Dante also uses Aristotle’s philosophical work to shape the structure of Hell. Undergoing a journey through Hell as himself, Dante places famous literary icons to assist in questioning the acts of justice. Dante builds and contrast between the sinners who are innocent, and those who deliberately perform evil deeds. Virgil, a fellow poet and pagan, exemplifies wisdom and clarity that which Dante must learn through his endeavor. Virgil’s guidance will provide contrast and the necessary guidance to reach Paradise.
Dante was paying respect to Virgil as a great writer by alluding to the Aeneid. Virgil in the Aeneid thought that Hell could be entered through the mouth of a cave (Virgil 169). On the other hand, Dante, as a character in his own book, Inferno, was walking through a dark wood, and he went astray from his path and found himself in Hell. Dante elaborates on Virgil’s idea of Hell by creating a new idea of Hell by giving it circles. Dante puts the sinners in specific circles based on what sin the sinners committed It is just like prison; criminals go to prison because they break the law.
At the commencement of his journey into hell, Dante says to Virgil, "lead me to witness what you have said . . . and the multitude of woes" (Inferno 9).1 Dante’s purpose is to witness and learn from the perils of hell so he can li... ... middle of paper ... ...to become an active learner. Alberigo is an inverted mirror image of Dante because his body on earth is overcome by a devil and he is a living shade in hell.
Dante believes that human reasons separates man from beast, and to abuse such a gift from God warrants an unimaginable pain. Thus the deeper in hell you travel, the more thought out sins are punished and the less desirable the punishment. Seeing as this work was written by Dante, and the journey is taken by Dante, he has a unique opportunity to judge his fellow man and decide how they will be punished. He also gets to place his enemies in hell, forever besmirching their names for generations to remember. Perhaps unknowing to Dante, that is worse than any of the punishments that he placed his enemies in.
By discussing the text, examining its implications and interpretations, conclusions can be drawn about why there is delineation between the upper and lower levels and the rationale behind the separation. Canto XI serves the purpose in a twofold way; literally as a pause to the character Dante to prepare himself for the foul stench of the lower depths of hell, and as a pause to the reader to discuss the rationale of divine punishment. When the canto begins Virgil and Dante stop to prepare for the coming levels. Dante asks Virgil to find a productive way to pass the time. Virgil obliges Dante and tells him a graphic depiction of the levels to come; both the geography and the rationale behind these levels are discussed.
In The Inferno of Dante, Dante creates a striking correspondence between a soul’s sin on Earth and the punishment it receives in hell for that sin. This simple idea serves to illuminate one of Dante’s recurring themes: the perfection of god’s justice. Bearing the inscription the gates of hell explicitly state that god was moved to create hell by justice. Wisdom was employed to know what punishments would be just, power to create the forms of justice, and love to show that the punishments are conditioned with compassion, however difficult it may be to recognize (and the topic of a totally separate paper). Certainly then, if the motive of hell’s creation was justice, then its purpose was (and still is) to provide justice.
The three ferocious beasts have three of the seven deadly sins. These seven sins are from the Christians of the medieval times period. “THROUGH ME YOU ENTER INTO THE CITY OF WOES” ”THROUGH ME YOU ENTER INTO ETERNAL PAIN,” ”THROUGH ME YOU ENTER THE POPULATION OF LOSS.” … ”ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER HERE.” As Dante is passes through the gates of hell, he finds that “The heavens, that their beauty not be lessened, have cast' them out, and deep hell receive them.” This propels Dante's believes of the Christian's ideas in order from the lightest penalties to the most sever in Dante’s mind. Among the sins and closes to the top are some of the seven deadly sins. If one could live back then with these sins he or she was bound for a life of eternal damnation.
Dante’s Inferno, written in the fourteenth century by Dante Alighieri is an epic poem, a part of the Divine Comedy split into three separate parts that depicts Dante, as himself, and his “death” by exile and rebirth by traveling through hell, purgatory and then heaven. Dante’s poem is special because it was written to be interpreted in many ways that each reveal a certain truth. This paper will focus mainly on Dante’s Inferno, the depiction of hell, but does not exclude ideas from Purgatario, and Paradiso. The author thematically presents Hell as a state of stasis and this paper will psychoanalyze the character Dante and his experiences which will ultimately reveal how escaping hell brought Dante back to the same point in time, ultimately proving that hell is a stagnant state of mind. The state of Hell thematically represents a state of spiritual stagnation that bound whoever entered.
He travels ... ... middle of paper ... ...o, Dante being led by Virgil, a man whose work Dante admires. Dante wishes to learn from the sinners in hell, and to absorb much information from Virgil, while in hell. Virgil shows and explains to Dante about the sinners and the resurrection. Dante wrote, “remember now your science, /which says that when a thing has more perfection, /so much greater is its pain or pleasure” (Alighieri, 1992, Canto VI 6.106-6.108). Although Homer’s The Odyssey and Dante’s Inferno are very opposite in nature, both stories can be pleasant for an audience in today’s world.
In the beginning of Dante’s Inferno, Dante engages the reader in a personal way by including them in his story. He allows the reader to relate and emphasizes that they will or most likely have gone through an experience of losing their path in life. Midway on our life’s journey, I found myself/ In dark woods, the right road lost (Dante, 1408). The Inferno is often described as the quintessence of the medieval worldview, a codification of the values of the high Middle Ages in art, science, theology and philosophy (Wilke, Hurt). He was a pious man whose own experiences in a corrupt society shaped his writing style and the symbolism he included in his stories.