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Dante inferno mythology analysis
Dante inferno mythology analysis
Dante's inferno punishments and sins
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In my opinion i believe that the punishments in Dante's Inferno fit the crimes. For example in gluttony these souls were seen being selfish always eating or drinking , their punishments were to constantly eat slimy mud. The fifth circle of hell the souls were punished for their anger through their lifetime. They were punished by being forced to fight each other in a river, so not only they were fighting someone else but they were also fighting for their lives. The punishments fit the crimes because they were put in water to clean all their bad thoughts but forced to fight because their anger through their lifetime. In the second circle of hell we came across people who were overcome by lust.they were continually being abused and thrown back
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.
Upon entering hell with Virgil, Dante becomes witness to the true perfection of the justice done to sinners after their earthly life is over. This divine justice inflicted by God chooses to punish the souls in hell in a way very similar or representative to how the souls sinned on Earth. For instance, those guilty of the sin of wrath "tear each other limb from limb" (133), a punishment which directly relates to the actions of the sinners. However, there are also punishments that are more symbolic of the actions of the sinners, such as th...
God states that we treat each other with the love he gives to us as individuals; while us stating violent acts against love, fraud constituting a corruption and, greed becoming normal thing amongst people defines everything god had envisioned for mankind. Yet, while Inferno implies these moral arguments, it generally states very little about them. Dante discusses with each of the souls in the different circles of hell although it is not truly stated as to why they are specifically in that circle. Only because God justifies there sin belonged there. In the end, it declares that evil is evil, simply because it contradicts God’s will and justification, and since God is God, he thus does not need to be questioned about his morals. Dante’s journey of evil progressed as he winded down the depths of hell pitiless and was driven to make it to purgatory. Inferno is not the normal text that most people would read, then think about how it relates to todays morals; its intention is not to think about the evil discussed but, rather to emphasize the Christian beliefs that Dante followed through his journey.
One of the most interesting literary techniques an author or poet could include in his or her literary work is the use of cruxes. A crux is a crossroad which consists of a difficult or ambiguous passage in a literary text that can determine a certain direction of the literary work as a whole, depending on the reader’s interpretation of such passage. Within Dante’s The Inferno there are a variety of instances in which he provides an example of a crossroad. The Inferno contains the journey through hell that Dante the pilgrim undertakes, guided by the poet Virgil, in order to eventually reach heaven. One example of a significant crux in the poem is the instance in which Dante (the pilgrim) and Virgil explicitly demonstrate the act of being wrathful
all that we need on Earth, but that doesn't mean that we are supposed to have
On the other hand, the punishments that are borrowed from medieval torture techniques and imprisonment inflicts a physical and bodily pain upon the sufferer that is supposed to be taken literally. In the Medieval Era, their prisons were more like dungeons in the way that they were usually dark rooms with naked and ragged men that were chained to the stone floors. These prisoners were not allowed to move so they had to live in their own excrements, blood, and vomit which ended up filling the room with an odor that was so pungent it could have been a form of torture within itself. Dante used this idea of darkness and awful smells throughout the Inferno as the overall atmosphere of Hell. Also, the idea of the fiery and icy environments that Dante incorporates comes from the medieval prisons where the room would get so hot the prisoners would feel like they were on fire, and during the winter it would be extremely frigid. These ideas of extreme temperatures and darkness are only a few of the torture devices that Dante uses throughout his novel.
The Inferno is a story of Dante traveling through the nine levels of Hell. While Dante is traveling through the different stages of hell, he explains the different consequences for the different crimes that are committed. The most impactful moral lesson that can be learned from The Inferno is that one should understand you must take credit for your own actions and know with the action will be a consequence. One example from the story, Dante explains that during the second circle, Lust, the punishment for people who are overpowering lust. Dante explained the punishment as “The hellish hurricane, which never rests, drives on the spirits with its violence: wheeling and pounding, it harasses them. When they come up against the ruined slope, then there are cries and wailing and lament, and there they curse the force of the divine.” In today’s society, many believe that there should not be consequences for specific actions one makes, but this has been a fact of life for many years. During The Inferno, one can see the change in punishment depending solely on the crime at hand.
Dante’s concept of sin and punishment conflicts with the modern American idea of morality. Not only sequence and grouping but also the punishments of sin in the original Circle of Hell are much different of that in a modern American version.
This notion of the suitability of God’s punishments figures significantly in the structure of Dante’s Hell. To readers, as well as Dante himself (the character), the torments Dante and Virgil behold seem surprisingly harsh, possibly harsher than is fair, Dante exclaims this with surprise. He doesn’t actually wonder who decided on these tortures. He knows it was god. What he is questioning is how these punishments are just, since they don’t appear to be just from a human’s point of view which views each punishment together with its conjugate sin only superficially. For example, homosexuals must endure an eternity of walking on hot sand, and those who charge interest on loans sit beneath a rain of fire. At first glance, each one seems too terrible for any sin. However, when the poem is viewed as a whole, it becomes clear that the guiding principle of these punishments is one of balance. Sinners suffer punishment to the degree befitting the gravity of their sin, in a manner matching that sin’s nature. The structures of the poem and of hell serve to reinforce this correspondence.
There is not a single, better example than contrapasso to show the literary and theological influences that Dante uses to write The Inferno. Dante makes the punishment fit the sin –sometimes the sinner gets exactly what they wanted [such as in the case of the lustful couple] or sometimes they get the exact opposite [as in the safe of those who never took a stand in life.] The idea of contrapasso teaches human-beings to keep consequences in mind before they perform certain actions. God has chosen the punishments for these sins and he does not make mistakes –these sinners get the punishment they deserve.
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 paradiso. 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. With that in mind, one can look at Inferno as a handbook on what not to do during a lifetime in order to avoid Hell. In the book, Dante creates a moral lifestyle that one must follow in order to live a morally good, Catholic
Despite the obvious flaws of Dante himself, he does give a clear vision of how punishments will be taken forth in the afterlife. He gives reason to fear and respect the law of God lest eternal punishment be your only promise in the afterlife. These punishments are as relevant as can be, so he offers a very vivid picture of hell. The men that he puts in hell give it a realistic twist, enhancing the fear that is felt upon reading this work
Divine punishment occurs in Oedipus and Dante’s Inferno. Divine Punishment is an endless punishment where your fate is determined and you cannot escape it. It is known as an irreversible occurrence that creates attitudes within characters that harms themselves and others. Oedipus faced a punishment that he had no choice over and couldn’t escape it. In Dante’s Inferno, people chose to sin and make their own decisions when sinning. The difference is that in Dante’s Inferno, some sins could’ve been escaped by man. People in Dante’s Inferno chose to sin while Oedipus had no choice and couldn’t escape it. Divine punishment can be escaped by man after a certain age of maturity, and control of their own actions. The question is, can divine punishment
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.
Importantly, the punishment should be corresponding as a more serious punishment for a less serious misdeed will inevitably lead to misbalance, which is against the laws of the universe. In Dante’s Inferno, those who sin or fail to live moral lives are punished accordingly in the circles of hell. It is possible to consider three sins and the way the sinners are punished to see Dante’s idea of justice and the way it is similar to the contemporary concept of justice.