Secularism In Dante's Inferno

The Dark Ages were a time of despair as the churches had full control over the kings and brainwashed the minds of the people. The popes chose who would be excommunicated and sent to hell. People believed in fatalism, a better afterlife than the life they were living. This belief made the lives of people boring because they did not want to do anything too risky or revolutionary because their afterlife was going to be better. When the Renaissance came, that all changed. The churches began to lose power as not everyone started to believe in Christianity. The idea of fatalism started to disappear as people began to care more about what happened during their life on earth. Love began to show in artists’ sculptures and paintings. Writers began to

The Divine Comedy has three sections, Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. They all represent the different parts of the corrupt society Dante experienced. The Inferno segment, or hell, was based on the political faction, the Black Guelfs, along with Pope Boniface. This political faction still had the feudalistic system of the Dark Ages where the pope was the head of power. When Dante was exiled by them from Florence they became part of the Inferno. In the Inferno, the character Virgil guides Dante through the nine circles of hell. Each circle of hell has people who have committed specific sins. Dante portrays the consequences of the lustful in Canto V. The sinners are continuously being blown by a strong wind with no say in where they go and when they leave. Their fate is determined by the wind. According to the article World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras, “This punishment presents Dante's understanding of the sin of lust itself. Like the wind, lust is difficult, even perhaps impossible, to control, especially if the victim does not take precautions against it ”(ABC Editors). Dante used secularism with the wind to portray the corrupt society that was brainwashing the people. He got people to think about the leaders using their power for the benefit of themselves rather than the society itself. He leadingly expressed secularism because he was one of the

The Divine Comedy was an allegoric interpretation of the human life through a Christian afterlife. The Inferno inspired people to direct their loyalty away from the church. His writings had the long term effect of showing the consequences people leading the corrupt society would face. His sonnets sent messages to the people about the importance of secularism and what was happening around them. Dante continues to inspire people to think about their society and whose hands the power is