Dante varies his presentation greatly throughout Malebolge. Each bolgia has its own particular atmosphere, and the abrupt tonal and structural shifts between them make the move from bolgia to bolgia a medley of styles and techniques. But no shift is so striking as that between the eighth and ninth, in which the reader leaves a bolgia marked by two eloquent, searching dramatic monologues for one characterized by pithy, epigrammatic comments. The heroic exhortation of Ulysses and the sinuous self-revelation of Guido da Montefeltro give way to the truncated, compressed rhetoric of Mohammed, Pier da Medicina, Mosca, and Bertran de Born. The earlier bolgia begs for psychological readings; the latter frustrates them.
The structures of these cantos present a similar incongruity. Ulysses and Guido are given ample opportunity for leisurely expansion, and their stories have a smooth development and denouement. Each is the absolute star of his canto, and Dante records both their coming and going with reverent attention. Inferno XXVIII, however, presents a rapid succession of scenes, and the cuts between them are as savage and inexorable as those delivered by the devil to the damned. The canto seems unified only by Dante's desire to present the contrapasso in as many ways as he can. Those who sowed discord in life are hewn in imaginative ways __ Mohammed split from chin to anus, Ali sliced from chin to hairline, Pier da Medicina clipped and nicked in different places, Curio's tongue hacked out, Mosca's arms lopped off, and Bertran de Born neatly decapitated __ a near Baroque variation on a single theme. One horror follows on the heels of another, and each permutation replaces the memory of the earlier one.
Despite this profusion in the particulars of the punishments, the structure of the twenty-eighth canto is relentlessly schematic. The canto can be easily divided into six compact episodes, four of which are fundamentally identical __ even somewhat repetitive. The canto begins with a familiar epic gesture: the ineffability topos. Dante despairs of ever doing justice to what he must describe (vv. 1-6):
Chi poria mai pur con parole sciolte
dicer del sangue e de le piaghe a pieno
ch'i' ora vidi, per narrar più volte?
Ogne lingua per certo verria meno
per lo nostro sermone e per la mente
Are serial killers born with the need to kill, or is it something that they learn to do as they grew up? There are many theories as to why people become serial killers, but most are associated with the Nature vs. Nurture Theory. Many side with the nurture theory believing that serial killers are created from horrible childhood traumas like unstable households and abusive parents. While other people choose the opposite side of the spectrum: biological factors. Psychologist try to examine the brain of a serial killer through the use of MRI scans, conversations, and genetics in order to find abnormalities in the brain. Whichever side of the theory one may take, one has to be aware that not all serial killers are the same. Serial killers are separated into three or more different typologies: psychopathic sexual sadist, visionary serial killer, and the mission serial killer (Miller, Part I, 2013).
In spite of the “pleasing human traits” of some of the sinners, Hollander argues that “we are never authorized by the poem” to truly sympathise with the sinners, because Dante insists on God’s justice (106,107). Indeed, inscribed over the gates of hell is “Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore” (Sacred justice moved my architect, III,4).
Is there a possibility that violence and fraud both have a lot in common? Is Dante’s reverence of the classical scholars more vivid in this canto despite his brevity? Does Virgil’s explanation of why usury was a sin convincing? Why did Dante raise the question on usury at this point since there seems to be no relevant connection to the other two main vices? These are the kinds of questions that make this canto very interesting. Canto XI offers us something different from all the action of the past by providing a map of what lies ahead; and what moral concepts would come to surface. In other words, Virgil gives Dante a quick overview of Hell’s structure.
One woman, Ms. Smith, who was affected by this issue, did some research into what made texting while driving so dangerous. She was shocked to find that a driver on the phone has the same reaction time as a drunk driver. Hane’s article also discusses cell phone addiction and the bad habits people have with cell phones. Researchers have found that a person who noticed they received a text message gets a big rush to their brain, much like professional gamblers when they hit the jackpot.
Nature refers, in this case, to how the subject is genetically made-up. It is the belief of many researchers that damage to the brain or front lobe causes the violent behavior demonstrated by serial killers. The frontal lobe is in charge of social relations and maintaining adequate relationships with others. Damage to the temporal lobe can result in hair-trigger violent reactions and increased aggressive responses. Damage to the limbic system can also be a cause of serial killers’ ‘dysfunction’. The limbic system controls emotional responses and motivation. MRI scans of known serial killers show damage to the limbic system, or inactivity. When the limbic brain is damaged, it may account for uncontrollable aggression.
Most serial murderers have been deprived of any control over their home, their body, and their entire life. “Psychokillers take their fantasies and make them a reality living their dreams” (Serial Killers: Nature vs. Nurture 2). Both physical and especially emotional abuse is the consistent, reoccurring factor among a majority of serial killers. Traumatic abuse in childhood has long been viewed as a primary cause of violent behavior in adulthood (Dolan 24). Abusive parents do not generally vent their anger equally on all their children. Such parents tend to unleash the anger and negative emotions on their more difficult children; this potential aggression and physical and emotional abuse of the child shapes the future criminal. “Most serial murders are not classified as psychotics, but rather as psychopaths- their perception of reality is clear except that they feel no social or moral obligations” () Killers are taking control of their own lives through their fantasies in the only way they know fit, through
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Fatality states that texting while driving causes nearly eleven teen deaths every day and 330,000 injuries per year. Almost 25 percent of all car accidents involve someone who was texting as they were driving; that is 1.3 million crashes. Texting while driving is the number one distraction for majority of drivers. Five seconds is the minimal amount of time a driver’s attention is taken from the road while using a cell phone. With that being said, if one is traveling at 55mph, five seconds is equal to driving the length of a football field without paying attention to the road.
Each of a serial killer’s killings temporary gratifies whatever provokes the killer’s actions, and each subsequent killing terminates a separate sequence of behaviors. They are all motivated to for different reasons; some kill to gain or exert power over the victims, entertainment or mission. Some kill because they believe they have the responsibility to they society to do so (Julietta Leung N.D.) Frequently, homosexuals, prostitutes, and the homeless are viewed by serial killers because they might believe they are devalued in society or they view as being beneath humanity. They believe those kind of p...
College life is filled with changes. It is filled with many new experiences. As college students, we are on our own, adults. As adults we are responsible for keeping up to date on information that affects us. One issue that affects college students nation wide is drinking. The current legal drinking age in the United States is twenty-one years of age. The Federal government raised the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 in 1984. Even with the current drinking age at twenty-one, many people under that age choose to drink anyway. In fact, a government survey from 1996 showed that 56% of high school seniors reported drinking in the last 30 days (Hanson). With so many underage drinkers, many people believe that the drinking age should be lowered, stating that people are going to drink, regardless of the legal age. Still others see the high number of underage drinkers as a sign that the legal age needs to stay where it is and stricter laws need to be implemented. With the extremely high number of underage drinking, we can assume that the current drinking age is relatively ineffective, and therefore we must ask ourselves: should the drinking age be lowered, or should we revise policies to make the current age more effective? It is important to view all sides of the issue before deciding which side to be on. We must look responsibly at the issue instead of saying that the drinking age should be lowered, simply because we are under 21. The current drinking age has many debatable sides, or approaches which need to be examined. Those approaches include lowering the drinking age because the current policies don?t work, lowering the drinking age because it would lead to more responsible drinking, kee...
In Canto V Dante uses Minos and those who lust from mythology to form allusions. Minos is a beast that Dante and Virgil encounter when they reach the second circle of hell. The second circle is where hell actually starts where all sins are punished. Accordingly, Minos wraps those who sin inside of his tail, and decide what circle they belong in. Furthermore, while Dante is here, he calls over Paola and Francesca in the name of love. The two lovers, then explained their story. Francesca was married to Paola’s older brother out of the alliance. Consequently, he found these two lovers and killed them both. The older brother is now at the bottom of hell being punished for murder. The allusions help the reader connect with the narrative and feel
Many people encounter tragedies, trauma, abuse, and psychological damage in their life, but those who have said problems frequently, most likely evolve into serial killers later on in life. Statistics show that forty percent of people who withstand abuse in childhood develop into excessively abusive, violent, and sadistic criminals because they are burdened by problems for the rest of their existence (Nurturing). Generally, serial killers are violent and want to torture their victims. Those who were abused in their childhood rarely had any control over anything; as a result, in the future they want to dominate and inflict the same pain to their victim that they encountered in their youth; the dominance serial killers hunger for is usually presented through sexual abuse (Nurturing). In childhood, if one has abusive, manipulative, or irresponsible parents that neglect him or her at home, a part of his or her brain, which contro...
Moreover, Dante, the narrator of the Inferno, has succeeded in not only telling the frightening story of the Inferno, but also pointing out the importance of the relationship between human’s sins and God’s retribution, using the monsters as the symbols for each kind of sin and its punishment throughout the progress of the story, which teaches his readers to be well aware of their sins through the literature – a part of humanities; the disciplines that teach a man to be a human.
Though there are countless disturbing moments throughout Dante’s Inferno, one can dare to say that Canto 34 is the most unsettling and borderline irreverent Canto in Inferno. In Canto 34, Dante and Virgil meet the sinners who are deemed to be the most evil; those who have betrayed their benefactors (the individuals who extended their kindness towards them.) It is also the canto where Dante meets Satan, the king of hell. Dante opens Canto 34 with a sentence in Latin that reads: “Vexilla, regis prodeunt inferni.” In translator Mandelbaum’s notes, the words are said to mean: “The banners of the king of Hell draw closer.” At first glance, the reader might dismiss the fact that this is the only line in canto 34 that is written
The Divine Comedy is a poetic Italian masterpiece by Dante Alighieri composed of three parts which he called respectively: The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso. As this edition’s translator, John Ciardi puts it, originally Dante simply entitled his works as The Comedy, however, in later years, it was renamed The Divine Comedy for the connections that the public saw it had with human behavior and morality (Ciardi, 2003). For the goals and purposes of this review, we will focus specifically on the portion of the book called The Inferno. At a time when religious and secular concerns were at their peak in fourteenth century Italy, a tone of conflict broke out between the church and the government. Beyond the commonalities of corruption
The scene that evidently defines Satine’s character is her performance of “Sparkling Diamonds”. During this moment, all eyes are on Satine, staring at her astonishing beauty. The female lead is now being presented to all as an object whom men desire to have and women desire to become. This scene is an adequate example of the male gaze which is “the cinema’s frequent positioning of women as objects (Ott & Mack, 2010).” This theory is manifested through the way the object, Satine, is framed by the camera lens. A better vantage point is given to the spectators by positioning her higher than everybo...