Examples Of Corporeality In Dante's Inferno

Dante’s classification of the sinners in the Inferno as inhuman is a phenomenon oft commented upon-- rightly so, for it is a prominent theme within both his work and Catholic theology as a whole. The similarities between beast and sinner are easy to grasp within the context of the Inferno, as Dante compares them both directly through metaphor and allegorically through the many mythological creatures populating Hell who represent of sin. Dante continues the relationship between sin and humanity throughout the underpinnings of the work as well. By using the pilgrim’s corporeality as a stand-in for his humanity and through the recognition of this aspect of the pilgrim by those in Hell, Dante continues to craft an understanding of sin as an inherently

It is a quality rather than a state of being, similar to humanity. Regardless of the pilgrim’s physical state, he remains the pilgrim, just as a human who is not humane remains a human. There exist many characteristics of the pilgrim that one could ostensibly compare to humanity, but corporeality was clearly intended to be the primary one, as a human who is not humane is almost certainly a sinner in the eyes of the fourteenth century Catholic church. This cements corporeality as representative of humanity in that corporeality is present only in the absence of sin; the inhumane human thus becomes the non-corporeal pilgrim within the bounds of Dante’s

There are three major zones of recognition: by guardians, by sinners, and by the pilgrim himself. The pilgrim is identified as alive, and thus corporeal, solely by guardians of Hell within the first sixteen cantos. For example, as Charon approaches the pilgrim and Virgil, “And you there, you living soul, / move aside from these now dead” (3.88-89), and upon the pair’s entrance to Dis, “Who is this, who is not dead, / yet passes through the kingdom of the dead?” (8.84-85). The most striking example is from canto twelve, from the centaurs who guard Phlegethon:“Have you observed / the one behind dislodges what he touches? / That is not what the feet of dead men do” (12.80-82). If one considers guardians as a part of the environment of Hell and not sinners themselves, representative of sin as they may be, then the lukewarm significance this holds for the pilgrim’s soul is clear-- an environment of sin in non-conducive to him, but another basic theme of the Inferno is that sin will flourish wherever souls have not accepted God, and so until the pilgrim separates himself from sin sin is possible regardless of