Dante's Divine Comedy - Symbolism in the Punishment of Sin in The Inferno

4191 Words9 Pages

The Symbolism in the Punishment of Sin in Dante's Inferno

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.

The first of the two divisions of Hell is Upper Hell. Upper Hell is the area habitated by those committing sins of incontinence or lack of self-restraint. This lack of self-restraint could be in the form of anything from sex to mood. Before delving into the sins of incontinence, one must first look into the first inconsistency of the Inferno. This inconsistency is found in the Vestibule of Hell. The Vestibule of Hell contains the trimmers and the neutrals. Although almost all other sins mentioned in the Inferno are of an ethical, universal standpoint, the ones mentioned here are sins only from the Christian point of view. These neutrals are the people who either showed no partisanship or did not take sides. Lines 37-39 and 46-50 read:

They are joined with that choir...

... middle of paper ...

...ion. Dante cites now-historical and mythological figures to exemplify the sins and to make for the better understanding of sin to even the most inept of readers. This work stands alongside The Bible as one of the greatest religious-literary masterpieces of all time.

Works Cited

Literature of the Western World, Volume 2. 4th edition by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1997.

Works Consulted

Niven, Larry and Pournelle, Jerry. Inferno. New York: Pocket Books,1976.

MacAllister, Archibald T. Introduction. Inferno. By Dante. New York: Mentor, 1954.

Pinsky, Robert. The Inferno of Dante. New York: Harper Collins, 1994.

Shippey, T.A. "Into Hell and Out Again". Times Literary Supplement, 8 July 1977, .820.

Spinrad, Norman. Introduction to Inferno, by Niven and Pournelle. Boston: Gregg Press, 1979.

Show More
Related

  • Divine Justice In 'Sir Gawain And The Green Knight'

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    In most ancient literature some sort of divine justice is used to punish people's acts in life. This is that case with Dante's Inferno, where the Author categorizes hell in 9 circles. Circle 9 being the lowest sins and punishments as the circles decrease. From the time this was written to now in days many things have changed, and things are not seen the same no more. Back then sins like greed and gluttony were ranked as high sins but now people would probably rank those very low with other things like murder way on top. Yet the basic structure set by Dante remains.

    Read More

  • Compare The Allegory Of The Cave And The Matrix

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    Firstly Neo got shown the enlightenment with his free will while the people in the cave got dragged out of the cave and forced to see the enlightenment if they wanted to or not. Also with The Cave Plato was the first to found out about this enlightenment while Morphis got shown it by a different guy. And Neo and the prisoners come from different backgrounds, Neo comes from a normal life (according to him) while the prisoners have to just sit there shackled and stare at a wall with shadows dancing across them. Furthermore within the matrix the agents are trying to stop people from getting enlightened while the people who drag out the prisoners from the cave want the prisoners to get enlightened. To summarize the characters in The Matrix and The Cave are close to being the same but not fully there are a few differences between the

    Read More

  • Morality In Virginia Woolf's Emma Bovary

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through this prospect, she has internalized the standards in fulfilling the norms. If she does not fulfill it, she creates a sense of futility, an accurate, unvarnished replication of the guilt feelings that she suffers. Emma lives out its real, logical, and bitter conclusion of the emptiness in the traditions of marriage and the masculine customs that go with it. By marriage, a woman, specifically Emma, losses their liberty in all its physical, social, moral and even spiritual consequences. She envies the advantages of a man saying, “...at least is free; he can explore each

    Read More

  • Personal Essay: The Autobiography Of Malcolm X

    2067 Words  | 5 Pages

    Most people have some form of life struggles, and though sad, it is not unusual to hear of poverty, addiction, or criminal activity regardless of race, but when the betrayal of a mentor occurs there is the quick reaction of empathy. Betrayal can elicit an emotion is almost everyone.

    Read More

  • Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emma goes through life being selfish, obsessive, and unloving. In her search for passion, love and sensuality, she destroys the lives of her husband, Charles, and her daughter, Berthe. Sadly, Emma honestly believes she would find passion, bliss, and the love spoken about in the romantic novels she read. If she stopped searching for her fantasy life, and accepted her reality life with Charles and Berthe then she could have found happiness within those two relationships.

    Read More

  • Dante´s Inferno

    959 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Early in the spring of 1300, "midway along the road of our life," Dante is lost and alone in a dark, foreboding forest. To survive this ordeal, he must visit the three realms of the afterlife, beginning with Hell.” (Smith) Dante’s Inferno, one of the great classical poems that have come out of literature that’s topic is hell. Dante’s Inferno, gives a descriptive look into hell, from the eyes of Dante. Dante goes into detail about every part of hell. The people, what it looks like, sins to go there, the whole shah-bang. Dante splits up hell into nine different parts. In which he sends different types of sinners to each part. Each hell is made up differently, each has different systems that make up that particular systems. For example, circle three, has Cerberus the three headed dog, and another circle is completely frozen over. There are three circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno that are the best in the book: Circle one, circle six, and circle three.

    Read More

  • The Matrix vs The Allegory of the Cave

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    The perciption of reality is different for everyone. For example, I think that reality is something that is well natured and enjoyable, and another may say that reality, for them, is something they have to work hard and suffer for. The film Matrix shows perception of reality through Neo and...

    Read More

  • The Role and Function of the Major Monsters in Dante’s Inferno

    1944 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Dante's Divine Comedy - Close Reading of Canto V of the Inferno

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dante Alighieri presents a vivid and awakening view of the depths of Hell in the first book of his Divine Comedy, the Inferno. The reader is allowed to contemplate the state of his own soul as Dante "visits" and views the state of the souls of those eternally assigned to Hell's hallows. While any one of the cantos written in Inferno will offer an excellent description of the suffering and justice of hell, Canto V offers a poignant view of the assignment of punishment based on the committed sin. Through this close reading, we will examine three distinct areas of Dante's hell: the geography and punishment the sinner is restricted to, the character of the sinner, and the "fairness" or justice of the punishment in relation to the sin. Dante's Inferno is an ordered and descriptive journey that allows the reader the chance to see his own shortcomings in the sinners presented in the text.

    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 paradise. 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.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis: Dante's Inferno

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dante had access to these teachings and uses them to relate to the reader in a more straightforward way of why there is delineation. In this function Aristotle is not the agent of knowing, but rather a way to relay the reasoning and rationale behind God’s judgment; in this way God is not limited by Aristotle. 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.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Madame Bovary

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is quite difficult to fully understand the motives behind Emma Bovary’s suicide, however, knowing she never accepted her reality of being part of the bourgeoisie class, one can only infer her to fail in life. Throughout her life she was, in simple words, like a child living with greater imaginations than one could provide for. No antique object, or fine decor, or an affair with a noble man satisfies this woman. Emma spends her whole life searching for fulfillment of her idealistic romantic illusions, which have been embedded in her mind through readings of the 19th century romantic novels. These books falsified her mind, creating a fantasy she desired that would never cease till it was conquered. Instead of appreciating what she has, she despises her husband for being unable to provide for her every desire. In Emma’s life, she believes she is greater than the class she is born in. She aimed everyday to rise higher in the social classes. In result, throughout Gustave Flaubert’s novel, Madame Bovary, Emma builds the path to her own destruction. She creates a falsified world for herself of unhappiness by having two failed affairs, leading her family to

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of Madame Bovary And The Awakening

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    Romance novels she reads, such as “Paul et Virginie” (Flaubert 1239), while growing up in a convent, leads Emma to an unrealistic view of love and romance. Edna turns out to be much more realistic in her view of life. She comes to understand that she does not love her husband, but “realizing with some unaccountable satisfaction that no trace of passion or excessive and fictitious warmth colored her affection” (Chopin 16). Social status is another point of separation of their characters. Emma is originally a farmer’s daughter who married a “health officer” (Flaubert 1224), and became part of the lower middle class, but dreams of rising to a higher social class. Edna’s father had been a colonel in the Confederate Army and she married Leonce who was a prominent businessman in New Orleans and they had a vacation home in Grand Isle, Louisiana. Having status as upper middle class does not hold any interest to Edna, for she is willing to leave her husband, children, servants, and large home to live in a small house by her. She does not even mind the gossip that comes from Alcee Arobin visiting her at the new little house. Emma wants some fantasy ideal while Edna desires control over her life and to be independent from anyone. Declaring to Robert that she was “no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions” (Chopin 98), Emma seeks to be her own

    Read More

  • Introduction To Personality Essay

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    The ancient Roman actors wore masks known as personas in the Greek dramas and it is believed that the term personality is derived from the Latin word persona. The theatrical masks or personas were used to project the character to the audience; however, personality is far more than a public role or character. The persona used in the Greek dramas was a surface appliance that an actor could easily change, but personality is much deeper and complex than a mask for public review. In psychological terms, personality is a complex model of traits and characteristics that are responsible for an individual’s behavior. Traits are intrinsic, uniform, and unvarying qualities; however, characteristics change over time. Characteristics can change as individuals grow and experience life and intelligence and temperament are influenced by an individual's characteristics. Personality is an individual ...

    Read More

  • Reality vs. Imagination in Emma Bovary's Predicament

    3641 Words  | 8 Pages

    ...ssions that art exaggerated.” (2/15 p.236), Emma cannot free herself from the vicious circle of imagination and reality. Therefore, confusing the imagination with the reality at some points Emma searches for reality in her imaginations up until her death.

    Read More

More about Dante's Divine Comedy - Symbolism in the Punishment of Sin in The Inferno

Open Document