it. Every year more and more dams are being built and more man made reservoirs are being created to provide this electricity needed. These dams are very important in my eyes but Edward Abbey carries a different opinion in his writing "The Damnation of a Canyon."
From this point, in this essay of Dante’s Inferno, the seven major monsters, namely Minos, Cerberus, Plutus, Minotaur, Centaurs, Harpies and Geryon, are examined for their role and function in the story.